DMK govt blaming AIADMK regime to cover up their failures: SP Velumani

CHENNAI: Former minister and AIADMK headquarters secretary S P Velumani on Tuesday said the DMK government is blaming the previous AIADMK regime for covering up its poor water management that was exposed during the cyclonic storm Michaung.

He also charged that the present dispensation had "intentionally" created power outages for four days to prevent news on the flood in social media and other mediums of communication.

Taking a hit at chief minister M K Stalin and health minister Ma Subramanian, the former minister for municipal administration said that they had been the Mayor of the Chennai Corporation during the previous DMK regime and wondered what they had done to improve the infrastructure in the city during their term as Mayors?

"Except for wasting the tax money collected from the people by touring to foreign countries under the guise of transforming Chennai into Singara Chennai, he (Stalin) did nothing," said Velumani in reference to the DMK leader's pet project Singara Chennai when he was the Mayor of the Chennai Corporation.

Listing out the natural calamities in the 10 years regime of the AIADMK, starting from Cyclone Thane in 2011 to Cyclone Burvei 2020, the AIADMK led government had faced seven natural calamities and handled the situation better.

They had also taken care of the people at the time of natural calamities and acted immediately to restore normalcy, he said and criticised the DMK government had failed in taking necessary measures pre and post cyclone, leaving the people in tough situation. They had also closed the Amma Canteens that fed the affected people during such calamities.

Unlike cyclone Vardah that uprooted around 6 lakh trees and brought down 25,000 electric poles in Chennai city, there was not much damage during Michaung, Velumani said and wondered why there was power outage for four days after cyclone Michaung? He claimed that it was a "premeditated move" by the TN government to control the flow of information on the cyclone and its impact on social media and other mediums of communication and held minister Thangam Thenarasu responsible for the suffering of the people without power connections after the cyclone.

He demanded the government to follow the footsteps of the previous AIADMK regime in carrying out relief works and constructive approach to restore normalcy in Chennai and neighbouring districts at the earliest.