LoP attacks TN govt over waterlogging, demands white paper on Chennai rains

EPS dismissed reports that six senior leaders met him recently to consider re-inducting OPS, Sasikala and Dhinakaran into the party as ‘outright lies’

Leader of opposition Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) on Thursday tore into the DMK government over rain-related waterlogging by demanding a white paper on flood management for Chennai and was firm that his party, AIADMK is no longer split and those who were expelled will never be brought back.

People use a boat on a flooded street to reach a safer place during heavy rains in Chennai on Wednesday. (AP)

EPS also criticised the DMK over lack of preparedness for the northeast monsoon which had set in on October 15 in Tamil Nadu. “Because the rain has stopped, the water has receded. That’s all,” EPS said, adding that deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks that the government swiftly acted to remove rain water is childish. “ AIADMK demands a white paper on flood prevention work done for Chennai so that the public can know the truth.

On the occasion of AIADMK’s 53rd anniversary of the party’s founding in Chennai, EPS said: “Don’t say that the AIADMK is split. AIADMK is one unit, and you can see all senior leaders standing with me here.

“The people you are talking about were expelled from the AIADMK,” he said referring to O Panneerselvam (OPS), V K Sasikala and her nephew and head of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, TTV Dhinakaran. “Expulsion has been happening ever since the party came into being in 1972. There is no way they (expelled leaders) can come back. Their expulsion stays,” EPS said. “Please don’t ever say the party is split.”

His assertion of unification comes at a time when the party, which has been towering in the land of the Dravidian colossus, is at its weakest. The party’s good days lasted only till 2016 and has been on the decline since their leader J Jayalalithaa passed away in December that year.

EPS also dismissed reports that six senior leaders met him recently to consider re-inducting OPS, Sasikala,and Dhinakaran into the party as “outright lies”. The expelled leaders too have been urging EPS to “unite” the factions in the larger interest of the AIADMK’s electoral performance.

In response, chief minister MK Stalin said that those who are unable to digest the good work done by his government are politicising the rains. “People are happy about over government’s work,” Stalin said after inspecting relief work in his constituency Kolathur, in Chennai. “Those who can’t digest accolades from people criticise the government. We don’t bother about such things since our aim is to serve the people.”