CHENNAI: Senior AIADMK leader and former minister D Jayakumar on Tuesday criticised the DMK government for launching the ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ scheme, dismissing it as “Poygaludan Stalin’ (With Lies, Stalin). He questioned what happened to the petitions received ahead of the Assembly elections in 2021 and accused the DMK regime of insulting senior bureaucrats by appointing them as government spokespersons.

The Chief Minister, MK Stalin, only thinks about the people when elections are approaching, said Jayakumar and continued, “What happened to the petitions he collected from the public before the 2021 Assembly polls? He promised to open the complaint boxes and address people’s grievances once in power. What became of that promise—or has he lost the keys to those boxes?” . He said this while interacting with the journalists after paying tribute at the statue of former Chief Minister M Kamaraj on the latter’s birth anniversary.

He went on to question the rationale behind the newly launched ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ scheme, which was designed to collect petitions regarding 46 issues through special camps and address them within 45 days. “What have they been doing for the past four years? What happened to petitions collected in complaint boxes and his assurance that the public could come and meet him directly at the Secretariat? Has he even met the public once in these four years?”

Jayakumar also criticised the state government’s move to appoint four senior IAS officers as spokespersons to promote its schemes. “What are the ministers doing? Why can’t they reach out to the people themselves to promote the government’s initiatives?” he asked and said it sows the seeds of doubt whether the government has dismantled the DIPR. He further took a dig at the ruling DMK, calling it a government run by police and bureaucrats, thereby undermining the people’s democratic mandate.