DMK president and Leader of Opposition MK Stalin on Sunday said that the crop loan waiver announcement by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was just a gimmick to deceive the farmers.
DMK president MK Stalin campaigning at Sankarankovil in Tenkasi district on Sunday
Madurai:
The same CM appealed against a decree of the High Court, which ordered waiver of all farm loans earlier, challenging it before the Supreme Court, he said.
Speaking during the ‘Ungal Thoguthiyil Stalin’ campaign at Sankarankoil in Tenkasi, the DMK president said, Chief Minister’s crop loan waiver announcement would certainly not benefit small and marginal farmers, but for those in the ruling party keeping cooperative societies under their control.
It’s only an announcement and that too at the fag end of the AIADMK’s regime. Further, Stalin asked whether the Chief Minister became aware of farmers’ grievances and legitimate concerns only late in his regime.
When DMK came to power in 2006, loans obtained by farmers to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore from cooperative and nationalised banks for crop, tractor and jewel were waived. But, now the CM has announced a waiver for crop loans alone and was uncertain whether it would benefit real farmers. Not only farmers, but the entire state is suffering and to save and retrieve Tamil Nadu, he boycotted the Legislative Assembly and came to the people’s forum, said Stalin.
During his campaign in Virudhunagar, Stalin came down heavily on the Chief Minister saying with intent of swindling public money, tenders for projects through PWD and Water Resources Department to the tune of Rs 2,855 crore were made in a hasty manner by CM in the last three months. It has nothing to do with people’s welfare, but, for personal gains of the ruling politicians, he added.
‘Make Tamil must in KVs’
DMK president MK Stalin on Sunday urged Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to urge the Centre to make Tamil a compulsory subject in the Kendriya Vidayalayas. Expressing shock at a reported RTI reply suggesting that students would be graduated from Classes 6 to 7 in KVs only if they pass Sanskrit, Stalin said that it was even more shocking that Tamil Nadu students cannot learn Tamil as an alternative to Sanskrit. “Power hungry Chief Minister, who gives up all rights of the state, should realise his betrayal to Tamil language and urge the BJP-led Centre to make Tamil a compulsory subject in KV schools in the state,” he said.
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