HOSUR: Continuing his blistering campaign for the DMK-Congress-Left parties alliance in the Northwestern parts of Tamil Nadu, the DMK president M K Stalin on Saturday vowed to set up a high level committee, both at the national and state levels, including representatives of Labour department and corporate sector, to resolve issues affecting lakhs of employees in the information technology (IT) and BPO sectors.
“I am happy to announce that the DMK, if voted back, will press the new Government at the Centre to constitute such a committee to address the issues faced by IT sector employees who do not yet have a formal set up to take up their problems,” Mr Stalin said addressing a huge election rally here, part of Krishnagiri Lok Sabha constituency, campaigning for Congress candidate Dr Chellakumar for the parliament seat and DMK candidate for Hosur Assembly by-poll on April 18.
Referring to the series of issues affecting Krishnagiri and neighbouring Dharmapuri districts in the western belt, Mr Stalin assured suitable changes to the Law to ensure that IT sector staff had a modicum of job protection and equal opportunity was given to women in this expanding sector in Tamil Nadu.
Referring to the earlier DMK regime implementing the massive ‘Hogenakkal drinking water scheme’, with an outlay of `2,000 crore and with loan assistance from the Japanese financial institution ‘JICA’, for which he had himself travelled to Japan to clinch the loan, Mr Stalin said the previous DMK government had completed 90 per cent of the works when the AIADMK came to power in 2011.
However, former Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, when she was in office, had “in haste”, without ascertaining the details, formally inaugurated the scheme through video conference, though there were still some pockets in neighbouring Dharmapuri where the benefits of the combine water supply project, had not reached.
The basic objective of this massive scheme was to provide protected drinking water supply to the fluoride -affected villages in the district, but it still remained unfinished. “I assure the DMK when voted back to power will complete the Hogenakkal water supply project in three months,” he added. A rural marketing corporation for agriculture produce will also be set up in Krishnagiri district, Mr. Stalin said, adding, a new airport will come up in Hosur.
Mr. Stalin said while the DMK, as an opposition party was making its poll campaign positive, stating what it will do for the people and what it had done when Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister, it was ironic that both the BJP and the AIADMK, ruling parties at the Centre and State respectively, had nothing to tell the electorate about any positive achievements of their last five years rule. Instead, they were only lambasting the DMK and Congress, “as though we continue to be ruling party,” he quipped.
Reiterating his call for removal of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the EPS-OPS combine regime from Tamil Nadu through the forthcoming elections, Stalin dismissed as “absurd’ Mr Pannerselvam’s criticism in Krishnagiri on Saturday that the DMK had forged an “opportunistic alliance”.
‘It is the AIADMK-led alliance which is out-and-out opportunistic,” thundered Stalin. The AIADMK had not only tied up with PMK, whose leader had given a memorandum of corruption charges against the ruling AIADMK to the Governor, but also with actor Vijayakant-led MDMK whom Ms. Jayalalithaa had severed ties with even before 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Further, AIADMK had in this election fielded candidates including former ministers like K P Munusamy (Krishnagiri), M Anandan (Tirupur) Agri S S Krishnamoorthy (Tiruvannamalai) and N R Sivapathy in Perambalur, who had all been thrown out of their posts by Ms Jayalalithaa for their acts of omission and commission, Stalin asserted. Those considered “betrayers” within the AIADMK itself were now given party tickets by the EPS-OPS dispensation. These only exposed that it was the AIADMK which has done ‘opportunistic’ deals for this election, he added.
