Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K.S. Alagiri on Friday said the Centre had let down Tamil Nadu by denying payout of its compensation dues under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Talking to reporters here after paying homage to the statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 77th birth anniversary in Chidambaram, he said that normally special packages would be given to States to ensure that they did not suffer any financial setback. Even if the Centre had not sanctioned any special package for Tamil Nadu, it should have at least released the compensation due to the State under the GST regime. The State was now facing an economic crisis due to the negative approach by the Union government in meeting the requirements of Tamil Nadu, he said.
Complimenting Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on implementing pioneering programmes in the first 100 days of office, Mr. Alagiri said the reduction on Value Added Tax on petrol by ₹3 was a historic achievement. What Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not do in the last seven years had been accomplished by Mr. Stalin, he said. Replying to a question, Mr. Alagiri denied that the DMK government had foisted false cases on the AIADMK in the Kodanad heist-cum-murder. It was for the person facing the charge to prove himself innocent at the end of the probe, he said.
The State’s decision to appoint trained ‘archakas’ of all castes at temples managed by the Department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments was a step in the right direction and was aimed at social justice, he said. This had been enshrined in the Constitution and envisaged by stalwarts and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he added.
