CHENNAI: The governing board of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution not to lose its autonomous status for no reason and that the institute should not be brought under the control of Central University at Tiruvarur.
The resolution was adopted at the fifth meeting of the governing board of the CICT, chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami who is also the chairperson of the board.
The resolution said the CICT should continue to function from Chennai and that the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development should allocate more funds for implementing new projects for the growth of Tamil through the CICT as well as for higher research in classical Tamil.
Express carried a report about the plan for merger of CICT with CUT on July 6 and the opposition parties raised this issue in the State Assembly during the budget session, urging the State government to stall this move. The opposition parties demanded that if needed, the Assembly should adopt a resolution to prevent the CICT from its merger with the CUT.
Responding, the Chief Minister said “So far, the State government has not received any communication from the Centre about the merger plan of the CICT with Tiruvarur university. We will act if the government receives any such information.”
Now, three weeks after reports, the Chief Minister chaired the meeting of the CICT and key point in the agenda was to adopt a resolution to protect the autonomous status of the institute.
Sources said the meeting lasted for around 20 minutes and apart from the resolution, the expenditure accounts and related issues were placed before the governing board.
P Prakasam, vice-chairperson of the governing board, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, joint secretary, Central Universities, Language, Vigilance and Public Grievances, R Venkatesan, Tamil development secretary, G Vijayaraghavan, director, International Institute of Tamil Studies and director in charge of Tamil Development Department, A Palanivel, director, and senior officials took part in the meeting.
Unique disability ID card, retrofitted scooters
Chief Minister Palaniswami on Wednesday presented equipment useful for persons with disability, at a function held at the Secretariat. He also launched the issue of Unique Disability Identity Card to persons with disability, being implemented across the country. Five differently-abled persons received retrofitted petrol scooters in person from CM. In all, it will be given to 1,017 persons for 2016-17, at a cost of D5.98 crore.