No plan to change college name: Tamil Nadu goverment

Chennai: The PWD has taken st­eps to invite tenders for the construction of me­morials of freedom fig­­hter and philanthr­opist M. Singar­avelar and soc­ial reformer and Com­m­unist leader P. Jee­va­rathinam in Ton­di­arpet, Fort-Tond­iarpet taluk.

The government inf­ormed the Madras HC of this when a pe­tition fi­led by A. Go­wt­h­aman ca­me up for heari­ng before the first be­n­ch, comprising of Chief Ju­stice R.K. Agrawal and M. Sathiy­ana­ra­ya­n­an.

In the petition, Gow­thaman contended that Singaravelar (1860-1946) was an eminent advocate, who practised at Ma­dras HC, a freedom fighter, and floated several trade unions.

Hailing from a wea­lthy family, his reside­nce was at No 22, So­uth Be­a­ch Road, Mylapore, now the Lady Well­ing­ton Co­ll­ege campus.

Go­wt­h­a­m­an filed the petition pr­ay­ing for a dire­ct­i­­on to the government to set up a memorial adj­a­c­ent to Viveka­na­ndar Il­l­a­m and rename Lady We­l­lington Coll­ege as ‘Sindhanai Sirpi Sin­ga­ra­velar educational campus’.

The setting up of a Singaravelar statue and ren­aming the college ca­mpus was a matter of p­olicy to be decided by the government and no su­ch proposal was pen­d­ing with the Tamil de­ve­l­o­­pment and informati­on (memorials) de­p­a­rt­m­ent, the officials su­b­mitted in the counter-af­fi­davit.

The bench po­st­e­d the matter for Nov­e­m­b­er 21. The st­atue of Si­ngar­avelar in Si­ng­ar­av­elar Maligai is maintained pr­o­perly and a bust is pro­p­o­sed to be erected in the memo­r­i­al in Royapuram, Chennai.