Reading out from ED documents, he said contractors, executing projects under the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, were allegedly forced to pay commissions ranging from 7.5 to 10 per cent of the total contract value.
Chennai: Lashing out at the opposition DMK in the floor of the Assembly on Monday by recalling old charges connected to the historic Sarkaria Commission of 1976 and the Veeranam project, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay quoted recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) documents to target former Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin and the leader of the opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin, accusing them of collecting kickbacks in the name of party funds from contractors taking up government projects.
In the over an hour long hard hitting speech, made as part of his reply to the demands for grants for the police and fire and rescue services departments, Vijay said that despite the systemic corruption during its tenure, the DMK was demanding proof of the charges that were raised in the House even after the ED report had explicitly revealed findings on graft.
Reading out from ED documents, he said contractors, executing projects under the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, were allegedly forced to pay commissions ranging from 7.5 to 10 per cent of the total contract value. The bribes were collected from contractors of the MAWS Department in instalments in the name of party funds, he said.
Naming Stalin and Udhayanidhi Stalin as the beneficiaries of the corruption, he triggered a noisy protests from DMK members but continued his speech over the din, undeterred by the tumult, claiming that Justice Sarkaria Commission had recorded instances of ‘party funds’ demanded for award of government contracts and that such practices continued even in the previous government.
His heart would not allow him to simply list the crimes that took place from 2021 to 2025 and walk away, Vijay said, stressing on the importance of addressing such incidents with responsibility rather than treating them as mere political statistics when he was referring to crime, public safety and official responsibility to the people.
When DMK MLAs crowded the well of the House and besieged the Speaker’s podium in protest against the denial of permission to the DMK to reply to the charges in the Chief Minister’s reply, Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar reminded them that the people were watching them as the proceedings were live on television channels and warned them of disciplinary action if they failed to return to their seats immediately.
With the Speaker citing the unruly behaviour, continued disruption of the proceedings and the display of offending posters inside the House as reasons for his refusal to all the DMK to reply to the Chief Minister’s charges, the DMK members walked out of the Assembly and Udhayanidhi Stalin addressed the media outside the Assembly.
Vijay mocked at the DMK's "Mr Clean" image, saying evidence of the past and present corruption could be found in the Assembly's own library records and said that whenever the word 'corruption' was mentioned DMK members jump up to demand proof but never denied to have indulged in corruption evoking cheers in the Treasury benches. He said his government would dig deep, investigate, and bring everything to light to break the false image.
Hitting out at critics who labelled the TVK as an 'actor's party' reminding them of its success in the April-May elections overcoming conspiracies and restrictions and referred to his policies that were opposed to the 'imposition' of various things by the Union Government from Hindi to NEET. Pooh poohing the criticism that TVK was an ‘actor’s party,’ he said his politics was transparent and that his party that had polled 35 percent of the votes was here to stay for long.
