Jayalalithaa to meet Modi with wish-list

IANS/Chennai

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and submit a list of issues concerning Tamil Nadu, it was announced yesterday.

The memorandum will include long-pending issues crucial to Tamil Nadu and on which the central government needs to act, an official statement said.

This will be Jayalalithaa’s first meeting with Modi after he became the prime minister on May 26. The Tamil Nadu chief minister didn’t attend his May 26 inauguration after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse was invited to the event.

Jayalalithaa is a bitter critic of Rajapakse, whose regime is accused by critics of killing thousands of Tamils during the final stages of the war that crushed the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

According to the statement, the memorandum would highlight some issues which require the urgent attention of the central government to safeguard the interests of the state and propel it on a faster growth path.

The statement said Jayalalithaa would call on Modi at his office in South Block on June 3.

The announcement comes following Modi’s various guidelines to his ministers that includes quick response to representations sent by the states and not to keep them pending for long.

The major issues taken up by the state government with the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government include increasing the allocation of kerosene to the state; setting up of the Cauvery Management Board; and retrieval of Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka.

The Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) in its general election manifesto had listed out several issues under the heading “Betrayal of Tamil Nadu by the Congress Coalition Government at the centre and the DMK”.

According to AIADMK, the erstwhile UPA government had betrayed Tamil Nadu’s interest by filing a counter against the state government’s case in the Supreme Court on annulling the transfer of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1970s.

Chandy to meet PM on Monday

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who had sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been asked to meet him on Monday, a Kerala government source said. Chandy had already said that he has sought an appointment with Modi as he was unable to attend the swearing-in ceremony due to an urgent personal matter. Although the visit is merely a courtesy call, Chandy will carrying with him some important pressing needs for which the state is awaiting the central nod.