Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, submitting a memorandum seeking the release of central funds under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme and approval for Phase-II of the Chennai Metro Rail Project under a 50:50 equity-sharing model.

In the meeting, which lasted around 40 minutes, Stalin also requested a permanent solution to safeguard the traditional fishing rights of Indian fishermen and called for the expedited release of apprehended fishermen and their boats.

“It was a pleasure to meet with PM Modi. He also expressed his happiness to us. It is now in his hands to turn this positive meeting into something fruitful,” Stalin said.

The Chief Minister emphasized that three key requests were presented to the Prime Minister through the detailed memorandum.

“One of the main points discussed was the second phase of the Chennai Metro Rail Project. Like the first phase, which was jointly implemented by the Union and State governments, we believe the second phase should follow the same model. The Union Finance Minister had announced in the 2021-22 budget that funds would be allocated for this project, and the Union Government gave approval in 2022. However, despite spending Rs 18,564 crore on the works so far, we are still waiting for funds from the Union Government, which has delayed the project. I requested PM Modi to address this issue promptly.”

Stalin said, “The Tamil Nadu government has already implemented some good suggestions from the NEP. The Tamil Nadu government is also implementing schemes like free breakfast, which are not implemented in other states. But Tamil Nadu is not accepting to follow the three-language policy, which is on national education policy. Even though NEP assured there wouldn’t be language imposition on any states, it was not clear on the MoU. So we have been saying to make changes in MoU. We also listed out the issues faced by Tamil fishermen.”

(ANI)