TNCC demands Centre to declare Tamil Nadu drought-hit state

Adopting a resolution to this effect at the party’s first executive committee meeting under the chairmanship of state chief Su Thirunavukkarasar, the party also urged the ruling AIADMK to secure a suitable financial package from the Centre and undertake drought relief measure on a war footing. 

Noting that the state has suffered 41 per cent deficit in annual rainfall this season, a resolution referred to reported farmer suicides recorded from across the state due to crop loss and asked the AIADMK Government to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation and Rs 25,000 per acre as relief. 

Borrowing the words of former PM Manmohan Singh who called demonetisation as ‘an organized loot’, Karnataka state energy minister DK Sivakumar who is  also one the party’s south coordinators who had attended the meeting said, “A well-planned loot has taken place. All the savings of the common man had been taken away by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and kept in bank.” 

Another related resolution hits out at the RBI for issuing more than 60 circulars post-demonetisation and described Modi’s push for cashless transactions, an attempt to cover up the failure of the demonetisation scheme. The Congress state executive committee also urged its cadre up the ante against the Modi regime on the demonetisation issue. 

Claiming that the Modi regime has only sanctioned Rs 500 crore to the state, against the Rs 22,573 crore sought by chief minister O Panneerselvam for the damages caused by cyclone Vardah, the TNCC EC wondered why the AIADMK had not condemned the Centre for not releasing adequate funds despite being the third largest party in the Parliament.