Rs 500 crore for cleaning Cooum thrown into river, says L Murugan

CHENNAI: Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs (MoS) L Murugan on Monday criticised the DMK government for failing to fulfill its promises about cleaning the Cooum River and demanded a white paper report detailing the plans for it.

Speaking to reporters at the Tuticorin airport on Monday, L Murugan said, "When Chief Minister M K Stalin was the mayor and deputy CM, he had made tall claims about turning Chennai into Singapore. Now he's become the CM but looks like the Rs 500 crore that was allotted for the Cooum cleaning project has been sunk into the river," he said.

He further noted that cleaning the Cooum River is not a small task and that the government needs to remove encroachments without any bias. "Congress MP Karti Chidambaram has already demanded a white paper for this project and now even I'm asking for the same. An in-depth study needs to be done before they take on this gargantuan task," he said.

Talking about the situation involving the TN fishermen who were arrested on September 21 by the Sri Lankan Navy, Murugan said that the central government is trying to maintain friendly relations with the Lankan government and has been repeatedly demanding the release of the fishermen. "A fund of Rs 17 crore has been allocated to Tamil Nadu for the rehabilitation of the fishermen," he said.

Commenting on the talks about alcohol prohibition, L Murugan said that it was a well executed drama by Chief Minister M K Stalin and VCK chief Thirumavalavan to hide the failure of the US trip that was taken by the CM to woo investors.