REFUGEE

cHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday came out against the idea of bifurcating the state, as suggested by PMK founder,ramadoss, saying that there was no scope for dividing Tamil Nadu

On the violence in Andhra Pradesh and the way the UPA government has handled the new state Telangana demand, Karunanidhi criticised the Centre, saying that ‘‘the lesson to be drawn from the present crisis is that one should neither make a belated announcement nor a hasty decision thereafter’’.

Talking to reporters after reviewing the progress of work on the Rs 172-crore state library in Kotturpuram, Karunanidhi said there was no room for bifurcation of Tamil Nadu. ‘‘Such a thought doesn’t exist in either DMK or in the minds of Tamils,’’ he told reporters who sought his reaction to Ramadoss’s suggestion that smaller states could be better administered and that a new state could be carved out of the state’s southern region, with Madurai as its capital.

Chennai, Dec 14 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Monday declared that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and its two newly formed subsidiaries will not be privatised.
Launching the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corp here, he said: “As declared earlier, on no account the three power utilities will be privatised. The formation of the three entities will not affect the employees.”

The government hived off the generation, distribution and transmission activities of TNEB into three companies so as to comply with the Electricity Act 2003.

While Tamil Nadu Transmission Corp will look after power transmission, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation will take care of power generation and distribution.

TNEB will be the holding company for the two newly formed companies.

Karunanidhi said employees of TNEB can opt for one of three companies and their current perks and perquisites will be protected.

According to Karunanidhi, the installed power generation capacity in the state will go up by 5,900MW to 15,152 MW by 2012.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin today extended their greetings to Superstar Rajinikanth on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

An official press release issued in Chennai said Karunanidhi and Stalin greeted the actor over phone a long and healthy life.

Members from the tinsel town and fans from all over the world have also been greeting the undisputed box office king of Tamil cinema on his stepping into 60.

CHENNAI: Terming the ties between the DMK and Congress as an "ideal relationship", chief minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday said the alliance was
strong and would continue for many more years.

At the 80th birthday celebrations of Muktha V Srinivasan, a film personality and senior Congressman, Karunanidhi said India would be strong and Tamil Nadu would prosper as long as the Congress and DMK were together. "Many more welfare schemes can be executed in Tamil Nadu only if the alliance continued."

Karunanidhi recalled his long association with the Congress, beginning with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1980 when he welcomed her with his remarks `Nehruvin Magale Varuga, Nilayana Atchiyai Tharuga'. welcoming her as Nehru's daughter' and urging her to provide stability to the country (after the Janata regime ended prematurely).

The DMK leader's remarks underscoring the strength of his ties with the Congress come close on the heels of signs that the relationship had entered an uneasy phase. On a recent whirlwind tour of TN to strengthen the Congress at the grassroots, Rahul Gandhi had not met Karunanidhi, raising many eyebrows in the process.

Later, the DMK's announcement of an agitation against Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh (which was later called off); former TNCC president EVKS Elangovan's threat to organise protests against DMK's Union minister A Raja as a counter-move, CBI raids on Raja's offices of telecom department headed by A Raja were all indicative of some strain, but Karunanidhi's remarks have sought to allay such apprehensions.

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, on Friday, expressed regret over the Supreme Court’s decision to refer the Mullaperiyar dam issue to a five-member Constitution Bench.

“It was in December 1998 that we approached, for the first time, the Supreme Court on the Mullaperiyar issue. After 11 years, when Tamil Nadu was expecting to secure justice, the decision that there will be one more enquiry to be heard by five judges, and wondering how long it will take, one cannot help feeling sad. We do not know to whom we should represent to see to it that the adage ‘justice delayed, justice denied’ does not come true,” Mr. Karunanidhi said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the court referred to the Bench a suit filed by the Tamil Nadu government questioning a law enacted by Kerala to prevent raising the water level in the dam beyond 136 ft. as against 142 ft. allowed by the Supreme Court judgment of February 2006.

Raising a host of doubts in the light of the court’s action, he asked: “Can a legal amendment be made to nullify an order of the Supreme Court on an inter-State issue? Is that acceptable? What will happen to the country if one State after the other, through legislature, goes on enacting laws in the event of the court orders not being favourable to such States?”

Mr. Karunanidhi also wondered about the fate of the court judgment in February 2006.

CHENNAI: In a far-reaching move aimed at giving a full sense of belonging to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees staying in Tamil Nadu, chief minister M .Karunanidhi on Thursday announced a Rs 100 crore package for their welfare, offering them concrete houses, colour television sets and a comprehensive health insurance cover.

With this, he has virtually extended to the refugees all the welfare schemes — for example, marriage assistance of Rs 20,000 to poor girls, free bus passes to school and college students, funeral assistance of Rs 2,500 and tricycles and equipment for the physically disabled — now available to the local population.
Significantly, the four-page communiqué that announced the cabinet decision avoided the word “refugee” and instead using the term “Sri Lankan Tamils residing in Tamil Nadu”.

With these measures, the ruling DMK hopes to endear itself to the global Tamil community, amidst signs that Tamils in Sri Lanka and elsewhere were unhappy with the state’s response to the humanitarian consequences during the last days of the war between the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Deputy chief minister MK Stalin and other ministers, who inspected 115 camps in the state where more than 73,000 refugees are staying, had submitted their reports to Karunanidhi on Tuesday.