DMK has no locus standi to talk on power cuts: J Jayalalithaa

Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa lashed out at the opposition DMK in the assembly for “harping” on power cuts in Tamil Nadu and charged that party with imposing power outages in the state during its rule besides making TN power deficit.

Intervening the speech of DMK legislator and former minister I. Periyasamy during a debate on the demand for grants for electricity department on Monday, Ms Jayalalithaa said due to the Herculean efforts of her government, TN has now become a power surplus state. During her first tenure as CM there were no power cuts and the state remained power-surplus. Then again during her second stint, there was no talk of power cuts.

But after the DMK came to power in 2006, the state became power-deficit and plunged into darkness. “The DMK has no locus standi to talk about power cuts, as it was the party that introduced it in Tamil Nadu,” she said.

The Chief Minister countered his remark and said her government was providing 12 hours uninterrupted power and three-phase connection to farmers. Again when Mr Periyasamy claimed that his party leader M. Karunanidhi introduced ‘Single Light’ scheme for huts, the CM corrected him saying it was former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran who had introduced the scheme for which the tariff was later waived off.  

As an unrelenting Periyasamy continued to make allegations on the power scenario, at one juncture electricity minister Natham R. Viswanathan said the member was claiming credit for power projects brought out and commissioned by “Amma”. “Apart from making TN free from power outages, our CM had ensured power tariff was kept lower than the tariff in neighbouring states,” he replied.