Lashing out at the Jayalalithaa-led State government for the “deteriorating law and order situation in Tamil Nadu,” DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin has urged voters, battling a range of problems owing to poor administration, should teach her a fitting lesson in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Continuing the election campaign at the Tenkasi (Reserved) constituency in the district on Sunday in support of K. Krishnasamy, who is the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance candidate and Puthiya Thamizhagam president, Mr. Stalin said the State Crime Record Bureau itself had admitted that crime rate had increased in Tamil Nadu.
At Melagaram near Courtallam, where Mr. Stalin started his electioneering at 3.25 p.m., he said Tirunelveli district had recorded 1,139 crimes during 2013, including 46 robberies and burglaries, 88 murders, 66 cases of illicit sand quarrying and 77 cases of bomb explosions. He said the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and construction materials had made the life of common man miserable and dashed the hopes of constructing even modest houses.
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Mocking Ms. Jayalalithaa’s style of electioneering, who arrives at the venue in the helicopter after reaching the nearby airport by a chartered flight from Chennai, Mr. Stalin said he travelled by road to meet the electorate.
As he reached the Muslim-dominated Kadayanallur, represented by P. Chendur Pandian, Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Mr. Stalin said the DMK, which was the only saviour of minorities, had extended 3.5 per cent reservation to the community in education and employment opportunities even as Ms. Jayalalithaa continues to reiterate during her electioneering that it had happened only because of her initiative taken in 2006 by sending a proposal in this connection to the State Backward Classes Welfare Commission.