Non-resident Tamil youth visit Tirunelveli under ‘Vaerkalai Thaedi’ programme

Tamil Nadu welcomes non-resident Tamils to explore cultural heritage, strengthening ties with global Tamil community.

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M. Appavu and District Collector K.P. Karthikeyan welcomed a group of 38 non-resident Tamils from nine countries here on Thursday, who are visiting culturally important places of the State under the ‘Vaerkalai Thaedi’ programme.

The scheme, which was introduced two years ago with the objective of renewing the non-resident Tamils cultural ties with Tamil Nadu, has so far attracted two teams of 157 people and the third group is now touring Tamil Nadu. As the team landed here, they were taken to Swami Nellaiyappar Temple and VOC Memorial.

Mr. Appavu, Dr. Karthikeyan and Mayor G. Ramakrishnan interacted with the young guests.

The Speaker said the Tamil Nadu Government was keen on renewing the cultural links with the Tamils living across the globe even while creating a ministry for taking care of the welfare of non-resident Tamils whenever they were in distress. In a recent effort, a team of Idinthakarai fishermen, who were detained by the Bahrain authorities for allegedly entering their territorial waters even as they were fishing in an Iranian trawler, were rescued by holding talks with the Bahrain officials.

The visits under the ‘Vaerkalai Thaedi’ programme would enable the Tamil youth from other countries to understand the cultural richness of their ‘motherland’, ancient temples, the freedom fighters of Tamil Nadu etc. After 157 people visited the State in two phases, the third team is touring the State.

“Of the 28 Sahitya Akademic winners from Tamil Nadu, 20 are from the composite Tirunelveli district that comprised Thoothukudi and Tenkasi districts. It shows the cultural richness of this region. Having realised the richness of Tamil, the governments of Singapore, Sri Lanka, Canada and Mauritius have approved it as their ‘official language’ while countries like Malaysia have recognised Tamil as ‘second language’. Hence, the Tamils across the globe should speak in Tamil in their home so as take the language to the generations to come. The young visitors should tell their friends about the cultural richness of Tamil Nadu and the ancientness of Tamil and encourage them to visit Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Appavu said.

The team will also visit Madurai, Sivaganga, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Chengelpet and Puducherry.