Palaniswami holds DMK regime responsible for the closure of 210 govt. schools

The AIADMK general secretary and Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, on Monday accused the DMK regime of having closed down 210 government schools in the last four-and-a-half years. 

On the contrary, the previous AIADMK government had opened 248 primary schools, apart from upgrading 117 primary schools into middle schools; 1,079 middle schools into high schools and 604 high schools into higher secondary schools, Mr Palaniswami told people who gathered near a bus terminus on Tiruvallur-Uthukottai road in the Tiruvallur district.

As for arts and science colleges in the State, 96 of them did not have principals. The government was not allowing  minority educational institutions to hire teachers, he alleged. Also, no permission was given to the government-aided colleges to recruit teaching and non-teaching staff, Mr Palaniswami said. 

Contrasting the AIADMK regime’s performance in higher education with that of the current government,  the LOP said  sanction was obtained in one year for 11 medical colleges including one in Tiruvallur. His party, while in power that lasted 10 years, had got 17 medical colleges established. Seven law colleges, 21 government polytechnics, four government engineering and agricultural colleges each and five government research centres in the area of animal husbandry were opened. 

Referring to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s observation in Kallakurichi a few days ago that the AIADMK, while in power, had fulfilled only 5% of its electoral promises, the LOP claimed the DMK, out of its 525 assurances given at the time of the 2021 Assembly poll, had not translated nto action even one-fourth of them.