Jaya boycotts function; demands naming of terminal after MGR

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Upset over the Centre not naming the second domestic terminal of the airport here after AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran, chief minister Jayalalithaa today boycotted the inauguration of the new domestic and international terminals by vice president M. Hamid Ansari.

She said the people of the state and she herself were grieved that the Centre had not made an announcement in this regard prior to the inauguration, also attended by civil aviation minister Ajit Singh.

She recalled she had written to Singh making such a demand earlier, adding, she had accepted his invitation to attend today’s event. No such announcement had been made even as Ansari had arrived here to inaugurate the facilities, she said.

“As per protocol I received the vice president at the airport. But since there has been no favourable response to my demand for naming domestic terminal-2 after MGR, which has deeply grieved people of Tamil Nadu and me, I inform with great regret that I didn’t take part in the inauguration,” she said in an official statement here.

“I insist that Centre should name the airport after MGR respecting people’s sentiments,” she said. MGR, she noted, had reigned in the hearts of Tamil people and the naming of the terminal after him would have been welcomed by people, she said.