Following the Centre's rejection of Metro Rail proposals for Coimbatore and Madurai, Congress leader Manickam Tagore alleged 'discrimination' against Tamil Nadu by the Union government. He also charged the rejection as 'outrageous'.
In a strongly worded X post, Tagore charged that discrimination against Tamil Nadu seems to be 'embedded' in the DNA of the BJP-RSS. He claimed that the Union government is purposefully making use of the 2021 census delay as a way to hinder the State's development.
Tagore asserted that the Centre's explanation that Madurai and Coimbatore do not meet the '2-million population benchmark' according to the 2011 Census is 'deliberately misleading' and 'absurd'.
He also claimed that the 2021 Census postponement has left Tamil Nadu cities not receiving sufficient funding, development projects, and required infrastructure.
"Why is India still using 2011 population data in 2025? Prime Minister Modi has delayed the 2021 Census indefinitely, making India the only major democracy in the world without updated population data for over 14 years. And who suffers because of this delay? Tamil Nadu! Our cities lose funding, development projects, and infrastructure because the Union Government refuses to update the numbers," he said in the post.
He elaborated that Coimbatore and Madurai are among India's fastest-growing urban centres and said that their present populations are far beyond the old 2011 figures.
"Tamil Nadu is punished because the Modi government did not conduct the 2021 census -- and now uses that delay as a weapon to block development. This is not administration. This is targeted discrimination," wrote Tagore.
Tagore expressed that the people of Tamil Nadu will not accept second-class treatment. He also demanded the immediate approval of the Metro Rail projects for Coimbatore and Madurai based on present realities and not on outdated, manipulated data based on political bias.
He also claimed that cities like Nagpur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Guwahati, and Surat have received Metro Rail support even though their growth indicators were evaluated on far more 'flexible norms', and when it comes to Coimbatore and Madurai, the BJP hides behind outdated 2011 statistics to deny Tamil Nadu its rightful share.
According to the 2011 census, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs states that the population of Coimbatore is 15.84 lakh and that of Madurai is 15 lakh.
Meanwhile, the Metro Rail Policy of 2017 specifies that a city must have a population of at least 2 million to be eligible for a Metro Rail project.
