Will waive cooperative society loans for persons with disabilities, promises Palaniswami

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday announced that loans taken by persons with disabilities from cooperative societies would be waived, in the event of his party capturing power in the State.

Referring to the release of the first set of promises made two weeks ago, Mr. Palaniswami told a public meeting in connection with the birth anniversary of party founder and former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran held at MGR Nagar of the Virgumbakkam Assembly constituency here that those who had registered themselves with associations for auto-rickshaw drivers would be given a subsidy of ₹75,000 each for buying the vehicles. “Some more concessions will be unveiled.”

Targeting the ruling party for not having fulfilled its electoral promises, Mr. Palaniswami said contrary to the assurance that 3.5 lakh persons would be recruited in the government and another two lakh in bodies falling under the control of the government, 75,000 persons retired since the assumption of office by the DMK in May 2021 and 50,000 persons were recruited. “Totally, there are 5.75 lakh vacancies,” he contended.

Questioning the DMK regime for borrowing ₹5.5 lakh crore, he said the tax revenue went up by ₹1.36 lakh crore from 2020-21 to 2024-25. Though there had been no new schemes, the government was still borrowing funds.

Stating that his party had almost finalised the alliance for the Assembly election, with a few more parties likely to join, Mr. Palaniswami asserted that the alliance issue had not been resolved in the DMK-led front. “It appears that the Congress is drifting from the alliance,” he observed, expressing the hope that his party would form a government on its own with an absolute majority and the AIADMK-led coalition would secure 210 Assembly seats.