Tamil has been declared a classical language and several Professional Chairs have been instituted in various universities.
But the irony remains that the State Government's Tamil Development Department is unable to answer a simple query as to whether it would take steps to teach the language through correspondence courses to non-Tamil speaking individuals at a nominal cost.
Three queries
R. Lakshminarayanan, an aged advocate who is also the secretary of Bharathiyar Thinkers' Forum based here, had filed an application under Right to Information Act to the Tamil Development, Charitable Endowments and Information Department on August 12 seeking answers for three queries which related to correspondence courses conducted by the Central Hindi Directorate.
Pointing out that the Directorate, functioning under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, was offering certificate and diploma courses at a nominal cost of Rs.50 and Rs.200 respectively for all Indians whose mother tongue was not Hindi as well as to foreigners and Non-Resident Indians, the RTI applicant wanted to know whether the State Government would take steps to teach Tamil on similar lines.
The applicant also sought to know if a programme to teach Tamil was already under way. And if no such programme was being conducted and if there was no proposal too to conduct it, then the applicant wanted to know whom should he approach with the plea to introduce such correspondence course.
Transferred
Within five days of its receipt, S.R.M. Kumar, Public Information Officer (PIO) of Tamil Development Department, transferred the application to the School Education Department and intimated the applicant to approach the latter department on the ground that the subject came within its purview.
A month thereafter, the PIO of School Education Department, R. Uthanda Krishnan, re-transferred the application to Tamil Development Department stating that the issue raised by the applicant fell squarely within the purview of the latter which holds control over Directorate for Tamil Development as well as the Tamil University in Thanjavur.
Shuttling goes on
The shuttling of the application did not end there as another PIO of Tamil Development Department, V. Selvaraju, passed an order on October 27 transferring the RTI application once again but this time to the Higher Education Department on the premise that the latter was in-charge of conducting correspondence courses.
No reply
“I have not received any communication after this. My wish is that Tamil should be taught to all those who were interested without insisting on any kind of basic qualification. I would be very happy if the State Government takes steps to introduce the course before December 11, the birth anniversary of Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharathiyar whose love for the language transcends beyond words,” Mr. Lakshminarayanan said.
