Plea to replace damaged statues of Maruthu brothers

(Cleared/Gopa)
Madurai: The Madurai bench of Madras high court has issued notice to the Sivaganga district administration to respond to a petition that sought permission to replace the dilapidated stone statues of Maruthu brothers at their memorial in Sivaganga district ahead of the 218thdeath anniversary of the freedom fighters in October.
The petitioner, Nagarajan, president of “Maamannar Maruthupandiyar beneficial trust”, stated that villagers in Kalayarkovil, where the brothers resided, had built a memorial for them and in 1964, 2.5-foot-tall statues of the brothers were installed.Since these statues had got damaged over time, the villagers pooled in money and prepared two new stone statues of Periya Maruthu and Chinna Maruthu, each over 5 feet, to replace the old ones. According to the petitioner, in July 2017 their trust submitted a representation to the district administration and two months later to the state chief secretary and home secretary by post seeking permission to replace the old statues with new ones.
As there was no response, the trust approached the court which directed the Sivaganga district collector to consider the representation. Subsequently, in an order dated February 12 this year, the collector stated that the claim had been rejected as only bronze statue was permitted in accordance with law.
Challenging the order, the trust moved the court contending that the collector passed the order erroneously assuming that they were installing new statues in open space whereas they had sought permission to replace the statues at the memorial and that the relevant Government Order was not applicable in their case. Maruthu brothers- Periya Maruthu and Chinna Maruthu — were rulers of the Sivaganga kingdom and were publicly hanged to death by the British in October 1801 at Tirupathur fort in Sivaganga district.