NE Tamil festival concludes with awards to Tamil scholars

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2002, 08:19 GMT]
The three-day Tamil Literary Festival of the North East provincial Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs concluded Monday evening with conferring of Governor's Awards to eight Tamil scholars and Literary Awards to seventeen Tamil authors.

"It is a pity to note that Tamil students of today are not showing any interest in learning and mastering their mother tongue. Parents are to be blamed for this pathetic situation, as they want their children to become doctors and engineers and not encouraging them to master their language. Hence the decline in standard of Tamil language among the younger generation," said Mr.R.Thiagalingam, Secretary to the Provincial Ministry of Education presiding over the event.

Mr.A.Amirthalingam, Secretary to the NEPC Governor, and Additional Provincial Director of Education Mr.S.Mahalingam were special guests. Ms N.Sri Devi made the welcome address.

Of the nominated eight Tamil scholars, except Professor S.Sivasegaram and Professor M.A.Nuhuman, others-- Professor S.Sivasamy, Professor S.Mounaguru, Mr.Vel Anandan, George Chandrasekaran, Sitpi Saravanapavan and Pashaiyoor Thevathasan--attended the event and accepted the Governor's Awards.

Those given the Literary awards included Messrs S.Pathmanathan, A.Nishanthan, Kandiah Sri Ganeshan, P.Sivapalan, Mohamed Sammem, Gnanamuthu Pilendran, Manikkam Nadarajasuntharam, Pandit K.Sachchithanandan, Ms Angiayan Kailasanathan and V.N.S.Uthayaschandran.

Six Tamil scholars Pashaiyoor Thevathasan, Sitpi Saravanapavan, George Chandrasekaran, Professor Mounaguru, Kalaignar Vel Ananthan, Professor Sivasami with Governor's Awards