REFUGEE

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday criticised the manner in which the central government handled the Telangana issue which has resulted in severe protests and violence in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Responding to a reporter's question on the central government's handling of the Telangana issue, he said: "From this, one can understand that delayed announcement and hasty decision should not be taken."

He also ruled out any division of Tamil Nadu, though some organisations have started voicing such a demand.

"The DMK party or the people of Tamil Nadu do not have any such views," he said.

Karunanidhi, who inspected the construction of the massive Anna Centenary Library here Sunday, told reporters that the library will be ready by next May.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has asked his party workers and supporters to wait till June to know about his retirement plans.

M Karunanidhi has asked his supporters to be serene till June after which he will take a decision to continue as the Chief Minister of the State or hand over the reigns to M K Stalin.

“Please be patient till the World Tamil conference in June. There’s a long time. I will consider both views among cadres - to continue as Chief Minister or to pass the mantle to M K Stalin,” said Karunanidhi.

In a statement here, Karunanidhi had expressed his desire to come closer to his supporters, which everybody understood for his retirement.

“After the Tamil meet I will get even more closer to you leaving aside politics and the ministerial positions,” he said.

Different opinions began to crop up following Karunanidhi’s statement.

“It’s his personal opinion. We have not discussed this at any quarter,” said K Anbazhagan, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister.

The political analysts point out that this could be the strategy of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi to fit in his son Stalin as the next Chief Minister ahead of the 2011 State elections.

The LTTE terrorists did not take into account future consequences while implementing its war strategy, Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Chairperson M. Karunanidhi has said on Tuesday (Nov 17).

Indian daily 'The Hindu' quoting Minister Karunanidhi's statement stated that the view was made in the context of a recent interview given by Sri Lankan opposition leader Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe to a Tamil journal.

Recalling the LTTE's call to Tamils for boycott of the 2005 presidential elections, Mr Karunanidhi, in a statement, said that SLFP leader Mahinda Rajapaksa had defeated UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe by a margin of about 1.81 lakh votes and that seven lakh Tamils in Sri Lanka did not cast their votes. Mr Wickramasinghe had then promised the electors that he would give priority to peace talks with the LTTE in the event of his election, Karunanidhi was quoted as saying.

Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was also assassinated by LTTE terrorists for not towing their separatist ideologies.

Chennai, Nov 5 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu government will issue a global tender this month for sourcing 4.8 million colour television sets for distribution under its free colour television sets scheme.
In an all-party MLA committee meeting, chaired by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, the government decided to buy 837,500 TV sets for the ongoing fourth phase of the scheme and four million sets for the fifth phase.

The committee decided to issue the tender this week and finalise the deal by the third week of December.

Under the fifth phase, four million TV sets will be distributed between February and December 2010.

The state government started distributing free of cost colour TV sets in 2006 and gave away 30,000 sets in the first phase.

In the second and third phases, 2.5 million and 3.75 million sets respectively were distributed.

For the fourth phase, the government has already ordered around 4.16 million sets. The total TV sets for distribution under this phase will be around five million

Chennai: Intensifying the war of words over the Mullaperiyar dam issue, Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi has accused Kerala of "creating obstacles" and demanded deployment of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to guard the reservoir.

"With a view to preventing Kerala government from continuing to create obstacles, it would be better to deploy CISF personnel to guard the dam instead of Kerala police," he said.

The dispute between the two states has intensified in recent days after the Centre allowed Kerala to conduct a survey for construction of a new dam to replace the existing 113-year-old reservoir across the inter-state Mullaperiyar river.

Tamil Nadu had knocked the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the move by neighbouring state but the plea was rejected.

Writing in his party's mouthpiece,'Murasoli', Karunanidhi detailed a series of events between 2006 (when the supreme court ordered the storage in the dam should be increased from 136 to 142 feet) and 2009 (when Tamil Nadu officials were denied access to the dam area by the Kerala officials or unidentified persons damaged portions of the dam wall).

He said he requested prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 to provide CISF security to the dam.

"In December 2006, some unknown persons damaged the parapet wall following which I wrote to the prime minister seeking the deployment of CISF," he said. Among other such "obstacles" Kerala Forest and Irrigation officials had earlier this year "prevented PWD officials of Tamil Nadu" from taking up maintenance work on the dam which was brought to his notice by Theni District Collector, Karunanidhi said.

The issue was raised at a meeting of the two states convened by the Centre later, he said.

On many occasions, while Tamil Nadu officials were not allowed entry to the dam by their Kerala counterparts, Kerala authorities visited the dam without informing Tamil Nadu officials, Karunanidhi said.

In fact, Kerala police had even allowed "unknown persons," to visit the dam area and film it, he said.

Office bearers of Tamil Thiraippada Iyakkunar Sangam, the apex body of Tamil film directors, on Tuesday called on Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and invited him to take part in the grand New Year celebrations they have planned.

A press release from the association said a decision has been taken to celebrate Tamil New Year’s Day from January 14 to 16 by conducting various programmes in the Marina beach. “The events will highlight the culture and tradition of Tamil Nadu,” the release said.

“We have invited the Chief Minister to take part in the celebrations. We also expressed our interest to stage a drama at the World Classical Tamil Conference to he held in Coimbatore in June 2010."

Those who had met the Chief Minister include R K Selvamani, Vikraman, Ameer, Lingusamy, Ezhil, Perarasu, Shanmugasundaram, Ramadoss, Raja, Karthik and Sibi.

he first batch of 2,400 Tamils lodged in camps for internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka were sent back home today as assured by the government there, DMK MP T R Baalu, who led a team of Tamil Nadu MPs to the island nation, said.Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse had assured the 10-member MPs delegation that 58,000 of the 2.53 lakh internally displaced Tamils would be sent home in the next fortnight starting today, Baalu said in a release here.

He said the 2,400 Sri Lankan Tamils were sent to their native places in buses and given essential items and Rs 5,000 each to meet their immediate requirements.

The team comprising MPs from DMK and its allies Congress and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi returned on Wednesday after a five-day tour of Sri Lanka to gain first hand knowledge of the condition of the displaced Tamils housed in the camps.

In its report submitted to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, the delegation said that the camps lacked even basic amenities like sanitation and water.