Talk Central subjects in LS, don’t waste House time, says CM to Oppn

“Central subjects (NEET, CAA and revised loan interest to farmers by nationalised banks) should be raised by the DMK MPs in Parliament. The public have voted for DMK MPs and the party should raise these subjects in Parliament, but the DMK consumes the state Assembly’s time,” the Chief Minister noted.

Earlier, DMK legislator Mano Thangaraj, speaking on the debate, wanted the government to follow neighbouring Kerala and adopt a resolution against the CAA. However, this demand was rejected by SpeakerP Dhanapal.

Similarly, the ruling AIADMK and the Opposition DMK also locked horns over the dual citizenship to Sri Lankan Tamils. To this, Chief Minister Palaniswami said that the issue was under the domain of the Centre and not the state. Earlier in the day, DMK member and former minister Thangam Thennarasu moved a breach of privilege against the Minister for Tamil culture K Pandiarajan for misleading the state Assembly on the issue. However, the Speaker after the Minister’s detailed reply ruled that there was no breach of privilege. Thennarasu demanded action against the state Minister and said that the Minister has misled the House that the state government would get dual citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamils living in TN refugee camps.

“This is a Central subject and the dual citizenship cannot be entertained by the state. The Centre said it was not legally possible, but the Minister has interpreted the same,” Thennarasu charged demanding action.. To this, Pandiarajan gave a detailed reply after which the Speaker gave his verdict. Upset with Speaker’s verdict, DMK MLAs led by Duraimurugan staged a walkout.

The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission scam, which had been grabbing headlines recently, witnessed more twists on Tuesday with the Minister for Personnel and Administrative Reforms D Jayakumar naming a few DMK ministers and opposition MLAs in the recruitment scam.

“DMK MLAs KN Nehru, former MLA Anthiyur Selvaraj and late DMK strongman Veerapandi Arumugam have given recommendation letters to TNPSC chairman seeking job appointments during 2006 -2011,” Jayakumar said.During the previous DMK government, the DVAC had conducted searches at the house of a former TNPSC chairman Sellamuthu and recovered the recommendation letters issued by the then DMK MLAs, Jayakumartold reporters.

“The matter is pending before the court and the case is likely to come up in March. Soon the DMK members involved in the scam will be behind the bars,” Jayakumar said. I wanted to raise the issue in the Assembly, but the DMK members disrupted my speech, he added.

When asked why the Minister was silent all these years and was now naming the DMK MLAs dating back to 2010, Jayakumar justified his silence all these years to the matter pending before the court. “Even now I am not going into the merits of the case, but as the TNPSC scams have broken. It is my responsibility to explain about those who have misused their offices by robing the job opportunities of youngsters,” he said.

Jayakumar also listed out the actions taken by the CB-CID in connection with the current TNPSC cases and emphasised that more than 40 people involved in the scam have been arrested till date.

It may be noted that for the second consecutive day, TNPSC scam rocked the Assembly withboth AIADMK and DMK trading charges against each other.