Tamil Nadu Govt demands Bharat Ratna to late CM Jayalalitha

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Cabinet on Sunday recommended that former chief ministers J Jayalalithaa and C N Annadurai be accorded the Bharat Ratna.

The Cabinet also demanded that the Chennai Central Railway Station be renamed after former chief minister M G Ramachandran.

"The cabinet meeting decided to ask the Centre to rename the Chennai Central Railway Station as Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Central railway station," Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar told reporters here.

He also added that late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa should be awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna. The Bharat Ratna is awarded in recognition of exceptional service or performance of the highest order in any field. The recommendations for Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President.

"Our state government had taken a cabinet decision in this regard and recommended the same to the Central Government in December 2016. We would like to inform that we have once again decided to press the Central Government on the conferring of Bharat Ratna to Amma(Jayalalithaa)," Jayakumar added.

This is not the first time that the state government has recommended that the Bharat Ratna be conferred on the former CM. In late 2016, a PIL had been filed with the Madras High Court, seeking a direction to the central government to posthumously award the Bharat Ratna to Jayalalithaa. This petition was dismissed by the court in early 2017.

In August this year, it was also recommended following the AIADMK Executive Committee meeting that Jayalalithaa, former CM CN Annadurai and rationalist thinker Periyar be awarded the Bharat Ratna.