After Union Minister's Piyush Goyal’s statement hitting out on the Jayalalithaa government, calling Tamil Nadu “a part of the country where I cannot reach out to the Chief Minister,” the AIADMK government has issued a statement condemning him.
Calling Goyal’s statement politically motivated, the AIADMK said there was “not a single grain of truth” in his statement. The statement by Finance minister O Paneerselvam details the multiple issues on which Jayalalithaa has written to the Central government to take action – the Kacchatheevu issue, the welfare of farmers in the construction of the GAIL pipeline, and the Cauvery river issue.
Listing the Chief Minister’s visits to New Delhi to meet various central Ministers such as Arun Jaitley, Nirmala Seetharaman, Venkaiah Naidu – as well as meeting with the Chief Minister on his visit to Chennai during the floods – the release states that she had brought to them various reforms for the state but action was hardly taken.
Citing an instance when AIADMK MP Thambidurai along with 48 ministers asked to meet with Prime Minister Modi on the issue of release of fishermen, the statement says the delegation was not allotted time and had to submit their report to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Finally, the AIADMK hit out at MoS for Transport Pon Radhakrishnan for not taking up with the Centre the release of Tamil fishermen in Sri Lanka or ensuring that their boats were given back to them. Pon Radhakrishnan who is a Member of Parliament from Tamil Nadu had agreed with Piyush Goyal's statement.