Jayalalithaa deceiving Kudankulam people: Karunanidhi

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has deceived the people of Kudankulam by announcing Rs 500 crore towards development of local infrastructure, DMK chief M Karunanidhi said on Tuesday. He also said Jayalalithaa was responsible for the closure of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) for the past six months.

Karunanidhi said in his statement: "Yesterday (Monday) at the cabinet meeting Jayalalithaa decided to open the Kudankulam project at the earliest. But who was responsible for the project to be closed for the past six months?" The opposition leader said the project was stopped because Jayalalithaa called the agitators for talks and, accepting their request, passed a resolution at the Sep 22, 2011 cabinet meeting asking the central government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop all project related works.

Karunanidhi held Jayalalithaa responsible for the central government losing around Rs 900 crore on salaries for the past six months as the KNPP was not functional. He said Jayalalithaa had deceived the people by encouraging the anti-KNPP agitators instead of placating them. And was now betraying the protestors by arresting them.

Jayalalithaa deceived the people by announcing Rs 500 crore towards development of Kudankulam, the DMK chief said.

He termed Jayalalithaa's sudden announcement of allocating Rs 500 crore towards development of infrastructure in Kudankulam and surrounding areas as deceitful drama.

On his actions on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue Karunanidhi said he drafted the party's resolution of quitting the central government and giving outside support and also announced that DMK men would go on one day hunger fast.

Jayalalithaa, on the other hand, had not done anything other than writing letters to the prime minister, he said.

The statement comes a day after Jayalaltihaa's statement charging him with enacting a drama by calling a meeting of his party's high level committee on Tuesday and announcing a hunger strike on Thursday to urge New Delhi to vote against Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and then calling them off.

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