Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami were not on the same page on establishing a port at Enayam in Kanniyakumari district, said DMK president M.K. Stalin here on Saturday.
They were indulging in acts of deception, he charged and promised that a government under his leadership would never permit the project.
The DMK president said that while the Prime Minister had referred to the project as economic panacea for fishermen at Kanniyakumari on Friday, the AIADMK government was against it, despite the Centre pushing for its implementation through an official communication. The DMK had taken cognisance of the opposition of Christian community leaders to the project, Mr. Stalin said.
Attacks on fishermen
The attacks on Indian fishermen (by the Sri Lankan Navy) had increased over the last seven years, he said.
The Prime Minister was not bothered about the deaths of fishermen and confiscation of boats, the DMK leader added.
Textiles Minister O.S. Manian had made matters worse for the fishermen by encouraging them to go beyond the International Maritime Border Line, Mr. Stalin alleged.
The AIADMK government had not cared to implement the project envisioned by late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to develop the Nagapattinam port into an all-weather, deep-water, direct berthing green-field facility, Mr. Stalin said.
Mr. Stalin promised fishermen that their community would be treated as coastal Scheduled Tribes. The party would prevail upon the Centre to establish a fishermen welfare commission at the national level. The monthly assistance for fisher families during the fishing ban period would be increased to ₹8,000. They would also be given ₹6,000 per month during rainy season. The AIADMK government had siphoned off enormous money from the huge allocations made for implementing ‘kudimaramathu’ scheme and for distributing flood relief to the farmers, he charged.
Taking a dig at AIADMK candidate and Textiles Minister O.S. Manian, the DMK leader said all cases booked against 150 protesters at the Minister’s behest during the Gaja cyclone would be withdrawn in May.
A case would also be registered against Mr. Manian for having resorted to repression by misusing his official position, Mr. Stalin said, seeking votes for DMK candidate for Vedaranyam S.K. Vedharathinam, and those of alliance partners Nagai Mali of CPI (M), K.Marimuthu of CPI and Aloor Shanavas of VCK who are contesting in Kilvelur, Thiruthuraipoondi and Nagapattinam respectively.
Somersaults won’t do
In Chennai, Mr. Stalin said no matter how many somersaults Mr. Modi and Mr. Amit Shah did during their campaigns, the BJP would not be successful in Tamil Nadu.
The DMK leader accused the AIADMK-BJP combine of trying to stoke communal tensions in the State. “This is Dravidian soil. No matter how many somersaults Modi and Amit Shah do, you can’t enter Tamil Nadu. The BJP is not going to win for sure. You should ensure that even one AIADMK MLA does not win,” he said.
Campaigning in Shozhinganallur, Maduravoyal, Velachery, Virugambakkam, T. Nagar and Thousand Lights, Mr. Stalin hit out at the BJP for a series of raids on the party’s cadre. “You are raiding just at the time of election. When the election is on April 6, you are raiding on April 2 or April 3. It is an Income Tax raid. What is the hurry. Do you think that we will be afraid and hide in one corner? We have faced MISA itself. You cannot frighten us and try to win the election,” he said.
Mr. Stalin said the DMK alliance had to be elected to power if Tamil Nadu’s self respect, dignity, were to be restored and the State’s rights retrieved.