National

Mounting public outcry on garbage: Jayalalithaa

With reference to the editorial on the garbage accumulation in Chennai (‘Politicising garbage’, September 5) AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalithaa writes:

“The hillocks of garbage rotting for days together of which visuals appeared in the newspapers and TV channels told their own story of the sufferings which the people of the Chennai Metropolis were subjected to.

“We cannot seriously take up with you the question of your support for the ruling party, but your rationalising the accumulated garbage as a war between rival private companies is amazing. It is also pertinent to ask why you picked on the AIADMK for venting your spleen through unwarranted editorial homilies when rightfully the party cadres were trying to mitigate the sufferings of the people. There was no politicisation in this at all and the AIADMK party cadres were only acting in response to the mounting public outcry against the accumulated garbage.

“Only a simple question remains to be asked as to what the leaders of the other political parties had to say on the accumulated garbage in ‘Singara Chennai.’ Your second paragraph referring to political one-upmanship seeks to create an impression that public sanitation and privatisation of conservancy work are not the concern of political parties but a matter which has to be sorted out by the hierarchies in the Ruling Party. This is a very unfortunate prescription in any sort of democratic polity.”

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