THEVARAM
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam were competing with each other in appeasing the Central government by granting permission to all its projects without minding their adverse effects on the environment and ignoring the sentiments and concerns of the people of Tamil Nadu, said Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran.
Addressing a protest meeting against India-based Neutrino Observatory project near Ambarappar hill near here on Sunday, he said they betrayed the people after the demise of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Mr. Panneerselvam betrayed the people who elected him in a bid to become the Chief Minister. He ignored the welfare of the people of his own constituency and tried to destroy the district for his personal gains.
The Centre should abandon the INO project immediately. Instead of implementing the anti-people project, it could divert the ₹1,600 crore allotted for the project to farmers’ welfare.
He said Mr. Panneerselvem had not met Jayalalithaa before he took him to her house. “But he claimed that he knew her before meeting me. He was just a town secretary then,” he said.
Jayalalithaa never allowed Centre’s anti-people projects during her tenure. She strongly opposed NEET and the Centre could not introduce it during her rule. Now, students and their parents had been facing untold misery. “We witnessed the death of a man in Ernakulam when he had gone there accompanying his son, a NEET candidate. All sections of people, especially farmers, students, transport workers, fishermen, government officials and industrialists, have lost peace of mind,” he noted.
“We would fight relentlessly against the INO project and also other projects like Sterlite Copper, methane and hydrocarbon extraction and NEET, that were affecting the environment and the people across the State,” he said.
Earlier, a rousing welcome was accorded to Mr. Dhinakaran in Bodi and at many villages on the way to Thevaram.
