People in Tamil Nadu are now leading peaceful lives and have no grievances while the previous 10-year AIADMK regime was in a “dark age”, Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Tuesday, April 5, while inaugurating a new ‘equality village’ or Samathuvapuram in Villupuram district. Under this, people from different communities would be housed together in newly developed residential quarters, the concept for which CM Stalin said was developed by his father, Kalaignar Karunanidhi.
While speaking at the inauguration, CM Stalin in a veiled attack on the rightwing said that “such conspiracies” failing to gain traction in Tamil Nadu is due to the work of reformist leader Periyar Ramasamy, Dravidian icon CN Annadurai, late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and other leaders of the Dravidian movement. The Chief Minister inaugurated 33 new buildings constructed at a cost of Rs 22 crore at Villupuram, and kickstarted distribution of welfare assistance to beneficiaries under various initiatives to the tune of about Rs 42 crore.
Pointing to Periyar's dream of people across castes and religions living together without any discrimination whatsoever, Stalin said Karunanidhi had launched the Periyar Memorial Equality Village Scheme (Periyar Ninaivu Samathuvapuram Thittam) in 1997 and went on to establish over 230 such equality villages across Tamil Nadu.
சாதி - மதத் தீண்டாமையில் மூழ்கிக் கிடக்கும் இச்சமுதாயம் மறுமலர்ச்சி அடைய தந்தை பெரியார் பெயரால் முத்தமிழறிஞர் கலைஞர் கொண்டுவந்த திட்டம்தான் சமத்துவபுரம்!
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) April 5, 2022
விழுப்புரம் - கொழுவாரியில் ஏற்படுத்தப்பட்டுள்ள சமத்துவபுரத்தை, அங்கு வசிக்கவுள்ள பட்டியலினச் சகோதரி திறந்து வைத்தார். (1/2) pic.twitter.com/4VyOaTrTIC
The CM said, though financial allocation was made in 2010-11 during the DMK regime for an equality village at Kozhuvari Village Panchayat in Villupuram district and work too started, that initiative was put on backburner after the AIADMK assumed office. The AIADMK, now the main opposition party, was in power from 2011 to 2021 in Tamil Nadu. CM Stalin said the previous AIADMK government putting this project on hold for a decade symbolised 10 years of “dark age” in the state.
The equality village inaugurated near here by the Chief Minister has amenities including drinking water, children's park, playgrounds, street lights and roads. The total number of equality villages, including the one inaugurated today, stood at 238.
Each equality village has 100 houses and 40 tenements are allocated to Scheduled Castes, 25 to Most Backward Communities, 25 to Backward Classes and 10 to others, paving the way for harmonious living conditions to people belonging to all castes, the Chief Minister said.
"This entire country should get transformed into a Samathuvapuram. That is our goal, our aim...the whole of Tamil Nadu should become a Samathuvapuram and the whole of India must become a nation of equality and social justice," he said. Tamil Nadu and the DMK government's Dravidian model, would continue to show the way to the rest of the country in this regard, the CM said.