Friendly ties with Centre benefited Tamil Nadu: Edappadi K Palaniswami

CHENNAI: Strongly defending his government's policy of maintaining friendly relations with the Union Government, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday said the decision has resulted in Centre sanctioning thousands of crores of rupees to the Tamil Nadu Government for augmenting infrastructure. Addressing a public meeting at RK Nagar here on the occasion of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa's 70th birth anniversary, Palaniswami said the Centre has sanctioned maximum amount to Tamil Nadu for relaying and redeveloping of major highways across the state. Punching holes in suggestions that the AIADMK government was subservient to the Union Government led by BJP, Palaniswami said his administration was just being friendly to the Centre for the betterment of the state and not otherwise.

"Our friendly ties has resulted in flow of funds from the Centre for several infrastructure projects. During his recent visit to Chennai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised all possible assistance to the state government to augment infrastructure. All this was possible only because we have been maintaining friendly ties with the Centre," he said. The Chief Minister also needled the DMK seeking to know the projects that it brought to Tamil Nadu when the party was part of the UPA-I and UPA-II at the Centre for nine long years from 2004 to 2013. "What did they bring? Nothing. But the DMK is hell bent on criticising us. They don't want the state to progress under the AIADMK regime," he claimed.

Since the water released by Karnataka from Cauvery river was "not enough" to meet the requirements of farmers in Delta region, the Chief Minister said, the state government has requested the Centre to transfer surplus water from Godavari river to Cauvery river. Since 3,000 tmc ft of water from Godavari goes waste into the sea, the state government wants water from the river to be transferred to it. "The Centre has agreed to the proposal. The Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari has assured the state government that the project will be implemented soon," Palaniswami said. The plan is to transfer surplus water from Godavari river to Krishna, to Pennar river (Karnataka) and finally to Cauvery.