DMK government has compromised women’s safety, says Edappadi K. Palaniswami

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday accused the ruling DMK of compromising the safety of women in the State.

Addressing the district women’s conference of the AIADMK in Kallakurichi, he alleged that there was an increase in crimes against women in the State under the present regime. The DMK government has failed to ensure the safety of women, he said.

Claiming that use of narcotics was rampant in the State, he alleged that the primary reason behind the offences against women and children was the free movement of drugs. Referring to the sexual assault on a college student in Coimbatore and sexual harassment of a girl in Tirupattur, where a DMK functionary was allegedly involved, Mr. Palaniswami said law and order in the State had deteriorated and there was no safety for the common people. In the last four-and-a-half years of the DMK government, heinous crimes such as murder, robbery, theft, and sexual assaults occurred on a daily basis. Crimes against children had increased by 50% during the DMK rule, and there is no safety for women and children, he said.

The State is being run by an “inefficient” Chief Minister, and his government has failed to maintain law and order. The end of this government and the formation of a new one under the AIADMK was the only way to make Tamil Nadu safe for women again, he contended.

Contrasting the AIADMK regime’s performance in higher education with that of the current regime, Mr. Palaniswami said sanction was obtained in one year for 11 new medical colleges, including the one in Kallakurichi. His party, while in power for 10 years, had got sanction for 17 medical colleges, established seven law colleges, 23 government polytechnics, and four government engineering and agricultural colleges each. Five government research centres in the areas of animal husbandry were also opened.

Referring to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s observation in Kallakurichi recently that the AIADMK, while in power, had fulfilled only 5% of its poll promises, Mr. Palaniswami claimed that the DMK had not fulfilled even a fourth of the 525 promises that figured in its 2021 Assembly election manifesto.