Chennai: Union home minister Amit Shah urged the Tamil Nadu government to introduce Tamil as the medium of instruction for medical and other technical courses, saying it would help students understand their lessons better.
Several states had already moved to offer medical and technical education in their native languages and Tamil Nadu should follow suit, Shah said. This would also help students pursue research in Tamil.
Speaking at the platinum jubilee celebrations of India Cements Ltd here, Shah said preserving and promoting Tamil was the nation’s responsibility as it was one of the oldest languages. He pointed out that only about 50 people had enrolled for some technical courses in Tamil now though more than 1,300 seats had been allotted and asked the state government to promote it as the medium of instruction.
Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had given top priority for the development and progress ofTamil Nadu. The Prime Minister had given more opportunities to Tamil Nadu for ushering in big investments in the defence industrial corridor project in Trichy, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Hosur and Chennai, he said.
Elaborating on the priority to Tamil Nadu, Shah said that between 2009 and 2014,under the UPA government, Tamil Nadu received £6.2 billion as tax devolution. In the last five years, the figure had grown by 91% to £12 billion. “Under grants-in-aid, TN received £3.5 billion under UPA and this increased by 171% to £9.1 billion under the Modi government,” Shah said.
