Chennai, Dec 10: The State government has allotted Rs. 15 crore for the construction of a memorial for former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa near the MGR memorial on the Marina.
According to a minister, the tender for executing the work will be floated soon.
“The money has been allotted and officials have taken the measurements around where Amma was laid to rest. A tender will be floated, and after the minimum required period, work on her memorial will be undertaken at full speed,” the Minister told The Hindu on Friday.
Jayalalithaa was laid to rest within the confines of the MGR memorial, which is spread over eight acres.
Officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) said the department was yet to come up with a design for the memorial. “We are yet to receive a directive from the government in this regard,” an official said.
“We are only carrying out minor repair work on the site. Temporary arrangements like provision of tent and barricades around the site have been made. The construction of the memorial is still in the preliminary planning stage,” an official said.
Even as thousands of people thronged the Marina to pay homage to Jayalalithaa all through the day, the late Chief Minister's confidante V.K. Sasikala visited the burial site and spent some time there. Teary-eyed, she went around the place where Jayalalithaa was buried.
Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and his senior Cabinet colleagues — P. Thangamani, Edapaddi Palaniswami, Dindigul Srinivasan and S.P. Velumani — were waiting at the barricades when Ms. Sasikala, her sister-in-law Ilavarasi, a few family members and domestic aides at Veda Nilayam, the former Chief Minister's Poes Garden residence, paid their respects.
Later, Mr. Panneerselvam and the ministers too paid their respects. A couple of Ministers tonsured their heads.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
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waste of money. give this money to poor who suffers for food and shelter.
Waste of money.....
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