The State government on Friday informed the Madras High Court that it shall take action on the basis of a representation made by Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) to the Governor on February 17, 2015, levelling as many as 18 serious allegations of corruption against the then All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime in granite mining, beach sand mining, river sand mining, purchase of electricity, liquor sales and so on.
Appearing before Justice R. Mahadevan, who was seized of a 2015 writ petition filed by PMK president G.K. Mani, Advocate General R. Shunmughasundaram said the Governor had forwarded PMK’s representation to the State government and called for remarks. Thereafter, copies of the representation were sent to the relevant government departments for verification and ascertaining their stand on the allegations levelled by the party, he said.
“The present government is following up the issue and necessary action will be taken in accordance with law,” the A-G asserted. Convinced with his submissions, the judge recorded them and closed the writ petition that had sought for a direction to the Governor’s secretariat to dispose of the representation made by the party. The litigant had also sought an interim direction to disclose the action taken on the basis of the representation.
In an affidavit filed in support of his case, Mr. Mani said IAS officer U. Sagayam had estimated the granite mining mafia in Madurai to have caused a loss of around ₹5 lakh crore to the public exchequer through illegal mining. Similarly, the estimated loss due to illegal beach sand mining in Thoothukudi district was to the tune of ₹1 lakh crore and there was corruption to the tune of ₹15,000 crore in river sand mining in the State.
“The political party namely AIADMK under the leadership of tainted Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has not even left out the power sector,” the petitioner said and alleged that the government was purchasing power from third parties at the rate of ₹15.14 per unit though it was available for ₹2.94 to ₹ 3.85 per unit. Thus, 798 million units were purchased for ₹1,208 crore and thereby a sum of ₹900 crore was looted, he claimed.
The PMK president went on to state that corruption was all pervasive in the AIADMK government and that the government had not spared even purchase of eggs for providing nutritious meal to school students and had indulged in adulteration of milk too.
“The government of Tamil Nadu has shamelessly taken over business of selling liquor,” he said and alleged that ruling party functionaries were running the bars and selling spurious liquor over there.
