Telugu Cultural Centre in Chennai soon

SHARING A POINT: T. Subbirami Reddy, Union Minister of State for Mines (left), with Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, at the fifth All India Telugu Conference, in Chennai on Friday

CHENNAI: The Andhra Pradesh Government will soon set up a cultural centre in Chennai to promote Telugu language and culture to resolve the problem faced by Telugus residing in Tamil Nadu in pursuing education in Telugu medium, said Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy.

He made this announcement following a request by Potti Sriramulu Telugu University to set up either an academy or a cultural centre in the metropolitan city.

Dr. Reddy was inaugurating the three-day Fifth All India Telugu Conference that began here on Friday.

About 1,000 delegates representing 400 Telugu associations within the country and from Mauritius are attending the conference.

He said the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) had already made a similar request to the Government.

Assembly committee

Affirming his Government's commitment to the development of Telugu language and culture, he said it would consider constituting an Assembly committee to interact with the Governments of neighbouring States and find solutions to the problems of Telugus living there.

He was not averse to the idea of pursuing the project of establishing Telugu chairs in universities across the globe.

The contribution of Telugus to the development of civilisations was remarkable.

For centuries, Telugus had built some of the finest traditions and contributed immensely to the literary field, he said, recalling the names of great poets and writers.

Palar issue

Touching briefly on the Palar dam controversy, he said a false campaign was launched by vested interests against the project taken up by his Government.

The construction of Palar dam, he said, was not against Tamil Nadu's interests.

Andhra Pradesh was well within its rights to go ahead with the project that was aimed at providing irrigation to just 5,000 acres in the region.

August gathering

Earlier, Dr. Reddy lit the traditional lamp to mark the beginning of the conference in the presence of Union Ministers E. V. K. S. Elangovan, T. Subbirami Reddy, Pallam Raju and P. Lakshmi and Andhra Pradesh Minister M. Budha Prasad, Puducherry Minister M. Krishna Rao, Karnataka Minister K. Subramanyam Naidu, Chairman of Apollo Hospitals group, Pratap C. Reddy, President of World Telugu Federation V. L. Indira Dutt, and film actors, Krishna, Vijaynirmala and Jayachitra.

Mr. Elangovan, praising the heritage of Telugus, said Tamils and Telugus were like twin races and both had high regard and respect for each other's languages and customs.

Noted poet and Jnanpith Awardee C. Narayana Reddy suggested to the Chief Minister to take up the issue of constituting the academy with his Tamil Nadu counterpart M. Karunanidhi.

Avula Manjulatha, Vice-Chancellor of the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, which is hosting the conference, appealed to the Chief Minister to help resolve the problems of Telugus by considering the university's suggestions to establish the academy.

Cultural programmes

The conference began on a colourful note with Saluri Vasu Rao and troupe presenting a `Sangeeta Lahari.'

Singers rendered classical Telugu songs that hail the greatness of Telugus and their culture. Kalaratna Deepika Reddy's Kuchipudi performance and Eluru's `Amukta Malyada,' a Kuchipudi dance ballet, were the other highlights.

Vankayala (V.S. N. Murthy) and his team presented a comedy skit.

S. P. Balasubramanyam, rendered the prarthana by singing `Maa Telugu Talliki,'

Courtesy: The Hindu