DMK propaganda secretary A. Raja on Monday alleged that the AIADMK government had misled the Madras High Court by suppressing the guidelines of the World Bank and using the phrase “close relationship” instead of “close business or family relationship” in the case relating to alleged corruption in the Highways Department.
Countering the State government’s argument that Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who holds the Highways portfolio, did not violate any guidelines or favour his close relatives in awarding contracts for various projects, Mr. Raja, addressing a press conference at the DMK headquarters, said the World Bank guidelines were clear that “any firm found to have conflict of interest shall be ineligible for award of contract.”
He also accused the Central government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of protecting Mr. Palaniswami and his cabinet colleagues, given the AIADMK government’s “sycophantic attitude” and “subservience” to the Centre.
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‘Follow my example’
Mr. Raja said the Chief Minister was targeting the DMK Ministers and talking about setting up special courts to prosecute them only to divert people’s attention from the rampant corruption in the AIADMK regime. “We had faced the Sarkaria Commission. If the Chief Minister has the guts, he should follow my example and face the cases against him. There was no case against me in the 2-G scam, yet I resigned and faced the CBI in the interrogation box for 14 days. In fact, we had not asked for the CBI inquiry (against the CM), but the court was prima facie satisfied with our case and ordered it,” he said.
Asked about former Minister C. Ponnaiyan’s claim that the amount paid for the road-laying contracts during the DMK rule was higher than what was being paid during the AIADMK regime, Mr. Raja said the cost would vary depending on the nature of the work.
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“Factors including the nature of the soil and the construction of bridges will decide the rate for the road work,” he said.