Is TNCC chief’s nephew a director of firm implementing ‘sanipreneur’ scheme, Madras HC asks T.N. govt.

Is TNCC chief’s nephew a director of firm implementing ‘sanipreneur’ scheme, Madras HC asks T.N. govt.

The Madras High Court on Friday (May 16, 2025) sought to know whether Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K. Selvaperunthagai’s nephew R. Veeramani is one of the directors of a private company involved in implementing a State government scheme to eradicate manual scavenging and promote ‘sanipreneurs’.

A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan posed the question during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar, alias A. Shankar, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged misappropriation of public funds under the scheme.

Justice Swaminathan told Advocate General P.S. Raman that the petitioner had produced a December 16, 2024 press release containing a public statement made by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin that Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) was included as a collaborator only at the instance of Mr. Selvaperunthagai.

Since the petitioner had also claimed that after the collaboration with the government, DICCI’s president Ravi Kumar Narra and Mr. Veeramani had jointly floated a company named Gen Green Logistics to implement the project, the judges wanted to know whether the claims made by the petitioner were true.

“If it is true, then you are in trouble,” Justice Swaminathan told the A-G before granting time till May 21, 2025 for the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) to submit all records related to the Annal Ambedkar Business Champions Scheme (AABCS) formulated in 2023 to encourage ‘sanipreneurs’.

The petitioner had stated that instead of implementing the scheme through government departments, the State had chosen to collaborate with DICCI for the purpose of identifying beneficiaries, who could be offered bank loans with capital subsidies and interest subvention for the purchase of sanitation-related equipment.

After the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the government and DICCI, Mr. Narra and Mr. Veeramani had started Gen Green Logistics, which entered into an agreement with the beneficiaries, to operate mechanised equipment and disburse fixed monthly payments to them, he alleged.