State will be the first to follow if Centre implements prohibition in country: Minister

‘Since DMK cannot find fault with AIADMK govt., it has taken up the anti-liquor stand’

Natham R. Viswanathan, Minister for Electricity, addresses a public meeting in Vellore on Wednesday. Ministers P. Palaniappan, K.C. Veeramani and Mayor P. Karthiyayini are in the picture.— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government will take the lead and implement prohibition in Tamil Nadu if the Union government introduces it throughout the country.

“At least, if it is introduced in the neighbouring states, the Tamil Nadu government will immediately introduce it,” said Natham R. Viswanathan, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise.

Addressing a public meeting organised by the Vellore East and Vellore West district units of the AIADMK here on Wednesday night to explain the four-year achievements of the AIADMK government, Mr. Viswanathan said that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has taken up the cause of prohibition in order to find fault with the AIADMK government since it could not find any other fault in the four years of its rule in Tamil Nadu.

Pointing out that the DMK has no propriety to talk about prohibition he said that it was the DMK government which first lifted prohibition. Licences for liquor manufacturing units were given to former DMK Ministers and their family members only during the DMK regime, he said.

The Electricity Minister said that in the light of the fact that Tamil Nadu has not only become self-sufficient but also surplus in power, the DMK which was originally criticising the AIADMK government for the power cuts has now started criticising it for buying power at an exorbitant rate from private companies. Out of the power that is purchased from private companies, the AIADMK government was buying 97% of it at a low price, while only the remaining 3% is bought at a higher price to meet the shortage whenever there was a snag in the thermal units. This higher amount too was paid only to the National Thermal Power Corporation, he clarified.

P. Palaniappan, Minister for Higher Education, said during the four years of its rule, the AIADMK government had started 53 arts and science colleges, four engineering colleges and 11 polytechnic colleges in Tamil Nadu.

This has resulted in the percentage of students pursuing higher education going up from 18 per cent to 42.89 per cent, he said.

K.C. Veeramani, Minister for School Education, presided. N.G. Parthiban, Vellore East district AIADMK secretary, B. Senguttuvan, Vellore MP, P. Karthiyayini, Mayor of Vellore and MLAs V.S. Vijay, A. Mohammed Jhan, Govi. Sampath Kumar, KG. Ramesh, V.K.R. Srinivasan and M. Kalaiarasu participated.