Jaya criticises Karuna's 'freebies' statement

Chennai: Hitting out at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for announcing that freebies will be distributed as long as poverty existed in the state, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa on Tuesday accused him of "reinforcing the

rich-poor divide".

Karunanidhi's statement was an admission by the DMK patriarch that he does not have any scheme for eradication of poverty, Jayalalithaa said.

"By making this assertion, Karunanidhi is not expressing his concern for the poor and downtrodden in the state. On the contrary he was only publicly reinforcing the rich-poor divide," she said.

The chief minister is trying to make the people a society of parasites, dependent on freebies, doles and sops by making such an announcement, she claimed.

By doing so, Karunanidhi was "only admitting that he does not have any scheme for the eradication of poverty. In fact, he wants the poor in Tamil Nadu to remain poor. Only then can he keep bribing them with sops and freebies to buy

their votes," she charged.

Karunanidhi had on January one announced that his government will continue to implement populist schemes and offer freebies as long as poor people existed in the state.

Jayalalithaa termed such freebies (schemes including free colour TVs, insurance and housing schemes) as 'arbitrary' offers that did not strengthen basic infrastructure.

"Arbitrarily giving away freebies without strengthening the basic infrastructure is like printing currency notes without a corresponding back-up in gold. It comes cheap and is not even worth the paper it is printed on,"

she said.

She said though rice was being provided at one rupee per kg at PDS shops, prices of other commodities including vegetables and pulses were soaring.

While Kerala was all set to construct a new dam in place of the Mullaperiar, Tamil Nadu will not get even a drop of water, the AIADMK chief said.

A substantial part of the Tamil race has been annihilated in Sri Lanka, she said.

"Nearly a lakh Tamil people still live precariously behind barbed wire fences like refugees in their own land. But Karunanidhi sent a team of MPs along with his daughter (Kanimozhi) and got them to certify that all was well in Sri

Lanka. The day of reckoning is not far off," Jayalalithaa said in an apparent reference to Assembly elections scheduled in May this year.