DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Monday accused Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami of uttering “a Himalayan lie” on the infrastructure development in the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.
In a statement here, he said the Chief Minister had spoken in detail about ‘Vision 2023’ and made a big claim on infrastructure development even though the government had not done anything so far.
“There is no drinking water in Tamil Nadu. It lacks road facilities. Instead of closing the Tasmac retail liquor shops on the national highways, the government is classifying them as corporation and municipal roads. Now, the Chief Minister is talking about creating world-class infrastructure facility without any shame,” he alleged.Mr. Stalin said the Chief Minister also failed to take up with the Prime Minister the demand of farmers for waiving of agriculture loans and cancellations of the hydrocarbon project.
“Tamil Nadu has plunged into a ₹5 lakh-crore debt. But he has not raised the issue to find a way to overcome the crisis. He also failed to raise the issue of neighbouring States constructing dams on inter-State rivers,” he alleged.
Edappadi hits back
Joining issue with DMK leader M.K. Stalin, who had accused the Tamil Nadu government of failing to utilise the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi to highlight the State’s needs, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday insisted that he had apprised the Centre of a wide range of issues facing the State.
Mr. Palaniswami said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “immense respect” for Tamil Nadu and the Tamil language, which was evident from the speech he made during the NITI Aayog meeting.
As for the DMK leader’s allegation that the Chief Minister had failed to raise the issue of the fiscal burden on Tamil Nadu with the Central government, Mr. Palaniswami said that such issues were not on the agenda of the meeting.
Adverting to the AIADMK government’s ‘Vision 2023’ strategy, Mr. Palaniswami said that work on 85 projects has begun and 17 projects have reached the tender stage.
While Detailed Project Reports and Detailed Feasibility Studies have been prepared for 26 projects, 89 other projects were in various stages of planning, he said.
Contending that he had made it clear that his government won’t allow any project that adversely affects farmers, the Chief Minister added that he had highlighted other issues such as the Avinashi-Athikadavu scheme, Thamirabharani-Nambiyar scheme, NEET and Arasu Cable TV among others during the meeting.
