Centre’s step-motherly treatment denies TN Mero permission: Nehru

TIRUCHY: The Union government is giving a step-motherly treatment to the non-BJP ruled states and thus they refused permission for the Metro Rail projects to Madurai and Coimbatore, said the minister KN Nehru here on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Cooperative Week Celebration in Tiruchy, the minister Nehru said, the late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had spearheaded the compulsory cooperative societies in every government organisation through which he encouraged loan facilities with the rate of interest of just 7 per cent, and Karunanidhi waived off crop loans worth Rs 7,500 crore.

“Now, every organisation has such a facility and the societies have been disbursing the crop loans to the farmers and the government bears the interest of the loan to the farmers who promptly repay the loans,” he said.

Stating that more than 40,000 cooperative societies are functioning in Tamil Nadu, the minister said that there were complaints about the irregularities in certain societies and actions have been initiated at once.

Meanwhile, Nehru blamed the Union government for showing step-motherly treatment to Tamil Nadu and the non-BJP-ruled states. He said that the Union government had denied permission for the Metro Rail project for Madurai and Coimbatore because Tamil Nadu is a non-BJP-ruled state.

“The government cites the population of 20 lakh as the eligibility criteria for the project, but the same criteria have not been followed in the BJP-ruled states,” Nehru charged.

In the meantime, Nehru assured that the new bus stand in Srirangam would soon be inaugurated as the works are on a fast track.