Malpractice in Tasmac may be bigger than what has been unravelled by ED, says Edappadi in Bodi

The alleged malpractice in Tasmac (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited) may be bigger than what has been unravelled by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami claimed in Bodinayakannur on Friday. He added the AIADMK, if voted to power in 2026 Assembly polls, would certainly probe this.

Mr Palaniswami, during his ongoing roadshow, claimed the searches conducted by the ED was just a tip of the iceberg.

In an apparent reference to a former minister in the DMK, he alleged that out of 6,000 Tasmac outlets in TN, from 2,500 shops, the customers were charged ₹10 extra during his tenure as Excise Minister. Every day, these outlets sold 1.5 crore bottles, which if translated in rupee value, the DMK leader had siphoned off close to ₹22,000 crore, he claimed adding this will be investigated thoroughly, if the AIADMK came to power.

After 40 months in power, DMK president M K Stalin had started naming new schemes such as “Ungaludan Stalin”. With election fast approaching, the government says that it has formed committees to redress the grievances in 45 days. This is a way to deceive the gullible people and a trick to divert the voters attention, he charged.

People should beware of the DMK men, who would come door-to-door with tall promises like in 2020, Mr Palaniswami said and added that the AIADMK had opened Amma clinics in 2,000 locations with the sole objective to reach out to the people even in remote locations. Unable to stomach the popularity, the DMK government shut down the clinics. He pledged to reopen 4,000 clinics across Tamil Nadu and reach out to more people.

Likewise, he said that DMK promised to scrap the NEET, but it had not moved even an inch towards it. On the contrary, they received signatures from one crore people and it has gone with the wind. He appealed to the people to vote for the AIADMK and assured to revive all the populist schemes such as laptop for school students, two-wheeler subsidy for womenfolk and among others.