DMK leader alleges widespread corruption during pandemic

Hitting out at the State government, especially Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar, who responded to DMK chief MK Stalin’s charges on the issue, deputy leader of Opposition Duraimurugan sought to know who had informed the Delhi High Court that the rapid test kits from China cost Rs 245 per piece, including the logistics cost.

“The Chief Minister is making announcements related to the Health Ministry. If questions are posed to the CM, the health minister denies them. A hide and seek game is going on there,” Duraimurugan remarked, accusing the AIADMK regime of not answering queries raised by his party leader Stalin about lack of transparency in the government.

“The CM said the kits would arrive in eight hours. Can he reveal as to how many eight hours later did they arrive?

Have you stated transparently as to how many kits were ordered and how many received and the cause for the delay,” the deputy leader of Opposition asked, before wondering if the Tamil Nadu Chier MInister, who calls Kerala to his defence on rapid test kits price issue, was emulating the responsibility of his Kerala counterpart who pays heed to the constructive criticism of the Opposition.

Asking if Vijaya Baskar would care to explain if coronavirus was eliminated in three days, as was claimed by the CM, Duraimurugan wondered, “Have PPEs been provided to healthcare workers who have dedicated themselves to saving COVID-19 patients? Where was the need to provide PPEs to employees of registration offices when there were not enough PPEs for doctors? Why such an urgency to buy and sell buildings and plots during lockdown?” The DMK treasurer also questioned why and for whom was Rs 700 crore worth tenders floated for constructing buildings for slum clearance board headed by deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam while tenders of highway department headed by the CM were embargoed due to fund crunch?

Referring to the reported supply of milk packs to the house of a prominent cine personality, Duraimurugan asked if it was proof of governance, and that too when crops harvested by farmers were rotting in rain due to non-procurement.

Remarking that Stalin’s calls for protecting people’s welfare was not cheap politics, but his democratic

right, Duraimurugan said the people who surrendered Tamil Nadu’s rights to escape cases were calling his leader’s awareness efforts cheap politics.

“Indeed it is politics. It is the politics for the people,” he added.