By not mentioning the Mekedatu dam issue in their election manifestos, both the Congress and the BJP have cheated the people of Tamil Nadu, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said on Friday.
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During a road show in the city seeking votes for the party’s Salem candidate P. Vignesh, he said the Congress government in Karnataka had said it would construct the dam. “If the dam is constructed, people of Tamil Nadu will have no water for drinking while farmlands would turn into a desert,” he said, adding that the DMK government was not worried about it. He said the Cauvery river is the lifeline of the people of the State, and both national parties have refused to pay attention to the issue and called, “wilful neglect”.
Mr. Palaniswami said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Union Government Ministers are yet to give out statements that as per the Supreme Court’s order, the dam cannot be constructed. “Even Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has not spoken on the issue so far,” he said, and recalled how AIADMK MPs disrupted proceedings in the Parliament for 22 days to implement the Cauvery order.
He said the DMK had cheated government employees by failing to implement the old pension scheme despite continued protests, and recalled that the AIADMK government had paid full salaries to government employees during the COVID-19 pandemic when neighbouring states reduced the salaries.
Mr. Palaniswami also accused the Centre of dividing people based on caste and religion and said the AIADMK will not accept it. He blamed both the Central and the State governments for failing to keep the price of essential commodities under control and said, “both are running anti-people governments.”