Chennai, August 25 (BPNS)

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K . Stalin has said that the state government does not have any plans to demolish the building where the architect of Mullaperiyar dam, Colonel John Pennycuick had stayed for erecting the Kalaignar Karunanidhi memorial library.

The Chief Minister was responding to the allegations made by AIADMK member, Sellur K Raju in the state legislative assembly on Wednesday.The AIADMK member while speaking in the house said that the state government has decided to demolish the place where Colonel John Pennycuick had stayed for constructing the Kalaignar Memorial library at Madurai.

Chief Minister said that an erroneous campaign has been carried out on this and added that this has now reached the assembly.

Stalin said, “The PWD minister has already clarified on this in the assembly. If there is any basis for this allegation, we are ready to change it. I am making this statement because wrong information should not be recorded in the assembly.”

The Chief Minister also said that the AIADMK member, Sellur K Raju was a two-time minister and was elected to the legislative assembly three times. He said that such a baseless allegation would not do justice to his standing in the house.

The AIADMK leaders and former Chief Minister’s of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam had earlier said that any move to demolish the residence of John Pennycuick memorial was nothing but an attempt to erase history and had urged the DMK government to rethink the proposal.

The leaders in a joint public statement on August 2 ,2021, said, “We urge the Tamil Nadu government to set up the Kalaignar Library in a place where there are no objections.” The leaders had said that Colonel John Pennycuick had even contributed his personal funds towards the construction of Mulllaperiyar dam which has been a source of livelihood for the people in Southern Tamil Nadu.