Chennai: DMK President M Karunanidhi on Sunday flayed the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu for its advertising campaign listing its "achievements" on completing one year in office, saying it had spent a "huge amount" of people's money.
The AIADMK Government spent Rs 52.14 lakh for publishing advertisements in regional newspapers and Rs 1.22 crore in national newspapers using public money, he alleged.
The state government on May 16 unleashed a massive media advertisement blitzkrieg across the country, listing its achievements on the occasion of its completion of one year.
Writing in his party organ, 'Murasoli', the DMK patriarch asked whether it was fair on the state government's part to criticise DMK for the state's poor financial condition. When AIADMK demitted office in 2006, the state's total debt was Rs 50,000 crore, he claimed.
It is wrong for AIADMK Government to say that the total debt of the State was Rs 1.25 lakh crore when DMK demitted office in 2011, Karunanidhi said.
On fiscal deficit, he said as per the state budget it would be Rs 19,832.13 crore (in 2012-13) from Rs 13,507 crore (in 2011-12)."From this itself, one can understand whether the AIADMK government has taken steps to address the fiscal deficit or not", he said, sarcastically.
On the state's electricity board reeling under severe financial crisis, Karunanidhi said when his party was in power, his government did not choose to increase the power tariff as it would only affect the common man.
"The Electricity Board would not be under severe financial crisis, if we had increased the power tariff then. But, we did not want the common man to suffer due to it. We continue to favour reduction in power tariffs," he said.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 19:35