Oppn camp too hit by expressway confusion 

The Chennai-Salem eight lane greenfield project, planned at the estimate of Rs 10,000 crore, was announced as one of the flagship projects in the state. But ever since the announcement, the project was marred by controversies asfarmers who will lose their lands for the project were protesting against it.

The protests soon became a movement and affected farmers from five districts joined together in opposing the movement. Political parties too joined the farmers in their protest and opposed the project.

As far as the AIADMK alliance is concerned, PMK is the only party opposing the project right from the initial stages. Even before coming into alliance, PMK went to the villages to get the opinion of the affected farmers and PMK leader Anbumani filed a petition at Madras High Court challenging the project.

However, the AIADMK and BJP, the other major alliance partner, are supporting the project and recently, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that BJP will still pursue the project. Due to the differences in the stand of alliancepartners, confusion still prevails within the alliance and the differences had not been sorted out.

Of late, the DMK camp had also been affected by the same confusion as Alagiri voiced support for the project. In a recent press meet in Tiruvannamalai, Alagiri said that Congress is not against the project and there is support from farmers for the project.

The statement of Alagiri had caused lot of confusion among the alliance partners as VCK and Left parties are the staunch opponents of the project. DMK, on the other hand, has not categorically opposed the project so far and so there is confusion among the DMK functionaries whether to support or oppose the project.

Meanwhile, the ruling alliance have utilised the confusion in DMK camp and questioned them about their stand. “When there was difference of opinion, for the project, among our alliance partners, DMK president MK Stalin, questioned the PMK whether it will come out of AIADMK alliance but now Congress is supporting the project and what will Stalin do. Will he send Congress out of the alliance?” asked PMK leader GK Mani.