Karuna urges PM to withdraw move to shift CIPET to Delhi

"This move has no convincing reason or acceptable logic, and in fact it is a retrograde step," DMK chief M Karunanidhi told the Prime Minister in a letter.

The people of Tamil Nadu in general and the labour unions in particular "are very much agitated over the proposed move" to shift the head office of Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) to Delhi, he added.

CIPET, coming under the Department of Chemicals and Petro-Chemicals of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, was established here in 1968, "with an avowed objective of promoting plastic tools and dye-making industries in India," Karunanidhi said.

"It was registered under the Societies Registration Act, incorporating in it that the Head Office should be located at Chennai only," he said, adding, CIPET has grown into a premier institution of plastics engineering and technology with 27 Centres spread across the country.

CIPET had gained a reputation of continuously running on profits as well as international recognition "and it occupies a pride of place in the plastics engineering and technology map of India," he said.

Over a period of time, CIPETs head office here has built-up at par with international standards and equipped with all the high-end equipments, Karunanidhi said and recalled that the issue had come up during previous NDA government too.

"When a similar move was in the offing during the tenure of the NDA government at the Centre, headed by A B Vajpayee, I, as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, raised a strong voice of dissent and took up the issue with the Prime Minister," he said.

"Finally Suresh Prabhu, then Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, wrote to me on 30-11-1999, affirming that there was no proposal to shift the CIPET headquarters outside Tamil Nadu. Such was the helpful attitude adopted by Vajpayee government in responding to the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu," he said.

Karunanidhi sought Modis "immediate intervention" on the matter and to respect "popular demand of Tamil Nadu," to withdraw the proposal to shift CIPET head office from the city.