CHENNAI: Chief Minister ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami on Monday took strong exception to the charge levelled by DMK working president M K Stalin that he had failed to raise key issues relating to Tamil Nadu at the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday and profusely quoted from his speech to show that indeed he had raised a volley of issues at the Delhi meet.
In a statement here, he said “Stalin is afraid of the goodwill for the government among the people and due to this, he had levelled a baseless charge. Whether Stalin understands this or not, the people of Tamil Nadu know that well.”
The CM said that the main thrust of the meeting was to discuss the 15- year-long term plan for growth and seven-year action plan. The agenda was already decided and only on that basis, the discussions were held, he added.
On the charge that the financial crisis prevailing was not highlighted, the Chief Minister said he did not raise those issues because the agenda for the meeting did not have these topics.
Since designing long-term plans for the nation was the key point on the agenda, Palaniswami said that since the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had already started implementing Vision 2023 in Tamil Nadu, he spoke about that in detail. “The PM also spoke highly about Tamil language and history.”
On the charge that he had failed to raise the waiver of loans taken by farmers and the hydrocarbon project, the Chief Minister recalled that when he met Modi on February 27, hydrocarbon issue was raised. Besides, he had raised the waiver of loans at the meeting on the sidelines of the NITI Aayog meet when he met the PM.