CHENNAI: Senior AIADMK leader SP Velumani on Monday criticised the DMK government for limiting the forthcoming Assembly session to just two days, December 9 and 10, despite their demand to convene it for 10 days.
The former AIADMK minister said it was a "disappointing" move as it would not allow MLAs enough time to raise issues, including flood and rain-related ones, affecting the people in their respective constituencies.
"The DMK had said it would hold 100 days of Assembly sessions each year as part of their election promises. But I doubt whether they have conducted 100 days of sessions after they came to power. They concluded the last budget session in just nine days," said Velumani after attending the Business Advisory Committee meeting chaired by Speaker M Appavu at the Secretariat. Velumani was accompanied by party Deputy Leader of Opposition R B Udhayakumar.
AIADMK General Secretary and Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami insisted on conducting the session for at least 10 days. They presented their leader's demand and urged the Speaker to consider it. However, their request was not taken into consideration, the AIADMK leader said. This limited session would prevent MLAs from bringing the people's issues to the floor, he added. "It is unfortunate," he said.
Velumani charged that neither the Speaker allowed members to speak nor were the Assembly sessions conducted for an adequate number of days.
On the property tax hike, the former minister explained that during his tenure as Minister for Municipal Administration, the tax burden wasn't increased for the public for 10 years of the AIADMK regime. However, the present dispensation has increased the taxes by 100% to 150%, he said.
"There was pressure to hike taxes during our regime, but we approached the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions and successfully negotiated against tax increases to protect the people from a financial burden," said Velumani. He added that there is no need to agree to whatever the Centre says regarding taxes.