Speaking to reporters outside the House, Palaniswami said his party was denied permission to raise the Kallakurichi issue for the second consecutive day.
AIADMK MLAs address the press outside Assembly. (X)
The Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, which has claimed 53 lives so far, echoed for the second consecutive day in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Saturday, 22 June, with the main Opposition party AIADMK staging a walkout over the matter.
The ruling DMK hit out at the AIADMK for attempting to politicise the painful issue and dismissed the plea for a CBI inquiry, saying the government is transparent.
“The government is transparent, we have not hidden anything, CBI inquiry is not needed,” Law Minister S Regupathy said.
The AIADMK legislators, led by the leader of the opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami, sought adjournment of the question hour as soon as the House convened and demanded that they be permitted to raise the Kallakurichi issue.
Speaker M Appavu said question hour cannot be adjourned and told them that they would be given the time they wanted during zero hour to raise the matter. However, the AIADMK members persisted in their demand and later staged a walkout.
Speaking to reporters outside the House, Palaniswami said his party was denied permission to raise the Kallakurichi issue for the second consecutive day.
“We have information that out of the 183 treated persons 55 were dead; every day the death toll is rising,” he claimed and said several lives could have been saved had the government acted swiftly.
Referring to Health Minister Ma Subramanian’s reported statement that a reason for the deaths was delay on the part of the affected people in seeking treatment he alleged: “What he says is a blatant lie; it shows the government’s incompetence.”
The government is responsible for the delay as the former collector himself had initially claimed that the deaths were not due to illicit arrack.
Hence, people believed that there was no issue with illicit liquor. Also, several people who turned up at a locality to mourn the death of victims consumed spurious liquor.
The former chief minister reiterated his claim that a life-saving drug, an antidote to methanol was “not available.”
He alleged that truth will not emerge from the inquiries of the one-man commission set up by the state government. In order to ensure justice for the poor people the government should order a CBI probe and that is why the AIADMK has approached the Madras High Court.
Law Minister Regupathi, describing the Kallakurichi deaths as grievous, told reporters that the AIADMK has lost all the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies (39 in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry) in the recent Parliamentary election and hence it is attempting to create problem.
Palaniswami attempted to stall the House proceedings for the second successive day and made unfounded allegations.
The main opposition deliberately created ruckus during question hour since they have no scope to do politics and have been defeated at the people’s court. The people have boycotted them and they are looking for opportunities to do politics, he allaged.
In the Thootuhkudi custodial death case (2020), the DMK, as main opposition party had then sought CBI probe as the then chief minister, now the Leader of Opposition, Palaniswami ‘concealed’ facts,he claimed.
Earlier, Appavu said opportunity is given to raise issues during zero hour and the opposition party members should conduct themselves in a civilised manner.
Palaniswami had been the chief minister and taking a position to raise any issue at any time is not acceptable.
The main Opposition party continuously hindering proceedings is not fair and not acceptable.
On 18 August 2016, the then Speaker (P Dhanapal) had given a ruling that permission would be given during zero hour to members following completion of question hour and the then opposition party (DMK) had extended cooperation, he said.
Senior Minister (PWD) EV Velu, referring to Palaniswami seeking adjournment of question hour and urging permission of the chair to raise the issue said that the question hour is common to all party members be it ruling or opposition and the Speaker is giving equal opportunity to all. Motion for adjournment and call attention motions are usually taken up during the zero hour.
Adjournment motion (on a matter of public importance) is governed by a specific rule and the main opposition party did not submit any request in this regard in the prescribed form to the Speaker. By harping on “adjournment, they are taking the time of all the members,” and they should be briefed on adjournment and call attention motions once again.
The BJP on Saturday demanded the immediate resignation of Tamil Nadu Prohibition and Excise Minister S Muthusamy over the hooch tragedy and accused the ruling DMK of shielding the culprits.
The saffron party also demanded a probe into the incident by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla described the deaths as “state-sponsored murder” and held the ruling DMK in the southern state “solely responsible” for the tragedy.
“So far, 53 individuals have died and a majority of them belonged to the Scheduled Castes. Instead of taking action on this state-sponsored murder, the DMK continues to shield the villains of this ghastly crime,” Poonawalla said.
BJP National Spokesperson Shri @Shehzad_Ind addresses press conference at BJP Head Office, New Delhi. https://t.co/qbs2a82Tdr
— BJP (@BJP4India) June 22, 2024
Referring to similar incidents in the state in the past, he alleged that there is a nexus between the liquor mafia and DMK leaders and demanded a CBI probe into it.
Poonawalla also said the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) should take suo-motu cognisance of the incident and issue notices to the Tamil Nadu government and state police chief, asking who is responsible for the deaths.
“The BJP demands the immediate resignation of Tamil Nadu Prohibition and Excise Minister Muthusamy for an impartial investigation into the incident,” he said, asking why Chief Minister M K Stalin is not handing over the probe to the CBI.
Poonawalla also targeted the Congress and other constituents of the INDIA bloc over their “silence” on the issue.
“(Congress leaders) Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who spoke about Dalits and south India umpteen number of times during the (Lok Sabha) election, have not uttered a word on this issue. This means their concern for south India and the members of the Scheduled Castes is cosmetic,” he said.
Another BJP spokesperson, Anil Antony, also slammed the DMK and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) over the hooch tragedy, alleging that the response and actions of the Tamil Nadu government are “lackadaisical” and indicate “a clear collusion” of the state authority with the liquor mafia.
(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)
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