DMK president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday claimed that the failure of the AIADMK government to conduct elections to the local bodies was severely affecting development activities.
Participating in an ‘Ooratchi Sabha’ meeting at Eesanatham village near Aravakurichi as part of the DMK’s public outreach programme ahead of the general election, he said most village panchayats were facing a shortage of drinking water. Many of them did not have basic infrastructure, including roads, street lights and other amenities. In the absence of elected representatives, the people were unable to effectively make representations to the officials concerned, he alleged.
Strongly denying the allegation that the DMK was responsible for the delay in conducting the civic polls, Mr. Stalin said his party challenged the original notification for the polls in the Madras High Court only to secure reservation for the Scheduled Tribes as per law. Thereafter, the High Court passed several orders, directing the State Election Commission to conduct the local body polls in a time-bound manner. But the State government had failed to do so.
The DMK president said he was touring villages not only to listen to the grievances and demands of villagers but also to bring an end to the current regimes in the State and at the Centre which, he felt, were anti-people.
On the controversy surrounding the heist and murder at former CM Jayalalithaa’s Kodanad estate bungalow and the deaths of an accused and the family members of a co-accused under “suspicious circumstances”, Mr. Stalin said Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami would be held legally accountable for them.
“If he felt that the charges levelled against him were derogatory in nature, he could have filed a case against me or journalist Mathew Samuel, who released the video. Instead, he is seeking to find out the motive behind the release of the video,” he said.
He claimed the time was near for the successful prosecution of Mr. Palaniswami over corruption charges and the Kodanad case.