Chennai-based body calls for improvement of amenities at the Ambedkar Memorial

A Chennai-based organisation, working for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, has appealed to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to include, in its 2026 election manifesto, the issue of better maintenance of the  Ambedkar Memorial in Chennai.

In its charter of demands submitted to the party recently, the body, People’s Educational Trust, which encompasses Dr. Ambedkar Academy, said that though a large number of people visited the memorial on the birth and death anniversaries of the leader (April 14 and December 6), the place was suffering from the lack of amenities.

Referring to a news item published in the online edition of The Hindu on the memorial on December 24, 2025, the managing trustee of the Trust, C. Chellappan, who is a former Member of the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, said a library and an auditorium could be established on the campus of the adjoining  Tholkappia Poonga. If this was not possible, they could be established on the premises of the memorial itself.

Calling for the installation of a huge statue of Ambedkar, the Trust said this should be “as majestic as” those in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The annual allocation for a scheme, named after Ambedkar and meant to encourage SC/ST entrepreneurs, should be increased from ₹100 crore  to ₹500 crore.

The body also called for the extension of the ‘Samuthuvapuram’ rural housing scheme to all sections of society; the enactment of laws to provide for reservation in promotion and support inter-caste marriages; amendments to enhance the implementation of the Special Component Plan for the SCs; and the retrieval of Panchami land assigned to the SCs  during the British government to empower them economically and now under encroachment.

The Trust also wanted the terms of reference of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for SCs/STs expanded to cover the problems being faced by these communities in social, educational, and economic progress.