All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Jayalalithaa will lead a party demonstration in Madurai on October 18 to highlight a slew of issues, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government's failure on the Mullaperiyar dam front and rising prices of essential commodities.
In a statement on Friday, Ms. Jayalalithaa complained that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who was startled by the response to her demonstrations in Coimbatore and Tiruchi, was trying to create hurdles for the Madurai demonstration.
Referring to the receipt of threat letters warning her against the Madurai visit, Ms. Jayalalithaa said she would not be cowed down by such actions.
On the Mullaperiyar dam issue, the AIADMK leader contended that the issue got deflected after the DMK regime took over in May 2006. The Supreme Court's order in February 2006, allowing water level to be raised from 136 ft to 142 ft initially, was sought to be nullified by a law adopted by Kerala.
The AIADMK government had moved court, challenging the validity of the law. Subsequently, Kerala government had pursued the demand for a new dam. It had also obtained the Centre's permission for survey.
On power shortage, Ms. Jayalalithaa said poor maintenance of stations, transformers of inadequate capacity, inferior quality of coal and power lines and the failure to secure the State's rights from the Centre were the major reasons. Wrong economic policies of the Centre and the State government had led to the steep rise in prices of essential commodities, the AIADMK leader said.
