EPS: No govt at Centre has allocated TN enough funds

Salem: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday said the successive governments at the Centre had never released adequate funds for Tamil Nadu. He was responding to reporters’ questions on the Centre’s meagre allocation of funds to the state after it was battered by cyclone Michaung last year.
He, however, said the cyclone had no significant impact, while the torrential rainfall had resulted only in scattered flooding.
Addressing the media after inaugurating a thanneer pandal at Edappadi, he said the previous DMK government in the state too hadn’t received enough funds from the Centre when the Congress, its ally, was governing the country.
Citing the model code of conduct in force, Palaniswami chose not to comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s take on the Congress at a speech in Rajasthan and the act of Election Commission of India issuing a notice to BJP chief J P Nadda in that case, while sparing the PM. He also refused to discuss the Supreme Court’s dismissal of all petitions seeking reintroduction of ballot paper system.
He said the heat wave didn’t have much of an impact on the voter turnout in the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu, while exuding confidence that the AIADMK would decisively win the polls. Regarding possible changes within the AIADMK after the election results, Palaniswami said he would comment on the same at an appropriate time.
Palaniswami came down on the DMK government for not approving the project to desilt Mettur dam to increase its water storage capacity to 123 TMC from the current 93 TMC at a cost of 3,000 crore. Pointing to the AIADMK government’s successful implementation of ‘Kudimaramathu’ project, under which farmers were allowed to take silt from Mettur dam and 6,000 of the 14,000 lakes across the state, he slammed the DMK government for abandoning the project, which would have helped tackle water scarcity, for political reasons. He also took a dig at the DMK government for its failure to curb ganja peddling in the state.
Chief minister M K Stalin, meanwhile, in his post on X said Tamil Nadu had sought 37,907 crore from the Centre after the state was hit by the cyclone and floods The state government has spent 2,477 crore from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) on emergency relief and infrastructure restoration for the affected people. However, the BJP government at the Centre has announced only 276 crore so far, that too after we moved the Supreme Court,” Stalin said. He said the people of Tamil Nadu were attentively monitoring every action of the BJP government, which has failed provide funds and justice to Tamil Nadu.