Stalin indulging in 'vendetta' for political gains: O Panneerselvam

Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Friday lashed out at DMK chief M K Stalin for attempting to fault the AIADMK government on the issue of obtaining central funds and said the Leader of Opposition was indulging in "vendetta" for political gains.

"At a time when the Amma government is focussed on fighting the dreaded Coronavirus and involving in measures aimed at saving lives, Stalin is indulging in vendetta seeking political gains," Panneerselvam said and claimed that the DMK leader was "unable to digest" the growing popularity of the AIADMK government.

"The Governor had already explained the states fiscal position with regard to obtaining funds from the Centre and I had not only mentioned about it in my Budget speech but also replied in detail in the (state) Assembly.

And Stalin goes about saying that the state government had received only Rs1,928 crore.

But, this sum in fact is the first installment of a total of Rs 32,849 crore allotted to Tamil Nadu by the 15th Finance Commission," Panneerselvam said in a statement.

A total of Rs 32,849 crore would be received by the state from the central government as part of the tax devolution during 2020-21 fiscal and the Rs 1,928 crore which was received recently was only the first installment.

There would be another 13 installments which the state would receive the total amount.

"This has been possibly only due to the efforts of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who while visiting New Delhi, raised the issue with the 15th Finance Commission.

He asked the commission to consider 1971 population as its terms of reference instead of the 2011 population," the Deputy Chief Minister said and added that the issue was raised at several meetings too, during commission chairman N K Singh's visit to Chennai.

The government succeeded in increasing the percentage of sharing from 4.083 to 4.189 and was also in getting Rs 4,025 crore this year towards clearing the revenue deficit.