Panneerselvam places various demands before central govt

During his speech at the 27th meeting of southern zonal council in Kerala, which was read out by the State forest minister Dindigul C Srinivasan, TN chief minister O Panneerselvam placed a set of demands before the central government.

"Tamil Nadu has already requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to include the Nilgiris district in the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) list and under the Integrated Action Plan (IAP)", he said adding that the government also request the early sanction of security related expenditure amounting to Rs. 2.41 crores.

Panneerselvam also asked the Centre for reconsideration of the earlier stand of the Government of India on sanctioning Rs. 10.12 crores under IAP for creation of infrastructure and service facilities. "The proposal to establish a Unified Command for the Left Wing Extremism affected area is under consideration", he added.

On the issue relating to the Peninsular Region Industrial Development Corridor, Panneerselvam also said that Tamil Nadu strongly supports greater inter-regional connectivity and development of industrial corridors.

He said: "On the issue of security of our fishermen, I exhort the Government of India to act promptly and effectively to protect the traditional fishing rights of Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu in the Palk Bay.

The incidents of harassment, attack and apprehension of our
fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy continue unabated. Our revered leader Puratchi Thalaivi Amma had repeatedly and strongly taken up this issue.

I request the Government of India to secure the immediate release of the 51 fishermen and 114 boats along with fishing gear currently in Sri Lankan custody. I reiterate the strong request of our Revered departed Leader Puratchi Thalaivi Amma, that the Government of India should take steps to abrogate the 1974 agreement and retrieve Katchatheevu and restore the traditional fishing rights of Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu."

The CM said regarding linking biometric cards with Aadhar numbers, the digitized data of marine fishers is yet to be received from Bharath Electronics Ltd, Bengaluru. After getting the digitized data, the department will take steps to seed the requisite details and submit the seeded list to BEL.

"On the issue relating to the Peninsular Region Industrial
Development Corridor, Tamil Nadu strongly supports greater inter-regional connectivity and development of industrial corridors.

The Tamil Nadu Vision 2023 document covers the Chennai-Ranipet and Ranipet-Hosur Industrial Corridors which have been subsumed in the Tamil Nadu Region of the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) sponsored by the Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy with
JICA assistance."