Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Declare Tamil official language, CM tells Centre

By P. Sudhakar

Tirunelveli March 13. The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today appealed to the Centre to declare Tamil, which has been included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, an `official language', besides announcing it as a classical language.

"I would like to send this appeal through this meeting'', she said inaugurating several works and people's welfare schemes here.

Complimenting 1.18-lakh self-help groups across the State on having saved Rs. 267.22 crores, Ms. Jayalalithaa said, amid thunderous claps from the members, who had turned up in large numbers: "The SHGs have just revolutionised the lives of the rural women''.

Referring to the acute drought prevailing across the State, Ms. Jayalaltihaa said the people should save every drop of rainwater by installing rainwater-harvesting systems in their houses.

"Rainwater-harvesting would be converted into a people's movement and the people should pray for more rains'', she appealed.

As she did during her recent election campaign in Sattankulam, the Chief Minister reiterated that she was above caste and religious divides. "We should strive for a society which is devoid of divisions in the name of caste and religion, as there would be no prosperity in a society which had been divided on communal lines''.

Even though some of the speakers at the function, including her ministerial colleagues, launched a veiled attack on the DMK leader, M. Karunanidhi, Ms. Jayalalithaa avoided it carefully.

Earlier, Ms. Jayalalithaa was received by the Ministers, Nainar Nagendran and S. Karuppasamy, the district Collector, Sunil Paliwal, the Mayor, A. Jayarani, and MPs and MLAs at the helipad on the armed reserve police grounds.

The Chief Minister, after accepting a police honour, at the venue, saw models of the Vadakku Pachchayar and Adavi Nainar Kovil dams and a monument to be built in Tirunelveli for the freedom fighter, V.O. Chidambaram. She also visited the stalls, put up by the SHGs and bought for Rs. 1,700 a silk mat, with her picture, made by the Al-Bismi SHG of Pattamadai, a village known for world-class mats.

Ms. Jayalalithaa inaugurated 1,404 works, including the Vadakku Pachchayar and Adavi Nainar Kovil dams, costing Rs. 267.33 crores; laid the foundation stone for 207 works, including eight integrated drinking water projects, worth Rs. 165.91 crores; and distributed welfare measures to the tune of Rs. 5.49 crores to 13,518 beneficiaries.

The Speaker, K. Kalimuthu, Mr. Nainar Nagendran, Mr. Karuppasamy, Ms. Valarmathi, and the MPs P.H. Pandian and S. Murugesan spoke.

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