Central govt is curtailing development of states by snatching funds: Stalin

Chennai, March 11: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said that the Central government is curtailing the development of states by snatching away fund resources.

Lashing out against the BJP government at the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular, Chief Minister Stalin said that the BJP is trying to destroy states and thereby the culture and tradition of the states.

He was addressing a public programme at Dharmapuri on Monday after laying the foundation stone for 75 new projects worth Rs 560 crores. He also distributed welfare aid to 8,736 beneficiaries of Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts.

He said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is regularly coming to Tamil Nadu as part of the election gimmick and also alleged that the same Prime Minister was not seen when the people were suffering from floods in December 2023.

Stalin said that All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) project has now gained momentum only due to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and ridiculed that the foundation stone for AIIMS was laid in 2019 but there was no progress.

He said that the sudden reduction in prices of gas cylinders were only due to the elections and added that the people of Tamil Nadu will never ever fall for such political gimmicks.

In response to the criticisms that the DMK was under dynasty rule, Stalin said that the DMK rule in Tamil Nadu is for crores of people of the state and added that these were all party’s family members.

He said that during AIADMK’s rule, no welfare projects were initiated or executed but they only indulged in looting and plundering wealth.

“Can the AIADMK list-out any completed projects during their period,” Stalin asked.

He said that the AIADMK had curtailed the Dharmapuri-Hoggenakkal drinking water project that was taken up by the previous DMK government.