REFUGEE

Chennai, Dec 14 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi Monday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up the proposed Indian National Institute of Epigraphy in the state.

In a letter to Singh, Karunanidhi, appreciating the government’s decision to set up a national level institute for epigraphy, said: “The government of Tamil Nadu is willing to allocate land for the establishment of Indian National Institute of Epigraphy.”

He said Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of inscriptions – around 100,000 – of which 60,000 are in Tamil.

Citing the request of noted epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan at the Central Advisory Board of Architecture (CABA) meeting held Dec 12, Karunanidhi requested the prime minister to pass necessary orders at the earliest “so that this announcement can come as welcoming prelude to the World Classical Tamil Conference to be held in the month of June 2010 in Coimbatore”.