Civic polls delay rocks Assembly, MLA warned

Intervening in the issue, speaker P Dhanapal said that the behaviour of a DMK legislator S Austin was unruly and urged for decorum in the house. He also passed an order directing eviction of Austin, which was later reversed following pleas from DMK leaders MK Stalin and Duraimurugan.

It all began, when DMK MLA R Sakkarapani raised issues about the local bodies and the delay in conducting civic polls.

When Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was responding to the issues raised by DMK MLA Sakkarapani, his colleague Austin was seen making comments. To this Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam urged action against Austin seeking his suspension from the House. However, the Speaker after a stern warning brought the House to order.

Participating in the debate, Chief Minister Palaniswami said that the vote share of the ruling AIADMK which suffered during the Lok Sabha polls due to fake promises and unrealistic campaign by the DMK has now recovered.

The public are aware of the fabricated campaign spread by the DMK. The ruling AIADMK has never stayed away from contesting the polls, it was because of the DMK’s litigation the polls were deferred.

In my native village in Salem, the AIADMK has secured more votes in the recently held civic polls reversing the trend of Lok Sabha poll results. For district panchayat president post the AIADMK got an additional 2,200 votes and in case of panchayat president post the ruling party got 1,809 votes in addition to the DMK. The party is on a surge and now it is for the DMK not to make false promises that cannot be executed.

To this DMK leader MK Stalin said that the DMK will execute the party’s poll promises once when it comes to power in the state. To this the Chief Minister said that now it is the AIADMK that is ruling the state and it will be better for the DMK not to make false promises that cannot be executed. He also said that the waiver of bank loans for farmers was a farce campaign led by the DMK.

Earlier in the day, when DMK MLA Sakkarapani raised issues related to Local Administration Minister, the Speaker expunged the remarks made by the DMK MLA and Minister SP Velumani bringing a controversial debate to an halt.

Meanwhile, Law Minister CVe Shanmugham said that the Opposition was trying to spread falsehood against the government.

The state government tender process and agreements are executed as per the Tamil Nadu Tender Transparency Act, further there is a dedicated vigilance and anti-corruption department to monitor the issues related to corruption till now there is no corruption charges, the Minister informed the Assembly.