AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday said the decade-long AIADMK rule (2011-21) was not ‘dark’ as claimed by the Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin but it was a “people’s government”.
During the campaign seeking votes for AIADMK’s Tiruvannamalai constituency candidate M. Kaliyaperumal in Tirupattur town, Mr. Palaniswami said the Chief Minister had been dubbing the period when the AIADMK was in power, as a ‘dark rule’. This is contrary to truth. Instead, it was only when AIADMK was in power, many welfare schemes centred on peoples interest were implemented, he contended.
“What Mr. Stalin claims are a bunch of lies. If he (Mr. Stalin) closes his eyes, everything including AIADMK’s regime will be seen as a dark rule. We implemented more welfare schemes than others,” he said.
Accompanied by former Minister K.C. Veeramani, the Leader of Opposition slammed the DMK government for “cancelling” several welfare schemes like marriage assistance scheme under which ₹50,000 and one sovereign gold were given to eligible woman graduates.
“Today, the price of one sovereign of gold has crossed over ₹50,000. In such a situation, the marriage assistance scheme by the State government would have been a blessing for many poor families especially in rural areas in the State,” he said.
Further, Mr. Palaniswami said free laptops for government students, which was one of the AIADMK’s flagship schemes that was launched by the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in 2011, was another initiative that garnered wide support among the public.
“When I was the Chief Minister, a sum of ₹7,300 crore was allocated for the scheme that benefitted 52,300 students in the State. The laptop scheme instilled scientific temper among rural students. Once DMK came to power, Mr. Stalin sidelined the initiative,” he claimed.
On the other hand, promises made in the election manifesto by DMK for 2021 assembly election were not fulfilled. Increase in the total working days from the existing 100 days to 150 days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was one among them. Old pension scheme for retired government staff was not reinstated. LPG subsidy of ₹100 for consumers and 2kg of free sugar in fair price shops were other poll promises that remained unfulfilled by the DMK government, said Mr. Palaniswami.
“Despite this, Mr. Stalin claims that 98 per cent of poll promises of the DMK were fulfilled. In fact, the DMK government was inaugurating schemes and infrastructure facilities for which funds allocation was made during the AIADMK regime,” he said.
