CHENNAI: BJP Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinivasan on Tuesday slammed the ruling DMK dispensation allegedly for stalling the railway projects in Tamil Nadu and said development should not suffer due to state-level delays.
The Coimbatore South MLA alleged delay in land acquisition and said people deserved faster delivery of schemes.
Her response came in the wake of Chief Minister M K Stalin accusing the Centre, a couple of days ago, that it denied Tamil Nadu its due railway projects in the Union Budget, and then shifted the blame on the state for the delay.
In a social media post, Srinivasan said "despite the Central Government allocating Rs 7,611 crore for railway projects in Tamil Nadu since 2014, progress is being stalled due to the DMK government's slow land acquisition."
Only 1,052 of 4,326 required hectares were acquired so far. "Development should not suffer due to state-level delays. People deserve faster delivery," she added.
Accusing the state government of not cooperating with regard to railway projects, she said the allocation made for Tamil Nadu railway projects in the coming financial year was an increase of 8.5 per cent compared to that in 2014.
Tamil Nadu government has acquired only 24 per cent of the land for the railway projects underway in the state and only 1,052 hectares of land has been provided for railway projects though 4,326 hectares were required.
The Centre disbursed Rs 1,465 crore to the Tamil Nadu Government for land acquisition alone, Srinivasan said and added that the reason why railway projects were not being implemented in Tamil Nadu was because the state government had not acquired the land required for the projects.
She pointed out that Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had responded to the Chief Minister's charges by clarifying the actual position.