Dy CM Udhayanidhi Picks up EPS’s Gauntlet

Chennai: Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin picked up the gauntlet thrown by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and said on Monday that he was prepared for a debate on the welfare schemes launched by the DMK and AIADMK in the State.

Replying to media persons’ question on Palaniswami’s challenge to Chief Minister M K Stalin for a debate on the welfare projects of both the governments, Udhayanidhi Stalin said that he was ready to debate on the welfare initiatives of both governments to ascertain who did more.

Palaniswami’s challenge on Sunday came as a response to Stalin’s attack at Virudhunagar that saw him questioning the commitment of the Leader of the Opposition for the welfare of the people.

Speaking in Virudhunagar during his official tour, Stalin had launched a broadside against Palaniswami, accusing him of not doing anything for the uplift of the downtrodden but was only concerned about his personal benefits. He even said that Palaniswami became a chief minister by ‘crawling.’

Hitting back, Palainswami said that Stalin and his son, Udhayanidhi Stalin, would not have come up in politics or in government but for their family background and that Stalin had no right to talk about him.

He also asked Stalin if he was prepared for a debate on which of the two governments had come up with better welfare schemes for the people.

It was to that challenge that Udhayanidhi Stalin responded while coming out of a meeting at the Nehru Indoor Stadium, where he distributed "Champions Kit" worth Rs 86 lakh to 2,600 sportspersons and women students of SDAT hostels across the state, including 600 students in Chennai.

At the function held under the aegis of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), the Deputy Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for the establishment of a district sports complex at a cost of Rs 15 crore in Ranipet and an Olympic Academy at a cost of Rs 6 crore in Madurai district sports complex through video conferencing.

Palaniswami also urged the State government to entrust the responsibility of conducting the digitalized survey of agricultural land in the State, for which the Union Government would be spending Rs 1940 crore, to the revenue department officials by paying them an additional incentive or handing it over to a private company.

In a statement on Monday, Palaniswami accused the State government of conducting the survey, whose data would be of use at times of drought and flood, with the help of Agriculture College students and wondered how much accuracy could be expected in such an exercise by inexperienced students.

Neighbouring States like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala had already completed 90 per cent of the survey and Tamil Nadu alone was lagging behind in it, he said.