Tamil Nadu Minister for Tamil Culture and Archeology Mafoi Pandiarajan said that the state government has no problem with the Governor reviewing their work in districts.
Speaking to the media on Sunday after paying his respects to poet Kannadasan on his birth anniversary, he said that the Governor knows his rights and duties as provided by the Constitution.
“Showing black flags at the Governor is wrong legally and morally,” he said. He was referring to the incident in Namakkal on Friday when the Governor was greeted with black flags by DMK cadres. The Governor was there to inaugurate the ‘Mission Open Defecation Free Namakkal’.
Banwarilal Purohit, the Governor of Tamil Nadu had raked up controversy in November 2017, when he had visited Coimbatore and conducted a meeting with the district officials. Since then, he has held many such meetings, and this has opened a debate to whether the Governor is overstepping his Constitutional rights and interfering in administration.
Mafoi Pandiarajan also responded to Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan’s claims of terrorist infiltration in Tamil Nadu.
Reiterating that Tamil Nadu is a peaceful state, the minister said, “Even when Nellore to Nepal was called the ‘Naxal Corridor’, Tamil Nadu never allowed them to infiltrate the state.”
Pon Radhakrishnan had made this allegation on Wednesday when he was asked about the mounting opposition to the Chennai- Salem Green Expressway. Social activist Piyush Manush and actor Mansoor Ali Khan were arrested by the Tamil Nadu police in Salem for ‘promoting enmity between groups and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony’.
Mafoi Pandiarajan also said that the benefits of laying the Chennai-Salem Green Expressway outweigh the disadvantages and that the road would be the biggest economic enabler in that region.