AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday questioned the contradictory stand taken by Union Ministers belonging to the BJP in assailing her regime. She said while Union Minister >Prakash Javadekar had recently alleged that she was inaccessible as a Chief Minister, his senior Cabinet colleague >Venkaiah Naidu had told journalists in Coimbatore that he had no problems meeting her.
Addressing a massive election rally in support of party candidates from Cuddalore, Ariyalur and Perambalur districts at Virudhachalam here, Ms. Jayalalithaa, by pointing to this conflicting stand, sought to drive home the point that the allegation was politically motivated.
She devoted a part of her speech to counter Mr. Javadekar’s criticism of Tamil Nadu for not joining the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), a scheme to ease the debt burden of power distribution companies. DMK president M. Karunanidhi had also targeted her on this score.
According to Ms. Jayalalithaa, neither the State nor the people stood to benefit from the UDAY scheme.
On the contrary, only private power producers and banks that gave them loans would benefit.
The scheme envisaged a hike in power tariff every three months and wondered how it could be called people-friendly.
