THOOTHUKUDI: Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Friday appealed to the public to help his aunt Kanimozhi Karunanidhi win the elections by a margin of five lakh votes. Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over allegations of the centre returning 29 paise for every one rupee that Tamil Nadu paid in taxes, Udhayanidhi quipped, "When the BJP cadres come, ask them how 29 paisa is."
Addressing the public at Kovilpatti, the minister said, "We will not sleep until Tamil Nadu is ridden of Modi. Not only Sasikalai, but Edappadi K Palaniswami was also dishonest to all Tamils, as he implemented all the anti-Tamil policies during his tenure in 2017-21." While campaigning at Mapilaiyoorani near Thoothukudi, the minister listed out the distribution of funds to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore allotted by the state government for restoration and relief works after the rains devastated Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts last year.
Of the total, Rs 213 crore was allotted for restoration of breaches at 300 places along Thamirabarani, Rs 35 crore for farmers who lost cattle, Rs 275 crore for the fisher community, besides Rs 385 crore and Rs 36 crore respectively for the 6.4 lakh people who availed of the relief of Rs 6,000 and four lakh people to whom Rs 1,000 relief was provided, Udhayanidhi said, adding that the union government did not release a single penny.
"We are confronting a merciless autocrat who does not regret the death of 22 medical aspirants due to NEET. He did not even allot funds for the AIIMS hospital in Madurai in 2019, but six AIIMS hospitals came up across India during the same period," Udhayanidhi said, and compared Modi to MK Stalin, who constructed the Kalaignar centenary hospital, with 1,000 beds, in 10 months.