Modi yet to respond to letter seeking audience on CMB formation: EPS

Talking to the media in Salem on Sunday, Palaniswami said that a letter was sent to Modi seeking an appointment, but a reply is yet to come. 

His reply was in sharp contrast to his usual all-praise Modi avatar and was his first open remark about Modi not responding to his letter for an appointment. Last month, though Stalin had said that Palaniswami had spoken to him about Modi declining to meet the all-party delegation, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar had contradicted it saying the PMO had not denied an audience. 

Palaniswami said that he had urged the Centre to form CMB before May 3, the deadline set by the Supreme Court. He was speaking to the media after laying the foundation stone for the construction of ‘manimandapam’ for former Chief Ministers MGR and Jayalalithaa at the Anna Park campus in Salem on Sunday. The memorial, proposed at a cost of Rs 80 lakh on an area of about 2,100 sq ft, will have two life-sized bronze statues of MGR and Jayalalithaa at the entrance. 

The decision to build a memorial had been announced by Palaniswami during the MGR centenary celebrations in September last year. The Chief Minister was given a rousing welcome by AIADMK workers.

As many as 2,000 police personnel brought the entire Marina stretch and Walajah road under thick security blanket on Sunday to ensure that the protest called by 25 outfits led by Tamizhar Vazhvurimai Katchi leader T Velmurugan demanding CMB formation passed off without violence. However, the turnout was a meagre 750, much lower than a figure that police had anticipated.