CHENNAI: Revenue Minister RB Udhayakumar on Tuesday criticised DMK president MK Stalin for his ‘misinformed’ comments against the government. He said the DMK chief was waging a ‘statement war’ out of fear that the AIADMK government would come out on top in the war against the coronavirus.
“His statements are only causing confusion and fear among people,” the minister told reporters.
He charged that Stalin had the habit of issuing statements just before the CM was about to make welfare announcements and later misled people, saying that only because of his statements, the CM made the announcements.
Udhayakumar said during the first phase of lockdown, essentials were provided free of cost to 2.1 crore family cardholders. Also, Rs 1,000 was given to all rice cardholders, besides relief to unorganised workers belonging to 35 welfare boards.
The CM has been announcing welfare measures after detailed discussions, he said. Saying that unlike Stalin, the CM had been touring districts to review corona works, the minister added people won’t buy his criticism of the CM.
Regarding the BharatNet Project, the minister said if the scheme gets through, it would connect 12,544 village panchayats and such a development would put a question mark on the future of the private cable TV companies. He said the internet connection to be provided through the BharatNet project would help the people in the rural areas get information relating to agriculture, medicine, etc, besides Cable TV connection. False information was spread to stop implementation of the project, he said.