CHENNAI: Funding for Central Institute of Classical Tamil ( CICT ) in Chennai from the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has dropped by more than half in 2016-17 and 2017-18 as compared to the previous three years, data sourced through an RTI application shows.

Government sources say the institute has been a victim of administrative lacunae for almost five years.However, officials in the Classical Tamil institute say it is set for a revival after chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who is the exofficio chairman of the governing board, convened a meeting in July to set things in motion. Newly-appointed Tamil development minister K Pandiarajan has taken special interest in the institute and interacted with research scholars at length regarding their projects recently .

The institute, located at Taramani, was started to promote research in Tamil literature dating to the sixth century and then popularise the findings to the grassroots. One of the important projects the institute is working on is translation of Thirukkural into 22 Indian languages. RTI data shows the institute received funds of `9 crore in 2013-14, `8 crore in 201415 and `11.99 crore in 2015-16.However, funds dropped to `5 crore in 2016-17 and in the current fiscal it has received `3 crore. Since 2008-09, `9.05 crore of the `79 crore received was not utilised by the institute. Vice-chairman of the institute P Prakasam said adequate funds were being given to the institute by the Centre. “Whatever demands have been sent from the institute have been met. In some fiscal years when there is a surplus, it is used for the next year and hence the outlay for that year is reduced,“ he said. The `3 crore for the current fiscal is the first instalment and more funds were expected in the coming months, he said.

Government sources say the institute suffered from a step-motherly treatment during the term of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Prakasam said before the July meeting, the governing board last met around five years ago when Shashi Tharoor was the minister of state (MoS) in the HRD ministry . “This is a reason why many decisions were pending and projects could not take off,“ he said.

