Both the ruling AIADMK and the principal opposition party DMK sought to claim credit for establishing a medical college in Pudukkottai during the Assembly session on Tuesday.
When the issue of prevention of DMK legislators from attending a recent event in which the Chief Minister took part was raised during question hour in the House, Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar said that although the DMK members had been invited to the event, they were prevented from taking part by the police on the basis of intelligence inputs that they were planning to show black flags to the Chief Minister. He then credited the AIADMK with setting up a medical college in Pudukkottai.
When the Leader of the Opposition, M.K. Stalin, objected to his claim, saying the foundation stone for the college was laid during the DMK regime in 2011, the Minister retorted: “Issuing a G.O. alone is not sufficient for laying the foundation stone. Not even a single Rupee was allocated for the project [during the DMK regime].”
However, Mr. Stalin reiterated his claim, and said it was not appropriate for the government to have prevented the DMK members from attending the event in question. The Chair then declared that debates like this will not be allowed during question hour in the future.
In a separate confrontation, DMK member Duraimurugan made some remarks criticising the functioning of the government, which were expunged by the Chair. But later, when Leader of the House K.A. Sengottaiyan made remarks praising the Edappadi K. Palaniswami-led government, the DMK insisted that the Chair either kept or expunged both the members’ comments.
When the CM intervened, Mr. Stalin and Mr. Duraimurugan objected to his remark and asserted that they had the right to criticise the government.
