Wayanad landslides: TNCC to donate Rs 1 crore from trust for relief efforts

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) on Wednesday announced Rs 1 crore from its trust towards relief for those affected by the deadly Wayanad landslides, which have claimed over 145 lives so far. The toll is expected to rise as hundreds are still trapped and several injured.

At a press conference held at Satyamurthy Bhavan in Chennai, TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai said that the state party unit's trust would contribute Rs 1 crore towards relief efforts in Wayanad.

Additionally, the deputy legislature party leader has come forward to contribute Rs 1 lakh. The party MLAs too would do the same soon, it was announced.

The TNCC also declared that it has constituted a team comprising party volunteers from the Nilgiris and Kerala to support the ongoing relief works in Wayanad.

Selvaperunthagai appealed to party functionaries and leaders in the state to come forward to generously contribute and support the relief works in Wayanad.

Meanwhile, responding to a query on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s critique of the budgets of the UPA regime, Selvaperunthagai dared the minister and BJP leaders to show if they have done at least 10% of what the two tenures of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) did for Tamil Nadu.

Seeking to know who launched the Right to Food Act, Right to Education Act, Right to Information Act, and MGNREGA, the Sriperumbudur MLA claimed that even economists and journalists had admitted that people would have died in crores during the COVID-19 lockdowns but for the MGNREGA. “I doubt if the BJP leaders even read it. Even if they do, they pretend not to have read it. Show me a government the incumbent BJP regime could be compared with? Economist Manmohan Singh who bailed the country out of an economic crisis could not be compared with either Narendra Modi nor any other BJP leader,” he added.

Questioning the purpose of Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to Thoothukudi after the floods there, the TNCC president recalled her statement asking people to not contribute to the temple hundies (cash collection boxes) and instead drop their offerings on priests' plates and asked, “Will she concur if we advise people not to pay their taxes? Can there be a worse anti-national act (than her statement)? This is her perspective and opinion.”

On former TNCC president EVKS Elangovan and party MP Karti Chidambaram trading charges against each other on the issue of an alliance with the DMK, Selvaperunthagai said, “Our national high command will deal with it.”

Going on to condemn former BJP minister Anurag Thakur for his veiled remarks against Rahul Gandhi, Selvaperunthagai said that Thakur's statement was proof that the BJP leaders have no faith in democracy or the Constitution. "The one whose caste is not known is talking about the census," Thakur had said, indirectly referring to the Congress leader over the issue of the caste census.