The Hindu : Privatisation unacceptable: DMK

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 10, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Privatisation unacceptable: DMK

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI MARCH 9. The move to privatise bus routes is ``unacceptable'' as it will affect a large number of people, especially the rural poor, the DMK president, M.Karunanidhi, said here today.

Addressing presspersons, Mr. Karunanidhi said private operators would not be interested in running buses in uneconomical routes and would have a direct bearing on the poor in villages. The announcement that the privatisation process would be initiated from Nilgiris--the mountain route the DMK had first nationalised--would be opposed, he said.

Mr.Karunanidhi questioned why the Government felt the need to scale down the financial outlay now, after the Finance Minister, C.Ponnaiyan, announced an upward revision in the last budget. This reflected AIADMK Government's inability to raise revenue. On the move to merge Perambalur and Ariyalur districts, Mr.Karunanidhi said the reason behind the creation of a new district with Ariyalur as headquarters during the DMK regime was well known. There was a series of agitations, which had turned violent sometimes, on the issue of where the headquarters of the new district should be located--Ariyalur or Perambalur. ``But now if the people (in those districts) are willing to accept this announcement, I am happy'', he said.

Earlier, in the Assembly, even before the Governor, P.S.Ramamohan Rao, could read out the address, the Leader of the Opposition, K.Anbazhagan, listed out his party's grievances and led a walkout. The Governor kept standing through Mr.Anbazhagan's short speech.

The Governor began his address even as the DMK members were walking out. The DPI and the CJP members also joined the walkout. On his attending the session today, Mr.Karunanidhi said there was no significance to it, but added that he was not in a position now to comment if he would attend future sessions. the motive behind attending the session was not to create a new political culture.

Reacting to a comment of Ms.Jayalalithaa, that he had instigated Mr.Anbazhagan to lead a walkout, he said the DMK Legislature party had met earlier in the morning and decided on the issue. ``In any case, Anbazhagan is no child to get instigated'', he said. Mr.Karunanidhi recalled three earlier instances of the AIADMK-led Opposition staging a walkout during the Governor's address--in 1990, 1991 and 1998--to support his argument that this was not the first time that a party in the Opposition was staging a walk out during the Governor's address.

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