Fourth phase of work at Keezhadi to go on till September: Pandiarajan

The assurance came from Tamil Official Language Minister K Pandiarajan in the House when DMK member MP Giri wanted to know what would happen to the Keezhadi excavation as there were reports of it being dropped after the Centre shunted out superintending archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna.

Pandiarajan, in his reply, observed that Amarnath Ramakrishna has competed 3 phases of excavation during the pilot study carried out in 10 acres. “The officer would submit his report to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)”, he added.

“As many as 5,000 artefacts have been unearthed in Keezhadi so far. The State has allocated funds to take up the fourth phase of excavation. It is possible that more artefacts could be excavated in the fourth phase, which may go on till September 30 as per the permission”, he said.

Anglicized versions of Thamizh names of places across the state in English are to be replaced with Tamil phonetic equivalents in English, Minister for Tamil Official Language K Pandiarajan informed the House while making the new announcements for Tamil Development Department on Wednesday.

Citing an example, the Minister said ‘Thiruvallikeni’ would remain same and not Triplicane, which is an Anglicized version. A high-level committee would be formed along with the Revenue department, and a one-time grant of Rs 5 lakh would be spent for this. He said the exercise may take at least a few months to complete and necessary changes would be carried out subsequently.

While speaking on the debate on Tamil Development, DMK MLA MP Giri asserted that his party’s regime gave prominence to Tamil scholars. He was interjected by Textiles Minister OS Manian who informed the House that it was MGR’s regime during which several measures for the progress of Tamil were undertaken. 

Countering it, DMK MLA Thangam Thennarasu wanted to know how many books were nationalised by the incumbent regime. Tamil Development Minister K Pandiarajan responded that both the DMK and AIADMK regimes have nationalised books of several scholars and that he would announce nationalisation of books. Thennarasu wondered what good it could bring by setting up a Tamil chair in Harvard University when the State could not provide the due status here. 

Pandiarajan retorted that it was MGR who ordered that signatures must be in Tamil. Thennarasu claimed it was the DMK which conducted Semmozhi conference and School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan wondered why funds from Adi-Dravida welfare were diverted for that.