Heated exchanges over edu loan waiver poll promise

 S Kathavarayan, DMK MLA from Gudiyattam, in his maiden address on the demand on grants of the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, recalled the election manifesto of AIADMK in 2016 in which the party promised to write off the education loan obtained by graduates if they remain unemployed.

He also questioned why the government has not implemented the promise so far. There was uproar as AIADMK MLAs opposed to his statement. Immediately, Minister for Cooperation Sellur K Raju questioned whether DMK has fulfilled all the electoral promises. 

DMK whip R Chakrapani, replied that DMK has almost fulfilled all the promises made in the past, but now the AIADMK is ruling and why the promise on cancelling the education loan was not fulfilled. He also said that AIADMK promised free bus pass for people aged above 58 and it was given only to a few people in Chennai but in rural areas the promise was not fulfilled. Sellur Raju replied that it will be slowly extended to rural areas too.

Kathavarayan said that banks do not sanction loan applications from TAHDCO. In Vellore, 269 petitions in 2017-18, 266 in 2018-19 and 982 petitions in the current year are pending he said. The same issue was raised by Ponneri AIADMK MLA Balaraman.

Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare VM Rajalakshmi said that issue has been taken up with the CM.