Jayalalithaa has no right to talk of power situation in state: Karunanidhi

Chennai: Lambasting Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for faulting the Congress-led UPA and DMK for power crisis in Tamil Nadu, party chief M Karunanidhi said the AIADMK chief has no right to talk about it as her party led government "has left Tamil Nadu in darkness. Jayalalithaa, whose government has left Tamil Nadu in darkness has no right to talk about the power situation. It is due to 15 hours power cut that she was forced to make a public address on the issue."

Jayalalithaa in a televised address on AIADMK-backed Jaya TV, blamed UPA and DMK for the power crisis, and said the situation would improve after new power projects will come into effect from November. She had also charged the previous RPT previous Karunanidhi-led government with failing to have a progressive vision on power generation and added only 206 MW to installed capacity.

She said her repeated pleas to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for allocation of 1,000 mw ever since she took over as chief minister last year had not been considered. "She is in power now. Let her first show some concern," Karunanidhi said in response to her charge that DMK and Congress failed to address power generation issues, including on technical grounds such as transmission corridor congestion.

The DMK Chief accused the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister of shifting blame on the Centre and DMK and thus trying to escape.

He pointed out that while load shedding was confined to two to three hours during his tenure, power cut now ranged from 14 to 15 hours. He accused her of shifting blame on the Centre and DMK and thus trying to escape. Asked if his party would take up with the Centre the case of adequate power allocation to Tamil Nadu, he said it would be done if Jayalalithaa wrote to all opposition parties in this regard.

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