CHENNAI/COIMBATORE: : While top leadership of the DMK is yet to react to the brutal rape of a college student in Coimbatore, leader of the opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said that women’s safety in the state has been ‘completely buried’ under the ruling DMK.
Palaniswami said that women in the state are forced to take responsibility for their own safety under the DMK, whereas the AIADMK has historically prioritised women’s safety and had recently begun an initiative to distribute safety kits with pepper sprays and torchlights.
Palaniswami urged Chief Minister M K Stalin to ensure that the culprits are arrested immediately and punished severely. Meanwhile, the AIADMK’s district women’s wing has scheduled a protest near the Red Cross office on Tuesday morning.
TVK president Vijay questioned when the CM would wake up from his slumber and said that the incident had taken place even as the wounds from the cruelty inflicted upon the Anna University student was yet to fully heal.
Speaking to the reporters at Coimbatore, BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran said as many as 6,000 murders and other crimes have occurred across the state and crimes against children have increased more than 15%, along with a 50% rise in Pocso cases, under the DMK regime. Meanwhile, members of the BJP, led by the party’s national women’s wing president and Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan, staged a demonstration in front of South Tahsildar office at Race Course.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai also urged the government to take stringent measures to prevent such crimes. He also appealed to the state to bear the full cost of the survivor’s medical treatment and ensure justice for her.
Similarly, CPM state secretary P Shanmugam, PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, MDMK general secretary Vaiko, TMC(M) president G K Vasan and AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran also condemned the incident.
