Madurai: Calling the DMK-Congress alliance as a corrupt coalition, AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa urged the people to teach a lesson that will hurt them more than it did in 2011 assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Campaigning for 47 AIADMK candidates contesting from Madurai, Theni, Sivaganga, Dindigul and Ramanathapuram districts for the upcoming Assembly election on May 16, at Madurai on Wednesday, Jayalalithaa invoked issues that have local resonance like the granite scam, Mullaiperiyar dam and Jallikattu ban issues.
Elaborating on the alleged involvement of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s grandson in the granite scam, she said that though a report on granite scam had been sent to then CM Karunanidhi in 2009, he maintained stoic silence.
Moreover, when a Tamil daily exposed the granite scam in July 2010, instead of conducting an inquiry into it, the editor of the newspaper was booked under a non-bailable offence.
After AIADMK assumed power in 2011, she ordered the district collector to conduct a thorough probe into the granite scam, which revealed that three granite quarries including Olympus, had caused revenue loss of Rs 16,000 crore to the government due to illegal quarrying.
“DMK leader Karunanidhi’s grandson had a share in Olympus, that is why he didn’t take action against the granite company,” she said. The granite quarrying had stopped completely in Madurai since 2009 and the AIADMK government is following the directions of HC, she pointed out.
Stating that when the UPA government, in which DMK was a part, ruled the country they were involved in various scams such as coal scam, 2G spectrum, Mumbai Adarsh scam and Commonwealth Games, Jayalalithaa urged the people to teach a lesson to the DMK-Congress coalition in this election.
Blaming the DMK-Congress alliance for their failure on the Mullaiperiyar dam and the jallikattu ban issues, she assured the people that if they voted her to power, she would definitely take steps to increase the water level in the dam to 152 feet and lift the ban on jallikattu. She also observed that only after AIADMK assumed power in 2011, the crime rate has come down in the state and people were able to walk freely.
