The World Classical Tamil conference held recently at Coimbatore has rekindled the "Tamil spirit" among people of Tamil Nadu, said Union Minister of State for Finance S.S.Palani Manickam, here on Thursday.
Speaking at a function organised by the Tamil University for thanking the Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for conducting the conference successfully, the Union Minister said "Tamil spirit" which was at its peak in sixties and which resulted in Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) coming to power, was either missing or dormant in the interregnum. ‘Coimbatore conference rekindled that spirit and has helped in self evaluating and reassessing the value we attach to our language, culture and race,' he said.
He also said Tamil University has done well, by starting an Advanced Centre for World Classical Languages, which will be inaugurated by Mr.Karunanidhi at the University on July 27. ‘This is the right kind of thanksgiving to the Chief Minister,' he said.
He laid the foundation stone for construction of buildings in the form of Tamil letters "Tha" and "Mi" at a cost of Rs. 6.13 crore. When these buildings were completed, Tamil University will have buildings representing the word "Thamizh" as already a building in the form of letter "Zh" (last letter of the word "Thamizh") existed in the campus. When the University was established in eighties, it was envisaged, that there should be buildings representing letters "Tha", "Mi", "Zh" "Na" "Du" to represent the word "Thamizhnadu". Out of them a building representing the last letter "Zh" has already been constructed. On Thursday, Mr. Palani Manickam laid the foundation stone for construction of the buildings in the form of Tamil letters "Tha" and "Mi".
S.N.M.Ubauathullah, state commercial taxes minister, declared open the hostel buildings constructed at a cost of Rs.1.63 crore.
T.Paramasivam, syndicate member of Tamil University, inaugurated the classes for courses on performing arts.
M.Rajendran,Vice-Chancellor of Tamil University, said K.Kanimozhi, MP, has sanctioned Rs. one crore from her MP's local area development fund, for establishing the Centre for Performing Arts-"Kuthukalari" in the University campus. Jayadevan, emeritus professor of Chennai University, released 27 books published by the Tamil University on the occasion. G.Muthusamy, secretary, Tamil development and information department, Tamil Nadu government, Subash Chandran from University Grants Commission, participated in the meeting.
