The Hindu 18.09.2009

World Tamil Conference to be held in Coimbatore next year

Special Correspondent

— Photo: M. Vedhan

TAKING STOCK: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi addressing Collectors and police officers in Chennai on Thursday. Chief Secretary K.S. Sripathi (right) is in the picture.

CHENNAI: The next World Tamil Conference will be held in Coimbatore in January-February 2010.

A decision to this effect was taken on Thursday by the State government at the conference of District Collectors and Police Officers at the Secretariat here.

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who inaugurated the meet of the Collectors and Police Officers, indicated the plan to host the conference.

Police duty

The Chief Minister urged the police to monitor the coastal areas of the State. It was the duty of the police personnel to ensure that undesirable elements, in the name of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, did not enter the State.

Expressing satisfaction over law and order, the Chief Minister directed the police to prevent entry of sleeping cells of terrorist organisations and hawala transactions.

He reminded the police that it was one of their foremost duties to make sure that no custodial death and illegal detention took place. Expressing concern over the increasing rate of road accidents, he wanted police personnel to analyse the causes of accidents and work for road safety.

In view of the delay in giving compensation to victims of road accidents that involved buses of the State-run Transport Corporations and the high cost, the government decided to insure all buses belonging to the Corporations. This would enable quicker disbursal of compensation.

Noting the increase in the number of farmers covered under an insurance scheme in the last three years, the Chief Minister asked the Collectors to take steps to bring more farmers under the scheme. The number of farmers insured went up from one lakh in 2006-2007 to 9.88 lakh in 2008-2009.

The Chief Minister advised the Collectors to give priority to the completion of distribution of free gas stoves and LPG connections to 3.48 lakh beneficiaries by October-end.

Under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Rs. 888 crore was paid towards wages during April-August this year, against Rs. 982 crore last year. The target for this year was Rs. 2,000 crore.

The assistance provided by banks to self-help groups was of the order of Rs. 2,174.57 crore in 2008-2009, whereas assistance given over 19 years (April 1, 1989 to March 31, 2008) was just Rs. 3,163 crore. He wanted the Collectors to intensify their efforts in this regard.

The Times of India 08.09.2009

CHENNAI: Here's good news for firms that are planning to set up solar power plants in the country. Union minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah on Monday announced that the Centre would give a subsidy of Rs 10 per unit to bring down the cost of production for power generators.

Abdullah said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would unveil the solar mission programme on November 14. Stating that Tamil Nadu had great potential to generate solar power, the minister said that the Central and state governments should cooperate in order to bring down the production cost of solar panels and prevent red tape from coming in the way of subsidies for solar power generation.

"Once we start providing subsidy of Rs 10 per unit of solar power produced, production cost and the cost for the end user will come down," Dr Abdullah said.

Saying that technology transfer was the need of the hour, Abdullah wanted western countries to share technology in areas of non-conventional and solar power. "We need help from the West. We need to produce power from wind, solar, bio-mass and hydro energy." He pointed out that many were finding it difficult to get loans to set up energy production plants. "My ministry will ensure that the difficulty is removed," he said.

Abdullah was speaking at the inauguration of WinWind Power Energy Private Limited's wind turbine generator manufacturing facilityat Vengal, 50 km from Chennai. Backed by an investment of Rs 1,075 crore, the company will produce four wind turbine generators a day, scaling up production later to eight a day.

State electricity minister Arcot N Veerasamy said that the Tamil Nadu government had sought subsidy from the Union government to generate 100 MW of solar power. "There is no more scope for power generation through hydro energy projects as rainfall is limited and we have exhausted non-conventional energy. The future is in solar power," he said.

According to Veerasamy, the state would have a total generation capacity of 10,000 MW before 2014. It would be made possible, he pointed out, through 6,000 MW from thermal energy and 4,000 MW from a Central government's thermal project. "Tamil Nadu will be able to export in the next few years 6,000 to 7,000 MW to other states, including Maharashtra and Karnataka. The state will invest Rs 20,000 crore in setting up a separate company for transferring generated power to the southern grid," he said.