Express News Service
CHENNAI: Even as income tax (I-T) department sleuths are swooping down on contractors having proximity to ruling AIADMK bigwigs, opposition DMK is bracing for raising the issue in Parliament, along with a few other key issues Tamil Nadu is afflicted with, during the monsoon session which starts today (Wednesday).
Police firing at anti-Sterlite protesters at Thoothukudi, which caused widespread outrage and condemnation not only in the State but also across the country and the stir against the Salem-Chennai eight-lane greenfield corridor are the other major issues the party MPs are to take up in Rajya Sabha.
“We are going to raise issues relating to I-T raids on the premises of contractors engaged in executing government projects, indiscriminate firing on innocent protesters at Thoothukudi and the hasty eight-lane highway between Salem and Chennai in Parliament,” DMK MP TKS Elangovan told Express on Tuesday.
He said the government’s attempt to suppress movements against projects considered detrimental to the public and the environment would also be raised in the Upper House.
Referring to the haste shown in executing the Salem-Chennai eight-lane highway project, he questioned the government’s stoic silence on the Chennai Harbour-Maduravoyal elevated corridor and Vikravandi-Thanjavur highway project.
He said, “They have pushed the Chennai Harbour-Maduravoyal elevated corridor and the Vikravandi-Thanjavur highway projects to the backburner, but are showing so much of enthusiasm in executing the Salem-Chennai greenfield corridor even when there is better road connectivity between the two cities.”
“Why is the government showing so much interest and acting in haste regarding the greenfield project,” he asked.
The DMK, which has four MPs in Rajya Sabha, is also contemplating on raising other issues, including unemployment and slackness in industrial growth.
