SALEM: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday said the Centre should give a formal explanation as to why it has rejected Tamil Nadu’s request to increase the moisture content in paddy from 17% to 22%.
Addressing reporters at the airport, Palaniswami said, “Without an official reason, I cannot comment. But the state government failed to protect farmers during expected rains,” he said.
Palaniswami also took on the state for the central government’s snub for the Coimbatore and Madurai metro rail proposals. The primary reason the union government had turned down both the metro rail proposals was the “carelessness and lethargy” of the Tamil Nadu government, he said.
Elaborating, Palaniswami said the projects initiated during the AIADMK regime had suffered setbacks after the DMK came to power, leading to faulty and incomplete DPRs being submitted to the Centre. Palaniswami said,
“During the previous AIADMK government, preliminary work and preparations for drafting a DPR for the Coimbatore Metro had been taken up in earnest. However, the DMK government halted progress, and only in 2024 did it send a DPR to the Centre, which was subsequently returned because it did not meet mandatory criteria.”
“If the state had used the current population estimates while preparing the DPR, the proposal would have easily met the eligibility norms,” he said. Palaniswami added that the situation was similar in Madurai, where the metro project had also suffered due to inadequate planning.
Shifting to the Mekedatu, Palaniswami criticised Chief Minister M K Stalin for failing to respond to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s recent statement that Karnataka will submit a fresh DPR for this water and power project. “If the reservoir is built, several districts of Tamil Nadu will lose drinking water. Thousands of farmers depend on the Cauvery. Yet the chief minister has not offered even a basic explanation,” he said.
On law and order situation, he said the government’s failure to appoint a permanent DGP showed poor administrative intent.