People’s rep or Centre’s agent: PMK

In a statement on Sunday, PMK founder S Ramadoss said that the Chief Minister has clarified that the Chennai-Salem Green Corridor Expressway is a Union government project and the duty of the state government is only to acquire lands. “Even though his comment is a fact, the Chief Minister’s profound interest to deprive the livelihood of people, for the sake of Centre’s detrimental project, is highly condemnable,” he said.

Recalling that Palaniswami in the Assembly agitatedly spoke that the Chennai-Salem highway project will be executed at any cost, Ramadoss wondered, “The same CM has said that state has no role except land acquisition. Perhaps, the stiff opposition from public might have made him to change his mind. We welcome such change.” Although it is a Central project, “The Chief Minister should have approached from people’s perspective. This expensive project will serve only private companies. The government should have decided to take up this project after taking various ecological issues into consideration like Kerala and Maharashtra,” Ramadoss said.

Stating that Chief Minister reasoned that this project was to be executed as volume of vehicles were on the rise on the existing Chennai-Salem routes and this led to more road accidents, the PMK leader termed the CM’s reason as ridiculous and pointed out to the presence of TASMAC shops on the highways which it said were reopened by the CM.