Stall transportation of stone for idol to Bengaluru: Petition

A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee, before whom the public interest litigation filed by Munikrishnan of Cheyyar Taluk in Tiruvannamalai came up for hearing, adjourned it to July 28. 

The petitioner contended that Kothandaramaswami Charitable Trust in Bengaluru, which was in search of a single rock for carving the idol of Kothandaramaswami, had finally found the same in Korakottai in Tiruvannamalai district through satellite mapping.

He said following the state government permission to take the single rock weighing 380 metric tonnes measuring 120 feet in length and 33 feet in breadth in which hands and face of Kothandaramaswamy has been carved and another rock measuring 24 feet long and 64 feet broad and weighing 260 metric tonnes, which are set to be transported by the trust in a cargo lorry with as many as 170 tyres, but the logistics in transporting them has not been properly worked out. 

He alleged that the transportation of these huge rocks without precaution would pose a grave danger to villagers and road users and that his representation to the district and state authorities had failed to evoke any response. He said that the failure of the district and state authorities to respond to his complaint of June 28, had prompted him to move the court.

Sources said that the rocks are to be used to build a 108-foot statue of Kothandaramaswamy within the compound of the 60-year-old temple, run by the trust, in Ejipura. The idol will have 11 faces and 22 hands and another statue of seven-headed Aadisesha has been proposed to be attached to it.