Chief Minister M Karunanidhi chairing a meeting with the chairpersons and members of various committees formed in connection with the World Tamil Conference in Chennai

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has said that steps would be taken to make Tamil as an official language of the Union Government.
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Addressing presspersons after a meeting with chairpersons and members of various committees formed in connection with the World Classical Tamil Conference here yesterday, he said ‘efforts for the benefit of Tamil language would not just stop with the classical Tamil conference in Coimbatore. The State government would follow-up, he added.

The State government has invited President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the conference to be held in June, the Chief Minister said.

To a query whether statues of Tamil scholars would be installed as was done in the case of the Second World Tamil Conference in Chennai in 1968, the Chief Minister said this was raised in the discussion on Thursday. A decision would be taken.

Asked about the participation of the Opposition parties in the conference, he said the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam had conveyed in writing that they would not take part.

How would the Coimbatore conference be different from the earlier World Tamil Conferences? He replied that the Coimbatore meet would be as special as the Chennai meet that was held under C N Annadurai’s leadership.

The Chief Minister added that infrastructure improvement schemes would be taken up in Coimbatore district.
The Chief Minister said the Conference should be used to foster unity among Tamils.

He was keen that political parties should transcend their differences on occasions that would reflect Tamil sentiments and promote the language. A total of 1,244 delegates from different countries had confirmed participation, Karunanidhi added.

State Finance Minister K Anbazhagan, Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin, TNCC president K V Thangkabalu, Director General of Police K P Jain, Special Officer for the Conference K Allaudin were among those participated.