TIRUNELVELI: “M K Stalin’s name is in the list of Indian residents who have bank accounts in Switzerland and the Leader of Opposition deposited the money he had been swindling for years in Tamil Nadu,” claimed Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami while campaigning for AIADMK Nanguneri bypoll candidate Narayanan here in Reddiarpatti on Saturday.
“The Indian government has received the first tranche of details on its residents who have bank accounts in Switzerland. I heard that Stalin is one of the account holders. He has deposited the money that he had been swindling for years in Tamil Nadu. Stalin has been demanding for a white paper on my foreign visit; he should clarify as to his trip to London once in every four months. People of Tamil Nadu suspect that he visits Landon for investment purposes. As a Leader of Opposition, it is his duty to reveal the reason behind his visit,” Palaniswami said.
‘Stalin deserves Nobel’
Saying that Stalin should produce evidence to corroborate the corruption charges he had levelled against the State government, Palaniswami said, “a Nobel Prize for telling lies shall be given to the DMK President”. “There are several cases against former DMK ministers; the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) will reinvestigate into the case of alleged irregularities in constructing the new secretariat complex wherein Stalin was an accused,” he added.
Money distribution
“The cancellation of Vellore by-election was due to the seizure of crores of rupees by Income Tax Department from the house of Duraimurugan’s relative. DMK MPs Kanimozhi and A Raja were jailed in 2G Spectrum Case. Congress leader P Chidambaram has been jailed in the corruption case. The DMK accused our government of hiking Cable TV tariff. In reality, we reduced the tariff from `253.50 to `153.40 fulfilling our poll promise,” he accused. Palaniswami accused the DMK of adopting dynasty politics citing the elevation of M K Stalin and his son Udhayanidhi after Karunanidhi’s demise.“The AIADMK government introduced a slew of schemes for the benefit of school students and made the State’s power stations generate 450 MW of surplus power,” he added. The chief minister alleged that by-election to Nanguneri was necessitated due to the “greediness of the former Nanguneri MLA H Vasanthakumar”. “His resignation was not for the welfare of people but for a personal gain,” he added.
‘Will link rivers before 2020’
Blaming DMK for “not acquiring the needed land from farmers” to implement Thamirabarani-Karumeniyar-Nambiyar river-linking project, the chief minister said the project would be completed by 2020. Referring to Vellore parliamentary election results, he said DMK won in the constituency only by 8,000 votes, while AIADMK got more votes than DMK in three Assembly segments of Vellore.
New projects for Nanguneri
The chief minister promised to extend the existing canal that carries surplus water from Pachayar to Nanguneri Periyakulam.“The government will allocate `200 crores for this project. After expansion, 1,000 cubic feet water can be released via the canal,” he said. He also assured to provide Old Age Pension to five lakh people and promised `2,000 monthly pension to the families of unorganised workers.