SALEM: Participating in the first demonstration since being elected party president, DMK chief M K Stalin levelled many charges against the ministers of the State on Tuesday. Stalin, who was in the city to join the Salem chapter of the State-wide stir, said that the party would continue to stage protests till the current government was removed.
Speaking at the event, he said that the demonstrations were organised after a resolution to the effect was passed in the general body meeting held on September 8. Stalin claimed that he had a list of scams against all the ministers and challenged them to file a case against him if they thought these were false claims.
“In July, the Income Tax department conducted searches in the houses of various contractors in the State and seized Rs 180 crore in cash and more than 100 kg of gold. These contractors are shareholders in a company headed by a close relative of big person in the cabinet. We gave a list of corruption charges with evidence to the Governor but no action was taken on them,” Stalin said.
Speaking about the Salem-Chennai Greenfield Expressway Corridor project, he said that the `10,000-crore project would pave way for corruption.“We are not against the project but we ask the State government to implement the project in an alternative way without affecting farmers and poor people,” he added.
He recalled the life and work of his father M Karunanidhi for choosing Salem as his grounds during the protests. “Our late leader had stayed at the fort in Salem in 1949 to write the story and screenplay for (plays at) Modern theatres. Also, in the film Manthirakumari written by Karunanidhi, there was a character named Parthiban. That character symbolised corruption, similar to the character of people ruling the State now,” Stalin claimed.
It was not just other political parties but the general public too was eagerly awaiting the return of DMK to power, he said. Comparing Tamil Nadu to a mango tainted by insects, he said that many corrupt persons had polluted the State in a similar way and it was the DMK’s responsibility to weed them out. They had also passed a resolution against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Central government too, he said.
In the demonstration, DMK deputy general secretary Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, former Union minister S Jagadthratchagan, DMK district secretaries MLA Panamarathupatti R Rajendran and S R Sivalingam, DMK functionaries A Raja and Parthiban have participated.