High level team to meet locals to elicit views: Karunanidhi

Chennai, July 31 (UNI) Asserting that there was no need to convene an all-party meeting on the Titanium di-oxide plant issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said a high-level team would be constituted to meet the local people in this regard.

The team would be headed by a senior minister and would comprise senior government officials, he told newspersons at the Secretariat here.

The team would visit the southern districts and hold talks with the locals and the people's representatives and communicate it to the government, he added.

To a question, Mr Karunanidhi said there was no need to convene an all-party meeting on the issue and said it was a routine administrative work.

Mr Karunanidhi's announcement to constitute a high-level team comes a day after he put on hold the Rs 2,500 crore project to be set up by TATA at Sathankulam in Tuticorin district, due to opposition from the AIADMK and the coalition partners of the DMK-led DPA.

On the raids conducted on private engineering colleges across the state, Mr Karunanidhi warned of continuous action, if the college managements remained adamant in collecting fees more than the amount prescribed by the government.

''If the self-financing colleges continue to levy excess fee and charge capitation fees against the government policy, the action will continue,'' he added.

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