CHENNAI: TNCC president B Manickam Tagore on Friday urged the State government to provide cars to panchayat presidents as well, in line with its recent announcement to provide vehicles to all MLAs.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, Tagore welcomed Chief Minister Vijay's announcement that the government would provide cars to all MLAs. He said it should also be extended to panchayat presidents, who are elected representatives working at the grassroots level. "Such a move would help to eradicate the corruption at the grassroots level," Tagore said.
Tagore also said that the Union government provides loans to MPs without cars to purchase vehicles, and suggested that similar consideration could be given to panchayat presidents, if giving them cars outright doesn't work out.
On the INDIA bloc, Tagore said the Congress had planned to organise town hall programmes in every major city in the State to demonstrate that the alliance remained intact.
He said the exit of three parties from the INDIA bloc in Tamil Nadu would not make any difference, as 23 parties continued to be part of the alliance across the country.
Taking a swipe at the DMK, Tagore said ideology could not be changed, but some parties had repeatedly changed their stance on delimitation.