Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday accused the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of spreading lies regarding the death of engineer K. Raghupathy in a road accident here on November 24 and using that to sabotage the MGR centenary celebration.
Addressing the MGR centenary celebration here, he said the DMK’s working president M.K. Stalin was spreading lies by claiming that the engineer had hit a pole protruding from an arch erected by the AIADMK in violation of rules near the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on Avinashi Road. This was not the case. “There was no connection between the unfortunate death of Raghu and the arch as evident from the footage from the closed circuit television camera,” he claimed. The State Government would submit the footage to the court.
The DMK would do well to remember how it had erected arches across the city on the eve of World Classical Tamil Conference in June 2010, he said, and referred to images that were beamed on a gigantic screen behind him.
It was a function the DMK had organised for its first family to enjoy at the State Government’s expense, Mr. Palaniswami alleged. But the MGR centenary celebration was not so. It was a function meant to launch schemes for the welfare of the people and projects aimed at Coimbatore’s development, he claimed.
Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani also took potshots at the DMK saying it could not digest the fact that the MGR centenary celebrations were drawing huge crowds.
The DMK would also do well to recall the atrocities that took place under its regime, like the attack on the office of Tamil daily Dinakaran in Madurai, he added.
R.K. Nagar bypoll
On the R.K. Nagar byelection, the Chief Minister said the opposition’s verbal jugglery would not cut ice with the voters. The Election Commission’s order on the ‘two leaves’ symbol was the first punishment the opposition had got. Next punishment would be from Jayalalithaa and the God by way of defeat in the bypoll.
He appealed to the party cadre to work hard for the AIADMK’s victory in the R.K. Nagar Assembly seat and dedicate it to the memory of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, whose death had led to the vacancy in the constituency.
Regarding the State Government’s flood relief measures, he said a team of Ministers led by Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam was supervising the operations. Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar was coordinating the rescue of fisherman.
He had spoken to the Prime Minister and Home Minister, and following that, the Centre had pressed into service 15 ships, four aircraft and as many helicopters to locate the missing fishermen.
The government would leave no stone unturned to bring home the fishermen.
