‘2 million got help via Ondrinaivom Vaa’

Stalin has personally declared that they have distributed food to over two million people, responding to SoS calls received through the campaign. If the live tracker available on the official website of the campaign were something to go by, about 15,66, 251 people’s issues have been received and 31,144 volunteers have signed up till Wednesday for the reach-out programme launched 23 days ago by Stalin to lend a helping hand to the poor and middle class people affected by the coronavirus spread. Stalin, who has been interacting with his party district secretaries and elected representatives through video call daily to review the works done under the campaign and reach out to the people, said in his letter to the cadre that they have forwarded a lakh issues to the government that they deemed were urgent after addressing as many issues as possible on their own. Stalin even has a cell centre working in the State capital to receive calls and scrutinise them in consultation with party functionaries in districts.  

A party insider working with the Ondrinaivom Vaa campaign team said that they do not just stop with receiving and forwarding calls. “We tell the people as to who in the party would approach them to help. We follow it up with an enquiry later to find out if the beneficiary received the desired help besides the approach of the party worker. We take the feedback and include it in our report sent to him (Stalin),” he said.

Later in the day, former union minister and DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran tweeted that Chief Secretary K Shanumgam had dismissed their #Ondrinaivom Vaa campaign when they had collected one lakh petitions from public and presented to him claiming that the numbers were less. “People like you have no other job, said CS,” tweeted Maran

Meanwhile, Stalin has asked Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to include flights to Tamil Nadu to help repatriate Tamils under Vandebharat mission.