Chennai:
A scrapped railway project in Tamil Nadu has become the latest bone of contention between the state and central governments. The DMK has denied railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's claims that the state government was unwilling to go ahead with the project that would have connected southern districts of Madurai and Thoothukudi.
During his recent visit to Chennai, Mr Vaishnaw said that the project has been put on hold as the DMK government had given written notice that they did not want to continue with the project.
Speaking to reporters after inspecting the sleeper coaches of Amrit Bharat and Vande Bharat at ICF Chennai on Friday, he had asked the state government to put service to people over politics. “We need the state government's support in land acquisition. We must ensure that people's facilities are above politics and we must look at the welfare of the people first,” he had said.
Read: DMK MP's 'inappropriate' jibe against Union minister. After an uproar, he doubles down
DMK Youth Wing accused the minister of “blatant lying” and shared a letter in which Prime Minister MK Stalin had sought funds for the project in August. “Why does he say that when the CM writes a letter asking for a project when in fact it is the Railways who rejected the request on frivolous reasons,” the message said.
Transport Minister SS Sivasankar also claimed that his government had never asked to withdraw the project, either in writing or verbally. He earlier said that they had been pushing for the implementation of the project and such contradictory comments showed the discriminatory nature of the Center towards Tamil Nadu.
'Personal, not political'
AIADMK, the DMK's arch-rival, alleged that Prime Minister MK Stalin was blocking the railway project as Thoothukudi is his sister K Kanimozhi's constituency and it could boost her popularity and threaten his son's elevation in the party.
“It clearly exposes MK Stalin's priority for social welfare in Tamil Nadu. The reason for saying no is more personal than political. MK Stalin does not want any chance for Kanimozhi to take the honors as Tuticorin is her constituency. I want measures that will increase Kanimozhi's popularity as she will become a direct threat to Udhayanidhi's elevation. He wants to silence his sister,” AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan said.
Read: 'Childish actions': MK Stalin Jabs, Governor of Tamil Nadu speaking at the meeting
The project was announced in 2011-2012. Southern Railway started work on it in 2016 and 18 km of the 143.5 km stretch between Milavittan and Melmarudur was completed in 2022. Rs 324 crore has already been spent on the project.
The DMK, a key ally of the Congress, and the BJP-led Center were at loggerheads over several issues. Another recent example of the state government's attack on the Center is MK Stalin's sharp remarks against Governor RN Ravi. The Prime Minister yesterday called his decision not to address the meeting 'childish' and stated that he cannot come to terms with the fact that the state is developing.