E-Paper
Tamil Nadu CM Panneerselvam to meet Modi, ask for Bharat Ratna for Jaya
Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday afternoon to submit a memorandum containing various demands.
Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday afternoon to submit a memorandum containing various demands, including additional financial aid following the destruction caused by cyclone Vardah in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts.
Panneerselvam had earlier requested Rs 1,000 crore from the Central National Disaster Relief Fund, of which Rs 500 crore have already been disbursed.
In addition, the CM will formally request that the Centre award the Bharat Ratna to his predecessor, J Jayalalithaa, who died on December 5. The Tamil Nadu government had, in Panneerselvam’s first cabinet meeting as CM, unanimously resolved to petition the Centre for the award, as well as the installation of a statue of the late AIADMK supremo in the Parliament complex, where she served as a Rajya Sabha MP from 1984-1989.
The Parliament complex currently has two bronze statues of prominent Tamil Nadu political figures - AIADMK founder and charismatic chief minister MG Ramachandran, and the late union minister and prominent DMK leader Murasoli Maran.
Incidentally, MGR was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna by the Rajiv Gandhi government after the popular actor’s death in 1987.
Read
Sasikala names AIADMK worker’s newborn girl ‘Jayalalithaa’
Jaya’s welfare spending will be a financial challenge for Panneerselvam
