TIRUPATHUR/ RANIPET: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami said on Thursday that the AIADMK was carving out new districts in the State to ensure that the district administration got closer to the people and citizens got their grievances redressed quickly with distance and connectivity to district headquarters being no hurdle.
Mr. Palaniswami was speaking at government functions at Tirupathur and Ranipet, two new districts carved out from Vellore district which he launched in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister, O. Pannerselvam and other ministerial colleagues. This takes the total number of districts in the State to 36.
Justifying the rationale for creating new districts on administrative and people's felt need grounds, Mr. Palaniswami said even under the erstwhile DMK regimes, new districts were created. There was no connection between bifurcating big districts in the state and the ensuing Local Bodies polls, he emphasized.
Chief Minister had recently announced the trifurcation of Vellore district. The new Tirupathur district with Tirupathur town as its headquarters will include Ambur, Tirupathur, Vaniyambdi and Jolarpettai municipalities. Elagiri hills, 'poor man's Ooty' will also be in the new Tirupathur district, besides Vainu Bappu Observatory that was inaugurated decades ago by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The new Ranipet district, known for its SIPCOT complex and BHEL ancillary unit, with Ranipet town as headquarters, will include the revenue taluks of Ranipet, Arakkonam, Wallajah, Arcot and Nemili, besides 330 revenue villages. Stating that Ranipet was already an industrial town, Mr. Palaniswami assured more measures to make it an industrial growth centre.
Brushing aside DMK leader M K Stalin's criticisms that elections to Local Bodies will not be held and that formation of the new districts was only to give an excuse for the ruling AIADMK to put off the polls, Mr. Palaniswami said that was not the case. Already on the basis of delimitation of wards completed in 2018, the Panchayat and Nagar Palika elections will be held without fail, he added.
Mr. Palaniswami also accused the DMK leader Thiru M K Stalin of "instigating" some petitioners to go to court to stall the holding of Local Bodies elections through the backdoor for fear of defeat.
Mr. Palaniswami reiterated that AIADMK was maintaining a good rapport with the BJP-led Government at the Centre only to get funds for the State and new projects. The DMK had also been part of the BJP-led government at the Centre, but the opposition party did not see BJP as a saffron party then, he noted.
In Vaniyambadi, Chief Minister assured that a skill development centre will be set up to help upgrade the leather processing in tanneries. At Yelagiri hills, the government will build a new indoor stadium and also set up a botanical park.
