Chennai: The munificence of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in announcing 'special aid' of Rs 2,000 each to 60 lakh BPL (below-poverty-line) families last month seems to have misfired as the Opposition has smelt a rat.
DMK president MK Stalin on Saturday tossed a tweet from a journalist friend who alleged that the Rs.2,000 'aid' is being distributed to not just the BPL families but also to the rich.
"At a time when the state is reeling under the debt burden of four lakh crore rupees, they (government) had announced this election freebie of Rs 2,000 for the BPL. But it has now turned out that the beneficiaries also include rich people supporting the ruling party. This gross violations are tumbling out with evidence", said Stalin in his tweet, adding, "Must they hit the poor in this manner just to fill the bags of the ruling class?"
The serious charge may not pass off as just another poll-time barb from the Opposition; for, senior journalist R K Radhakrishnan, whose tweet Stalin had retweeted to propel his allegation against the government, had pasted on his page the photocopy of the form for applying for the Rs 2,000 dole.
This form, said the journo, had been supplied by the local administration to his friend living in an independent house worth Rs1 crore and he was told to fill it up to access the BPL dole.
The tweet with the 'form' got huge response with many saying they too had a similar experience. "About 30 residents in our gated community, mostly comprising wealthy businessmen and professionals, have accepted the forms for signing up for the dole. A few of us have refused", said an IT executive living in Neelangarai on the East Coast Road.
Interestingly, an AIADMK senior functionary has added fuel to this Opposition artillery by openly boasting at a recent public rally that all the 40 Lok Sabha seats (including the one in Puducherry) are in the party's pocket because of the government distribution of these freebies. The speech of Vaigaichelvan, AIADMK deputy propaganda secretary, was telecast on popular Tamil TV channels and has gone viral.
"Government has given Rs.3,000 (including Rs.1,000 Pongal gift to ration card holders) to 2.80 crore people and even if two crore of them vote for us, AIADMK is sure to win all the 40 seats", Vaigai had declared at his AIADMK rally at Jeeva Nagar in Madurai on Thursday.
