Hydrocarbon order Code violation, says Stalin demanding EC action

Dubbing the environmental clearance as a violation of model code of conduct, Stalin, in a statement, urged the Election Commission (EC) to immediately intervene and order the suspension of the permission if the Centre adamantly refuses to do the same owing to its proximity towards Vedanta, one of the companies allowed to dig hydrocarbon wells there.

Advising the ruling AIADMK to write to the Election Commission in this regard to protect the delta farmers, Stalin, who is also the Leader of Opposition, cautioned the Central and the state governments not to trigger a public protest. The DMK president also accused the ruling BJP, an ally of the AIADMK, of jeopardizing the livelihood of delta farmers by granting environmental clearance to dig hydrocarbon wells in Villupuram and Puducherry with an empty condition that the views of the people should be elicited.

“It is highly condemnable that the ruling BJP and AIADMK governments, on the verge of being unseated, have given a ridiculous and dangerous permission with a view to betraying the people of Tamil Nadu, and that too when people of the state were reeling under acute water shortage for both irrigation and drinking water purposes,” Stalin remarked. 

He also added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who would ‘soon be dethroned,’ did not pay heed to the protests and agitations of the people against the hydrocarbon extraction and ‘to be ousted’ Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has also not raised his opposition to the same.

The principal Opposition party, in its manifesto for the recently concluded Parliamentary elections, has promised to scrap ecologically sensitive projects like hydrocarbon and methane which endanger the lives and livelihood of delta farmers. Earlier, Stalin had also visited delta farmers and deputed his party colleagues to express solidarity with the farmers opposing the projects there.