: DMK president M Karunanidhi on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to give up the move to shift the headquarters of the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) from Chennai to New Delhi. “This move (to shift the headquarters) has no convincing reason or acceptable logic and in fact it is a retrograde step,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was circulated to the media in Chennai.
Stating that labour unions and the people of Tamil Nadu were agitated over the proposal to shift the CIPET headquarters, he pointed out that when a similar attempt was done during the NDA regime headed by A.B. Vajpayee, he (Karunanidhi) as Chief Minister had raised a strong voice of dissent and took up the issue with the Prime Minister. Following this, On November 30, 1999, the then Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Suresh Prabhu had written to him affirming that there was no proposal to shift the CIPET headquarters outside Tamil Nadu. “Such was the helpful attitude adopted by Thiru Vajpayee Government in responding to the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu,” Mr Karunanidhi said in the letter.
The DMK leader recalled that when the CIPET was established in 1968, it was specifically registered under the Societies Registration Act incorporating in it that the headquarters should be located at Chennai only. Since then it has grown into a premier institution of plastics engineering and technology with 27 centres spread across the country, having 2,500 employees and 6,000 students. It has a reputation of continuously running on profits and the Chennai head office was now equipped with high-end equipment on a par with international standards.
Hence he sought Mr Modi’s intervention to heed to popular demand and maintain status quo on the CIPET’s headquarters.
