Palaniswami takes potshots at DMK's claim on keeping poll promises, calls it duplicity

AIADMK co-coordinator and former Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Wednesday took potshots at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin’s claim of keeping 70 per cent of his poll promises and wondered if he had implemented any specific scheme for the benefit of the poor.

Campaigning for the party candidates during the third day of electioneering here, Palaniswami said,'' By his own statement, Stalin stated he had honoured nearly 400 promises. Does anybody know what they are?” Palaniswami asked and said this was nothing but duplicity.

“Did the DMK bring any specific scheme for the poor?” he sought to know and asked the people to ponder over this. Palaniswami claimed the AIADMK government had delivered upon its promises that included providing free mixer grinders, free laptops to 52 lakh students, old age pension to nearly 85 per cent of beneficiaries besides providing four gram of gold for thali. “Amma (late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa) promised to double the quantity of gold provided to poor women beneficiaries and accordingly our government provided 8 gram gold for thali,” he said.

The AIADMK government had even provided free houses to the poor and made Tamil Nadu a developed State. “But, the present Chief Minister is merely inaugurating the projects initiated during the AIADMK regime,” the AIADMK leader said.

Meanwhile, BJP co-in-charge for Tamil Nadu P Sudhakar Reddy accused the ruling DMK of raking up the NEET issue by eyeing the February 19 urban local bodies elections. “It is known to everybody that the President had returned Tami Nadu’s Assembly Bill seeking exemption for NEET during the AIADMK regime. The DMK raised the issue prior to the Assembly election and sent the anti-NEET Bill after coming to power, and it was returned. The DMK is again raising the issue only for political gains during the upcoming elections,” he said.

Talking about exemption for NEET would only confuse the student-community, Reddy told reporters after inaugurating the party’s election office here, and claimed the DMK government failed in all aspects on the issue.

Actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, which is contesting the urban civic polls alone, has assured to provide a corruption-free and transparent governance and quality infrastructure with people’s participation. Also, the party would provide free potable drinking water and proper rainwater harvesting structures for all households, if the party wins.

The MNM has also promised to create an urban forum similar to the grama sabha to discuss and decide on the requirements for the wards and party councillors would hold monthly meetings, according to a press release.

Apart from hosting the council meetings on the website, MNM would strive to provide e-services at people’s doorstep, ensure quality roads are provided on time, restructure the system of collecting house tax and water tax, upgrade schools and hospitals, set up parks, gymnasium and library and introduce an integrated traffic management system to detect ambulance vehicles with the help of sensors for ensuring uninterrupted traffic, are among the numerous promises of the party.

Removing encroachments on waterbodies and issuing building permits without bribe are among the other assurances of the MNM.