Chennai: BJP State president K Annamalai alleged that Tamil Nadu’s finances were in shambles and that the recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General had revealed the truth about it, particularly the sorry state of affairs in the transport department.
Addressing the media at the party’s State headquarters in Chennai, he said that though successive State Transport Ministers had assured to increase the fleet, no new buses had been bought and that the number of the transport vehicles had only gone down to 20,304 from 22,517.
Besides, the department was in deep debts amounting to Rs 21,000 crore and that the financial mess had led to the department depriving the retired employees of their benefits, Annamalai said.
Of the total 68 public sector units of the State government, 35 had incurred a total loss of Rs 1648 crore and another 30 running at a loss of Rs 22,000 crore, leaving only three breaking even.
He demanded that the State government implement the Viswakarma scheme of the Union Government instead of imposing its own scheme that was aimed at providing the benefits to party people.
Over 8.5 lakh traditional artisans had registered for the Union Government’s scheme, over which the State government had done nothing. The Vishwakarma scheme meant for artisans over the age of 18 provided loans and training for the beneficiaries, which the State government was blocking, he said.
Annamalai also accused the HR & CE department of not providing details of temple accounts to the Supreme Court despite requests and said that over 4 lakh acres of land were under the control of the temples.
On the Chief Minister M K Stalin's assertion that he had not met Gautam Adani of the Adani Group of companies, Annamalai said that the Chief Minister’s secretaries and assistants, besides his son-in-law had met him.
If the Chief Minister were to deny that, too, he would give details of the dates and venues with the room number of the hotels, he said.
With regard to the tungsten mining controversy, he said that he and Union Minister L Murugan would meet the Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and get a favourable reply from him.
