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Karunanidhi to
unveil Tiruvalluvar statue in Bangalore:
Yeddyurappa
 
CHENNAI: Ending a long-running controversy over
the unveiling of a statue of Tamil poet-saint
Tiruvalluvar in Bangalore, Karnataka Chief
Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday announced
here that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.
Karunanidhi would himself unveil it soon. Mr.
Yeddyurappa told reporters after a 30-minute
meeting with Mr. Karunanidhi at Karunanidhi’s
residence that a date for the unveiling would be
fixed after the ongoing Tamil Nadu Assembly
session. (The unveiling was originally slated
for 1991, but it was put off following
opposition from pro-Kannada activists.) Mr.
Yeddyurappa, who was here for a medical check-up
as an in-patient in a hospital, said Mr.
Karunanidhi wanted to meet him in the hospital,
but “I preferred to meet him at his residence as
it is my duty to pay respects to the elder
statesman.” When reporters asked him whether
they had discussed the release of Cauvery water
by Karnataka to the delta districts in Tamil
Nadu, Mr. Yeddyurappa said the Cauvery issue did
not figure in the discussion.
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On the Rs.
1,334-crore Hogenakkal project to supply drinking water
to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, the Karnataka
Chief Minister said: “In the interest of both the
States, we will sit, discuss and take a decision.”
(Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had informed the
Assembly on Monday that the work on the water project
would begin in three or four months.) Mr.
Yeddyurappa said a team of officials from Karnataka had
visited Chennai to find a suitable spot to erect the
statue of Kannada poet Sarvagna and had identified land
at Aynavaram here. The Tamil Nadu government had
agreed in principle to give the land for erecting the
statue. (Sarvagna was a Kannada poet famous for his
pithy three-lined poems.) Later, Mr. Yeddyurappa visited
the Sri Venugopalaswamy Temple at Gopalapuram.
