Fort St George to house Tamil institute

Updated on: Sunday, June 27, 2010

Brushing aside objections from his arch rival AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said the 17th century Fort St George, the seat of power, would be turned into the headquarters of Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT).

"Fort St George would be made the CICT headquarters once we move out of it and occupy the under construction new Assembly-Secretariat complex," he said in a move apparently aimed at pre-empting Jayalalithaa from returning to Fort St George if her party wins next year's Assembly polls.

He made the announcement during a seminar at the ongoing World Classical Tamil Conference (WCTC) here.

Jayalalithaa told her party General Council recently that they would come back to power in next year assembly polls and rule the state from the Fort St George.

She had also slammed Karunanidhi for the move to accommodate a library in the old secretariat building and said he took the decision soon after her declaration that AIADMK would come back to power in Fort St.George by May 27 next.

Announcing the decision to locate the CICT in the Fort St George, Karunanidhi said: "The Chief Minister's Chamber (in the old secretariat) will be turned into the office of the Chief of the institute."

He said the process of setting up a library is currently underway there and expressed confidence that it will be completed by the time he returns to Chennai after the WCTC.

Karunanidhi recalled that while the DMK had continuously pressed the Centre for granting classical status to Tamil language, the Congress-led UPA had obliged to its request and the office of the institute, initially located at Mysore, was later shifted to Chennai.

Calling for joint efforts from each and every Tamil for the growth of the language, Karunanidhi said the efforts would not stop with the conduct of WCTC and had to be taken beyond.

Fort St George to house Tamil institute

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