PM Modi cancels visit to Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Against the backdrop of a surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, Prime Minister Narendera Modi has cancelled his scheduled visit to Tamil Nadu on January 12. He will inaugurate 11 new government medical colleges across the state and the new campus of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil in Perumbakkam at 4pm via videoconferencing on the same day.

The new colleges have been established in Virudhunagar, Namakkal, the Nilgiris, Tirupur, Tiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Dindigul, Kallakurichi, Ariyalur, Ramanathapuram and Krishnagiri at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.

“Establishment of these medical colleges is in line with the Prime Minister’s constant endeavour to promote affordable medical education and improve health infrastructure in all parts of the country,” said a PMO release. The new medical colleges have a total capacity of 1,450 seats and are established under the Centre’s “Establishing of New Medical Colleges attached with existing district/referral hospital” scheme.

The CICT campus is fully funded by the Centre. Built at Rs 24 crore, the campus has an e-library, seminar halls and a multimedia hall. The institute has been running in a rented building in Taramani.

“An autonomous organisation under the Union ministry of education, CICT is contributing to the promotion of classical Tamil by doing research activities to establish the ancientness and uniqueness of Tamil language,” the release said.

The institute library has a collection of over 45,000 ancient Tamil books and has an aim to translate and publish Tamil classic Thirukkural in various Indian languages and 100 foreign languages.