CHENNAI: Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture, K Pandiarajan on Thursday told the State Assembly that a full time Director for the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) in Chennai will be appointed in a month. For this purpose, a search committee had already been formed.  Besides, construction of the spacious building for CICT at Perumbakkam will be completed very soon. 

The minister was responding to a charge of Leader of Opposition, MK Stalin that the NDA government at the Centre had been ignoring CICT for the past many years and that the funds for this research institution had been reduced by the Centre. In a nutshell, the functioning of the CICT had been crippled by the Centre.  

Stalin also pointed out that a full time Director for this institution was yet to be appointed. The awards to be given through this institution had also been stopped.  Efforts were on to merge this institution with Central university at Thiruvarur. 

Responding, Pandian gave details of funds released by the Centre to CICT and said indeed, the allocation of funds had gone up in recent years. The move for merging this institution with the Central university was given up only due to tough stand taken by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, he said.