MADURAI: The

government should come out with a white paper on the status of

in the state, as more than 1,500 government schools are staring at possible closure as no student was enrolled in them in Class 1 this year, said former Union minister

.

Interacting with reporters in Madurai, he said private schools had mushroomed dangerously in Tamil Nadu in the last 20 years due to the bad Dravidan rule. “Will the

accept this,’’ he asked.

The Tamil Nadu government should find out how many private schools were started in the state, who was responsible for them and close them.

He said the DMK was fooling the people of Tamil Nadu in the name of language policy. “How is it justified if the children who study in private schools, that collect lakhs of rupees, as fees get an opportunity to study many languages, but not the children of a person who dwells on the platform?”

“I know many DMK leaders who learnt Hindi from the same person from whom I learnt Hindi. But I do not want to reveal their names,’’ he said.

was the only Prime Minister who had said that children in all the states should learn at least 100 words in Tamil, he added.