Countering claims of opposition party leaders that electricity supply has deteriorated in Tamil Nadu in the past nearly three years, AIADMK general secretary and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday insisted that the power situation was very much under control.
Addressing an election meeting at Viraganur organised to seek votes for the AIADMK’s Madurai Lok Sabha constituency candidate R Gopalakrishnan, Jayalalithaa referred to criticisms made by some political party leaders about the power situation and their desire to see the voters turn their back on the ruling party in the coming election would not be fulfilled.
“The wishes of those politicians will not come true. All the power plants in Tamil Nadu are functioning well at present,” she said at the rally.
Explaining the actual energy scenario, she said that a week ago power supply was disrupted for two days due to technical snag in some power plants.
“This problem was rectified immediately. But many politicians are seeking to exploit this disruption to claim that the power supply crisis is back in Tamil Nadu,” she said.
According to Jayalalithaa, the power plants had actually generated 2500 MW of power in excess. Tamil Nadu had purchased an additional 500 MW power from other States. Besides this, the Government has also decided to purchase 3300 MW from other States on a long term basis. “Very soon, Tamil Nadu will not have any power cuts,” she assured.
Training her guns for a second time at veteran Congress leader and Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Jayalalithaa on Friday accused him of neglecting his Sivaganga Parliamentary constituency as well as the State. When she had campaigned in Karaikudi a few days ago, she had said Chidambaram was responsible for India’s economic debacle. She also accused him of reducing fund allocation to States and cited the case of non-allocation of `901.76 crore under two education schemes for Tamil Nadu. Besides, she said `931 crore was not allotted for road maintenance work in the State for the past two years against the recommendation of the 13th Finance Commission. “Unable to withstand my criticism, Chidambaram has accused me of spreading falsehood. This kind of response only shows that he is attempting to hide the truth,” Jayalalithaa charged.
“Chidambaram does not have the intention to do good for the welfare of people in Tamil Nadu. That is the truth,” she charged.
Countering Chidambaram for criticising her campaign style of flying to election meeting venues by helicopter, the AIADMK leader said she flew down for campaigning because if she hit the roads, the burden of the police would increase as they had to provide additional security to her.
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