TIRUVARUR/CHENNAI: Taking a dig at AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for questioning the HR&CE department building schools and colleges, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday said the HR&CE Act itself has provisions for establishing educational institutions.
Speaking after inaugurating 1,234 completed projects, laying the foundation stone for 2,434 new projects and distributing welfare assistance to beneficiaries at a function held in Tiruvarur, the chief minister wondered how Palaniswami served as a CM while being ignorant about such a provision.
“Even MGR inaugurated the Palaniandavar polytechnic college (under the HR&CE department) when he was the chief minister,” Stalin said. Mentioning Palaniswami himself having inaugurated the additional building for the college, Stalin said, “Even BJP leaders do not speak against opening colleges (by the HR&CE department). But Palaniswami does.”
The opposition leader, who was hitherto the ‘dubbing voice’ of BJP, has become its original voice now, and is trying to outperform the saffron party leaders, Stalin said.
Making a quip on the theme of Palaniswam’s campaign tour, Stalin said, “He commenced the tour with the title, ‘Tamizhagathai Meetpom’ because he had aligned the AIADMK with a group (Sangh Parivar) which has been against calling the state Tamil Nadu. How will Palaniswami retrieve Tamil Nadu if he cannot retrieve the AIADMK (from the BJP)?” Tamil Nadu has already been retrieved, he added.
During Palaniswami’s term as chief minister, he had mortgaged the rights of Tamil Nadu and Tamils to the BJP government. After setting right all the damages the AIADMK government under Palaniswami inflicted on the state, Tamil Nadu has now climbed to the number one position in the country with an economic growth rate of 9.69%. This was disclosed by the Union government itself, Stalin said.
Mentioning that the state achieved this despite facing hurdles from the Union government, the CM said, “The share from the GST paid to the state is also not being properly released by the Union government. There are no special schemes. The funds essential for education of our children, which is normally given to all states by the Union government, was denied for Tamil Nadu.
There has been no fund for Tamil development. They (Union government) refuse to release the report of Keezhadi excavation findings so that the pride of Tamils is not let known to the whole world. There is also the issue of delimitation.” “How could you (Palaniswami) take out your tour without shame by aligning with those (BJP) who had snatched all the rights of Tamil Nadu?” he remarked.
Meanwhile, reacting to Palaniswami’s remarks of HR and CE department running colleges, the minister for the department PK Sekarbabu said the recommendation for running colleges by the HR and CE department was made by a commission headed by CP Ramaswamy, the then advocate general for Madras Presidency.
Even during the Chozha regime, educational institutions were run by temples. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act allows running schools, colleges and universities.
The Thirumala Thirupathi Devasthanam has been running seven colleges and four schools. In Kerala, three educational institutions have been functioning from the funds of the Sri Guruvayurappan temple.
“Palaniswami has made this remark just to satisfy the Sangh Parivar with whom he forged an alliance,” Sekarbabu said.