Efforts on to hold World Tamil Conference in state by next year end

Sources in Tamil Development Department said, “Talks are going on at the highest level with International Association of Tamil Research (IATR) to hold WTC in December 2020 or in January 2021 well before the state Assembly elections. IATR too is in favour of holding WTC in Tamil Nadu and the works are going on in a full-fledged manner.”

World Tamil Conference is a series of conferences to discuss the social growth of Tamil language and promoting heritage of Tamil language. Each conference is attended by thousands of Tamil enthusiasts around the world. Conferences are hosted in various cities in India, as well as world cities with a significant Tamil population.

So far, there were 10 such conferences held and among them three were conducted in Tamil Nadu. The second edition of WTC was conducted in Chennai in 1968, during the tenure of former Chief Minister CN Annadurai.

The fifth edition of WTC was conducted in Madurai, in 1981, during the tenure of former chief minister MG Ramachandran and the eighth edition of WTC was conducted in Thanjavur in 1995, during the tenure of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Meanwhile, when DMK was in power a World Classical Tamil Conference was conducted in Coimbatore in 2010, but was not approved by IATR and was not inducted in the list of WTCs.

Sources also said that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami wanted to conduct one WTC during his tenure and so has urged Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture K Pandiarajan to take steps to conduct WTC before the state Assembly elections, scheduled in 2021. The department too is in talks with officials of IATR and is in the process of finalising the dates and the venue of the WTC.

“The dates for the next WTC should be announced one year ahead for Tamil scholars to get prepared and so the announcement can be expected shortly. The venue for the event is likely to be Salem or Coimbatore. Tiruchy is also in the race as Tamil University is located nearby,” said sources.