Chennai: Lashing out at DMK working president M.K. Stalin for criticising Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu for giving credit to late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for implementing the Chennai metro rail project, the BJP claimed the party had infused life into the project "abandoned" by DMK.
Putting the records straight, BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan said joint efforts of the Central and state governments that led to the completion of CMRL project. "Elder brother Stalin claims Metro rail project was the DMK's child.
The party announced the project but failed to complete it. He should not forget that it was the Centre and state governments that nurtured the abandoned child and made it walk," she said on Tuesday.
DMK has announced this project in 2006 but the foundation was laid only in 2009. But no progress was made during the DMK rule," she said and claimed that it was the BJP government allotted '10,000 crore for Phase I project.
"Not only this, the project is a portion of the metro rail project coming up across the country. The speed with which the project was implemented demonstrated the commitment of the Centre for development," the senior leader pointed out.
Explaining further, she said in 2014, after the BJP stormed to power, Mr Venkaiah Naidu called on late CM Jayalalithaa had announced to expedite the project. "The truth is the project has progressed on a fast track mode after the BJP came to power. The metro rail project is a classic example of how the Dravidian parties, which ruled TN had made tall promises, but failed to ensure development to the state," Dr Tamilisai said.
She also took a dig at DMK seeking to know if the Cooum river clean-up project was yet another child "orphaned" by the then DMK government after spending crores of funds on the initiative.
