Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has shirked his responsibility by boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Tamil Maanila Congress leader G.K. Vasan in Madurai on Sunday, July 28, 2024.
Talking to reporters on Sunday, Mr. Vasan said the DMK was voted to power by the people with the faith that the Chief Minister would reflect their wishes with the Prime Minister.
Though the Chief Minister has been raising the issues through social media and through mainstream media, he should have given confidence to the people by participating in the meeting to raise the shortcomings in the Union Budget in order to get them redressed.
“The Chief Minister should have upheld his right by questioning the Union Government for non-allocation of funds and insisted on giving finds within a time frame,” Mr. Vasan said.
According to him, the boycott of the meeting by Chief Ministers of opposition parties was due to politics, forgetting the welfare of their States.
When pointed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s walk out from the NITI Aayog meeting alleging that she was not give adequate time to putforth her views, Mr. Vasan said that it was only a lame excuse. “It looks like she wantonly walked out,” he charged.
When his attention was drawn to the Chief Minister’s statement that he boycotted the meeting in protest against the Union Budget neglecting Tamil Nadu, Mr. Vasan said being an alliance partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he believed that funds for Madurai AIIMS and Chennai Metro Rail would be allocated within a time frame.
“There is no second thought on the demand that Centre should allocate funds for Tamil Nadu. However, within the total outlay, funds cannot be allocated for projects in all the States. Funds would be allocated in phases and we will press for that,” Mr. Vasan said.
To the charge that the BJP-led Centre has neglected Tamil Nadu for not voting for the national party, Mr. Vasan pointed out that funds were not allocated even for the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
When questioned why the Centre did not allocate adequate funds for carrying out rehabilitation works in flood-affected districts in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Vasan said that there should be transparency in spending of the funds given by the Centre. “The funds should not be wasted,” he added.
