MUMBAI: A Parel-based chartered accountant who runs coaching classes has filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay high court seeking to stop the Maharashtra government's plans to construct a memorial to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the Arabian Sea at a cost of Rs 3600 crore.Professor Mohan Bhide calls the proposed expenditure a waste of public money and urged the HC to stop the state from "illogical and irrational expenditure". The PIL has pointed to the threat to the environment and impact of the memorial on the sea shore of Girgaum and Haji Ali. The petitioner said that the financial debt of the state stands at over Rs 3.51 lakh crore as of March 2016. "The public at large expects a better standard of living and public amenities," the petitioner said in the PIL.The bhoomipoojan of the 192-metre-tall statue - proposed to be the tallest in the world - was held on December 24, 2016 at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The statue and the memorial is proposed to be built on land reclaimed in the sea around 3.5 kilometre off the Mumbai coast. The government has said that the construction will be completed by 2019.The petitioner's lawyer mentioned the matter before a division bench headed by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur. The bench pointed to the tall statues at Kanyakumari and Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad and said that if those states could afford it even Maharashtra could afford it. The court said that the matter would come up for hearing in due course.