MADURAI: The DMK government should stop cheating students by organising anti-NEET protests which are nothing but stage plays, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said at the party’s ‘Ezhuchi Maanadu’ (golden jubilee state conference) on Sunday.
On a day when the DMK organised protests across the state condemning governor RN Ravi and NEET, Palaniswami said party president MK Stalin should not try to destroy the AIADMK and instead try to save his own party.
Palaniswami said, “When DMK MP Gandhi Selvan was minister of state for health and family welfare and Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad was union minister for health in December 2010, the Medical Council of India issued notification for making NEET the entrance examination. DMK and its alliance partner Congress introduced NEET, and today they are organising a hunger strike. Stalin and his son Udhayanidhi Stalin, during the 2021 Assembly poll campaign, had said that the first signature upon coming to power would be for NEET abolition. What steps has the DMK government taken to cancel NEET?”
Taking on Stalin for his statement on retrieving Katchatheevu, Palaniswami said fishermen in Tamil Nadu, especially those from Rameswaram, have been largely affected owing to ceding of the island to Sri Lanka.
“AIADMK, under our former leader J Jayalalithaa, went to Supreme Court in 2008 for retrieving Katchatheevu.
When the court sought responses from the (then) Union government (led by the Congress) and the (then) state government (led by the DMK), the DMK failed to file a favourable response and instead backed the Union government that the island need not be retrieved. Now, Stalin is afraid of elections (2024 LS polls) and that is why he is making such false promises of retrieving the island,” Palaniswami alleged.
It may be noted that Palaniswami made no statement about expelled leader O Panneerselvam, VK Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran and said nothing about the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Families of DNC stage protest in Kanniyampatti
Theni: Families of Denotified Communities (DNCs) staged a protest by pulling down the AIADMK flag at Kanniyampatti on Sunday. According to sources, people belonging to a total of 68 communities claimed that during the colonial period, their communities were given a single community certificate under the category of DNC, but offered limited in their area. “They have been fighting for the ‘DNC’ certificate to attain validity across the state. In 2021, EPS provided Vanniyars 10.5% internal quota against DNCs. This affects the growth and development of their children at a large level,” sources said.