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Karunanidhi to unveil Tiruvalluvar statue in Bangalore: Yeddyurappa

CHENNAI: Ending a long-running controversy over the unveiling of a statue of Tamil poet-saint Tiruvalluvar in Bangalore, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday announced here that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would himself unveil it soon.

Mr. Yeddyurappa told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with Mr. Karunanidhi at Karunanidhi’s residence that a date for the unveiling would be fixed after the ongoing Tamil Nadu Assembly session. (The unveiling was originally slated for 1991, but it was put off following opposition from pro-Kannada activists.)

Mr. Yeddyurappa, who was here for a medical check-up as an in-patient in a hospital, said Mr. Karunanidhi wanted to meet him in the hospital, but “I preferred to meet him at his residence as it is my duty to pay respects to the elder statesman.”

When reporters asked him whether they had discussed the release of Cauvery water by Karnataka to the delta districts in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Yeddyurappa said the Cauvery issue did not figure in the discussion.

On the Rs. 1,334-crore Hogenakkal project to supply drinking water to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, the Karnataka Chief Minister said: “In the interest of both the States, we will sit, discuss and take a decision.”

(Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had informed the Assembly on Monday that the work on the water project would begin in three or four months.)

Mr. Yeddyurappa said a team of officials from Karnataka had visited Chennai to find a suitable spot to erect the statue of Kannada poet Sarvagna and had identified land at Aynavaram here.

The Tamil Nadu government had agreed in principle to give the land for erecting the statue. (Sarvagna was a Kannada poet famous for his pithy three-lined poems.) Later, Mr. Yeddyurappa visited the Sri Venugopalaswamy Temple at Gopalapuram.

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