PM giving importance to STs, says Annamalai

Mr. Annamalai said in Namakkal that the DMK government is allegedly against the tribal people. In the Union Government, out of 78 ministers, 11 are from tribal communities. But in Tamil Nadu, out of 35 ministers, no one is from a tribal community.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Annamalai on Sunday said the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Mod were giving importance to the development of the Schedule Tribes. He cited the example of President Droupadi Murmu hailing from the Scheduled Tribe.

However, according to him, in Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK was against the tribals. One family was ruling the State, he said.

In the Union Government, out of 78 Ministers, 11 are from tribal communities, Mr Annamalai said at his En Mann, En Makkal yatra at Senthamangalam in Namakkal. However not a single Minister belonging to ST was in Tamil Nadu. “In the past eight years, the Union Government has given ₹226 crores as post-matric scholarship to tribal students. Last year alone, from Tamil Nadu, 15 tribal students who studied in Eklavya schools joined IITs,” he said.

The BJP leader said the Centre had announced that it will provide jobs to 10 lakh people in 500 days and he claimed it provided jobs to nearly nine lakh people, and by the end of November, it will cover 10 lakh people. But, he contended, the DMK government, since mid-2021 provided only 12,000 jobs. “The Chief Minister is only thinking about his son Udhayanidhi Stalin’s development,” he said adding corruption cases are pending “against 11 DMK Ministers.”

In Namakkal district alone, 85,505 farmers receive ₹6,000 every year through their bank accounts from the Union Government, he said.

Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan said, “For the past two days, I have said the law and order situation is at its worst in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. On Sunday, a bomb blast took place in Kerala.”