Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M.K.Stalin has said the Centre is dividing States and the State government is dividing districts.
Speaking at Tharamangalam after unvieling former Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi’s statue, he said, “We are not against bifurcation of districts but it must be done according to the wishes of the people.”
Talking about the relief work following the recent floods in Nilgiris, Mr. Stalin said, “I visited Nilgiris realising my responsibility as Opposition leader, and announced a relief package of ₹10 crore, utilising the constituency development funds of MPs and MLAs. But Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami says I went there for publicity. Do I still need publicity?” he asked.
Challenging Mr. Palaniswami, Mr. Stalin said, “Let us both visit a village without any guards and let’s see whom the villagers identify.”
Talking about the recent victory of the party in the Vellore Parliamentary election, Mr. Stalin said the AIADMK and many sections of the media weren’t yet ready to accept the DMK’s victory. “If we are to go by majority, then at least 20 MLAs of the ruling party, including Ministers, won by a margin of less than 4,000 votes”, he said. He added that there were many who question what he has done during the past one year as DMK president and his reply was that the majority of the AIADMK in the House was reduced by 10 seats. “In 2016, when Jayalalithaa came to power, the AIADMK won 133 seats. In 2019, their majority has been reduced to 123 seats, while the DMK has increased its representatives from 89 to 100.”
Foreign trip
Criticising the CM’s foreign trip, Mr. Stalin said, “Global Investors Meet was conducted by Jayalalithaa in 2015 and they announced that the State would be receiving investments to the tune of ₹2.42 lakh crore. We demanded the government then to table a White Paper regarding the investments and what percentage had been realised. Even Mr. Palaniswami conducted a global summit and announced that agreements had been signed for investments for ₹5 lakh, but even they are not ready to reveal the details.” He added that besides this, the AIADMK government made several announcements under Rule 110 and during the MGR Centenary celebrations held across the State, but none of the projects was implemented.
Talking about the Salem steel plant, Mr. Stalin said the State government was not ready to pass a resolution against its privatisation. “As Chief Minister,he [Palaniswami] should have sent Ministers or met the Prime Minister in person and discussed the issue. But without doing that he is planning to travel abroad to attract investments and this is shameful.”
Later, addressing the Dravidar Kazhagam’s 75th anniversary event, he said, “Periyar had said he faced severe ailments at the age of 90, but he made the most of his travel at that age. Hence, Anna called him a legend.”
On the Kashmir issue, Mr. Stalin said, “We protested since it [revocation of special status] was undemocratic, and we were called anti-nationals. We are agents of democracy.” He said the economy was in bad shape and the Centre was using the Kashmir issue to hide it.
