MK Stalin demands CM Palaniswami, DGP's resignation over anti-Sterlite violence

Talking to the media at the city airport before leaving for Thoothukudi where he consoled the families of victims and met the injured at the hospital, Stalin said the people of the town, who have been fighting for 100 days demanding the closure of the Sterlite factory, were shot dead like terrorists by policemen using weapons like AK-47.

On the death of 12 people during the police firing on Tuesday, Stalin accused the CM of neither making efforts to visit Thoothukudi nor to depute ministers from the region to restore peace. “Such an inefficient CM is in Tamil Nadu. It will be appropriate if the CM admits his failure and demit offices immediately,” said Stalin, who also pressed for the resignation of DGP T K Rajendran, already embroiled in the gutkha scam, for the police firing.

On Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar’s justification that police firing was inevitable, “A government which does not take preventive measures and increases security despite having prior knowledge of the rally would only make such utterances,” he said.