Members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) staged a protest here on Friday against the increase in electricity tariff by the State government.
Led by former Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani, the protest saw the participation of AIADMK MLAs Amman K. Arjunan, P.R.G. Arunkumar, K.R. Jayaraman, S. Damodaran, V.P. Kandasamy, A.K. Selvaraj and T.K. Amul Kandasamy. The party workers held placards and raised slogans against Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and the ruling DMK government.
Mr. Velumani said that within 15 months of coming to power the DMK had increased the property tax, water tax, and electricity tariff. He demanded immediate withdrawal of the increase.
“The DMK-government led by Mr. Stalin is carrying out schemes just for publicity, without any intention to do good for the people,” alleged Mr. Velumani.
“The raids conducted at my house were a political vendetta,” he said. He also alleged that senior State government officials were plotting such raids on the premises of all AIADMK leaders.
Mr. Velumani alleged that the police misbehaved with the elected representatives and women workers during the raids.
The party will win all the 39 Parliamentary constituencies in the State and more than 200 Assembly seats even if the election happens today, Mr. Velumani claimed.
Tiruppur
In Tiruppur, the protest near Kumaran statue was led by Pollachi MLA V. Jayaraman.
Mr. Jayaraman told The Hindu that many small-scale industries would suffer because of the increase. “In 2010, during the tenure of the DMK government, small-scale industries left Tiruppur because of rampant power cut. Only the AIADMK government restored the seamless power supply to the industries,” he said.
Tiruppur always faced difficulties during the DMK government, alleged Mr. Jayaraman demanding to withdraw the increase in electricity tariff.
In Madathukulam and Udumalpet, the protests were led by MLAs C. Mahendran and Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan respectively.
