BJP has undermined CICT’s reputation, accuses Stalin

Speaking on the assembly floor, Stalin said, “BJP had paralysed the functioning of CICT by completely reducing the fund and by stopping the awards issued to Tamil scholars.”

Stalin also said that when CICT was founded in 2008, late DMK Supremo M Karunanidhi donated Rs 1 crore for the institute. Awards such as Tholkappiyar award, Kuralpeedam, ‘Young Scholars’ awards were instituted during DMK rule but BJP had stopped them.

“According to the information available in the CICT website, no awards were given by CICT after 2015. Even the annual report was not released after 2016 and CICT does not even have a full time director,” said Stalin.

Replying to the queries of Stalin, State Minister for Tamil Development, Tamil Culture and Archaeology, dismissed the reports of shortage of funds to CICT. “Though CICT comes under central government, funds are allotted by the state government. AIADMK government had allotted Rs 73.28 crore for CICT in the last 8 years which comes to Rs 9.17 crore on an average per year but during the DMK regime the average fund allotted was around Rs 3 crore per year,” said Pandiarajan.

However, Pandiarajan accepted the fact that there is no full time director for the institute and added that a search committee under Prabakaran IAS had been appointed to search a full time director for CICT.