CHENNAI: Heated exchanges were witnessed in the Assembly as the DMK and the AIADMK raked up a host of issues, including the Sarkaria Commission enquiry, arrest episodes involving their two leaders, court cases and crime rate during a debate on the demand for grants from the Home Ministry on Monday.
Reeling out statistics, AIADMK member R Vaithilingam argued that though the DMK government claimed to have allocated more than Rs 2,000 crore to the police department, it was doubtful whether the targets had been met. “Has there been any fall in rape and theft cases?” he asked.
During Amma’s regime, the crime detection rate stood at 86 per cent, he contended. But it was only 71 per cent under the present government, he said.
Besides, no appeal was filed in the Tha Kiruttinan murder case and the Dinakaran office burning case, Vaithilingam pointed out and charged that the ruling party showed all earnestness in challenging a High Court verdict in favour of former CM Jayalalithaa.
Trouble started when he began reading out a list of 24 murders that took place in the city in June 2009. Law Minister Durai Murugan was up on his feet protesting the member’s action. “The law and order situation was so bad under them [AIADMK] that they could not save a sitting member,” he retorted, referring to the murder of Gummidipoondi MLA in 2005.
The minister’s intervention was received with loud protests from AIADMK benches, with K A Sengottaiyan countering that the assailants were apprehended within a week.
After Deputy CM M K Stalin’s intervention, the issue came to a close.
But, the House erupted again when he touched a DMK raw nerve: Sarkaria Commission enquiry. He claimed that the AIADMK supremo faced all cases against her courageously, while DMK chief M Karunanidhi tried to evade the Sarkaria Commission enquiry. The DMK retaliated by pointing to the attempts made by Jayalalithaa to have a case against her before the Bangalore court quashed.
Earlier, DMK’s K Senguttuvan ruffled AIADMK’s feathers when he recalled the arrest and treatment of Karunanidhi on the midnight of June 30, 2001. Senior AIADMK members then spoke of the arrest of their own leader in 1996.