The Hindu: Madurai: Friday,
October 28, 2016.
An
application made under the Right to Information Act, 2005, has revealed that
the State government has so far not issued a Government Order sanctioning
Rs.37.36 lakh demanded by the Tamil University in Thanjavur in 2013 to start
short duration correspondence courses to teach Tamil to non-Tamils across the
globe at a nominal cost.
Replying to
the RTI application made by R. Lakshminarayanan, secretary of Bharathiyar
Thinkers Forum (BTF) based here, on September 16, the Public Information
Officer of Tamil Development Department had on October 4 stated that no G.O.
had been passed so far despite a specific direction issued to the State by the
Madras High Court Bench here on April 22.
The PIO
further stated that the issue of sanctioning funds to the university was still
under consideration of the government. Similarly, responding to an identical
RTI application made to the Director of Tamil Development on August 11, the
Directorate stated that a proposal forwarded by it, for sanctioning funds, was
pending with the government.
The forum
pointed out that the Hindi Directorate was providing reading materials and
audio cassettes at a nominal cost of Rs. 50 and Rs.200 respectively to teach
the language effectively.
The
representation got tossed between the Tamil Development Department (TDD),
School Education Department and Higher Education Department for long until
finally the TDD called for a report from Tamil University in 2013. A year
later, the university reported back that it would require Rs.37.36 lakh for
starting such courses.
Thereafter,
the matter was put under cold storage forcing the forum to approach the Madras
High Court Bench which in April this year expressed deep anguish over the
treatment being meted out to Tamil and directed the State government to
sanction the money required or even more within 12 weeks from the date of the
receipt of a copy of its order.
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