CHENNAI: The DMK’s vain attempt to corner the State government on the issue of delivering upon the assurances made under rule 110 in the Assembly, left the opposition party members dazed when Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami reeled out statistics and even furnished a booklet highlighting the translation of announcements into works.
Many of the projects and programmes announced in the State Assembly by late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa have been implemented while efforts are on to the remaining few assurances, Mr. Palaniswamy informed the Assembly on Thursday.
Refuting the allegations of the DMK, he said between 2011-16, the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced 879 works and out of them government orders have been issued for 872 projects. Of the 872 projects, as many as 557 have been completed while 315 others are nearing completion.
Orders for remaining seven projects would be issued once the preparatory work was completed. According to him, these seven projects are caught in a legal tangle or are under Central government’s consideration.
The late CM had made 175 announcements in 2016-17, regarding which orders have been issued for 167 projects. Of these, 20 projects have been completed while 147 remaining were going on. Efforts are on to start work on eight projects and of them three are under Centre’s consideration, the Chief Minister added.
DMK floor leader M. K. Stalin, however refusing to accept the statistics presented by the CM, sought a white paper on the issue. “You may say many things, but you should substantiate.”
Immediately, Mr. Edappadi displayed a booklet and said, “here’s what you have asked for. You can peruse it. The record is quite clear.”
However, when Mr. Stalin attempted to raise a supplementary question, Speaker P. Dhanapal dissuaded saying, “you first read it. Don’t make allegations. The House should be allowed to conduct its business.”
