If Stalin has given good administration, then why hold outreach programmes: Palaniswami  

Had Chief Minister M.K. Stalin given good governance since 2021, there would not have been any need to organise outreach campaigns like Ungaludan Stalin and Nalam Kaakkum Stalin. These camps are being held now to hoodwink the people, seven months ahead of the Assembly election, AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has said.

Addressing a meeting as part of his Makkalai Kaappom, Thamizhagaththai Meetpom campaign in Tenkasi, Mr. Palaniswami said the AIADMK government opened over 2,000 Amma Mini Clinics across Tamil Nadu with a doctor, a nurse, and an assistant in the areas where the poor lived. Since the DMK government closed these mini clinics, the AIADMK would again open 4,000 them on returning to power in 2026. After closing down the ‘Amma Mini Clinics’, Mr. Stalin had launched Nalam Kaakkum Stalin one-day health screening camps after being in office for four years. Apart from opening “Amma Mini Clinics”, 254 new Primary Health Centres were opened by AIADMK government besides upgrading 168 PHCs each with 30 beds with sufficient number of doctors.

“If Mr. Stalin, who collected petitions in the boxes during the run-up for 2021 Assembly elections, had addressed all those complaints during these four years, there would have been no need to organise Ungaludan Stalin and Nalam Kaakkum Stalin dramas now, which are enacted to hoodwink the people ahead of the next Assembly elections,” Mr. Palaniswami alleged.

After the AIADMK, by giving laptops and other assistances to the students, increased the Gross Enrolment Ratio to 54%, the highest in India, in 2019, the Stalin-led DMK government stopped giving free laptops to the students. “We gave 52.35 lakh free laptops at an estimate to ₹7,300 crore to students. We’ll give you free laptops again when we return to power,” he said.

Mr. Palaniswami read out the DMK’s 2021 poll promises for Tenkasi district — a law college in Tenkasi, textile park in Sankarankovil, government polytechnic in Kadayanallur, cold storage for fruits and vegetables at Puliyangudi, Speccial Economic Zone in Tenkasi, Government Medical College in Tenkasi, mango squash factory, Ramanadhi — Jambunadhi linking, government forest college in Tenkasi, and asked the people: “Has Mr. Stalin fulfilled any of these promises?”

The former Chief Minister promised the voters that the Tenkasi Collectorate, which is yet to be inaugurated after being built at an estimate of ₹119 crore, would be opened once the AIADMK comes to power.