Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu said on Wednesday that it was the AIADMK government that had appropriated the schemes of the DMK government.
Reacting to former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s contention that the DMK government had appropriated the AIADMK’s schemes, he said the AIADMK government started the culture of appropriation by affixing stickers on former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s name and Thiruvalluvar’s image in school textbooks prepared under the common syllabus.
“When volunteers and NGOs distributed relief items to areas affected by Cyclone Gaja, the AIADMK government affixed its sticker on the bags. Mr. Palaniswami has conveniently forgotten what his government had done,” Mr. Thennarasu told reporters.
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‘Pictures avoided’
He pointed out that the DMK government had avoided the pictures of the Chief Minister on the Pongal gift hamper and other gifts given to people. Even the Hogenakkal combined drinking water project was launched by Karunanidhi at a cost of ₹1,928 crore in 2008 and the then Local Administration Minister, M.K. Stalin, completed 95% of the work after securing funds from Japan, but the AIADMK government inaugurated it in 2013 as if it had conceived it.
“Likewise, the AIADMK government inaugurated the bus terminus at Koyambedu, which was planned by the DMK government. It converted the new Secretariat building into a hospital and named it Omandurar hospital. Our Chief Minister announced 10 arts and sciences colleges in 2011 and orders were issued for their establishment. But the AIADMK government inaugurated the colleges as if they had been started by it,” he said.
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‘Faith in CM’
Mr. Thennarasu said the Foxconn unit at Sriperumbudur was reopened after the Chief Minister’s suggestions were implemented. “This shows the workers’ faith, especially the women workers’ faith, in our Chief Minister. He is particular about the safety of women workers, and was directly involved in resolving the problem,” he said.