The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Decision on location of Central University to be taken shortly

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Tamil Nadu

Decision on location of Central University to be taken shortly

Special Correspondent

Complaints from people that fertile lands are being taken over for the setting up the varsity will be looked into, says Karunanidhi

If complaints are true, State will not take over lands
But, if this is not the case, it will initiate legal steps

M. Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Thursday said the government would examine complaints from people that their fertile lands were being taken over for setting up the Central University at Tiruvarur.

If the complaints are true, the government will not take over the lands. But, if this was not the case, it will initiate legal steps, he warned.

Asked about speeding up the process of setting up the Central University and the proposed institutes, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy said he had discussed the issue with officials of the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development.

A Central team would visit the State by the end of the month to select a place for the establishment of the Central University, he said.

On the expulsion of the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Mr. Karunanidhi said once a person assumed office as Speaker, he transcended party politics. “I do not want to say anything more because the problem has happened to a friendly party.”

On some MPs explaining that theirs was a conscience vote, Mr. Karunanidhi said it would help if political parties could look back on the past, at their own actions.

He said the term conscience vote was coined by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the time of the election of a new President. V.V. Giri won the election with the help of some political parties that were not friendly towards the Congress.

From what he could gather, he had found that some of the BJP MPs who had voted in favour of the United Progressive Alliance government had problems with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati being propped up as a Prime Ministerial candidate.

On the issue of firing on Indian fishermen, Mr. Karunanidhi said this formed a large part of his deliberations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Dr. Singh had reiterated his earlier assurance that he would take up the issue when he visits Sri Lanka for the SAARC summit.

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