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Journalism of Courage
Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai on Sunday raised serious allegations of corruption and irregularities against the DMK regime and the family of Chief Minister M K Stalin. He said the state exchequer will lose about Rs 77 crore as the government will be paying a private firm much more than the market price of nutrition kits for pregnant women, besides alleging favouritism in granting approvals to a controversial real estate company with alleged political connections.
With regard to the nutrition kit supply for pregnant women, Annamalai said the department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine had noted last March that an earlier contract with the private firm that supplied health mix packets for the kit was overcharging. It was then decided to give the contract to state-run Aavin dairy firm to supply the health mix. While this change was to bring down the cost by 60%, the decision taken by multiple committees was reversed in favour of the private firm. About Rs 22.88-lakh kits are being prepared for two-year period. Annamalai questioned who reversed the plan between March 30 and April 8 and gave the contract back to the private firm. He accused that two power brokers close to the DMK regime — an auditor and the son of a former MLA in Chennai city — had played the key role allegedly on behalf of the Stalin family. The Indian Express was unable to contact both the people.
The nutrition kits have one more content — iron syrup bottles. Annamalai said when the syrup costs just Rs 42 in the market, the same was being purchased from the same private firm for Rs 224. He said the exchequer will lose Rs 77 crore in the deal, while demanding immediate cancellation of the tender.
Reacting to the allegation, state Health Minister Ma Subramanian said the tender was yet to be finalised. “The financial bid hasn’t been opened yet. How can he raise allegations at this stage? If Aavin is the best, we will buy only from Aavin. The syrup also, we have been procuring from outside and it is yet to be finalised,” he said.
Another issue raised by Annamalai was against a real estate firm that recently made headlines in connection with the cases filed against some media firms and journalists. Accusing that the Stalin’s family members has created about 30 shell companies, Annamalai said there was an alarming trend of favouritism in granting approvals to the realty firm even as it “violated norms”. Annamalai said some 15 big-ticket projects launched by the real estate firm were approved by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) as well as the Directorate of Town and Country Planning within 15 days, which normally would take about 200 days. “I suspect that they had morphed pictures of the roads laid and structures built for such quick approvals,” he said.
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“After the DMK government came to power, they made a smart move to favour this real estate firm through online approvals from the CMDA. But I have information that the online facility is disabled all the time except when this real estate firm places submissions for their projects. An hour before their submissions, the online facility will be enabled, and disabled soon after it is completed, denying the same opportunity for other builders in the state,” Annamalai said.
He also alleged that after the real estate firm was caught up in recent controversies, Stalin’s son-in-law V Sabareesan had started six other companies, including one in Hyderabad, in which Sabareesan, Stalin’s daughter Senthamarai, the lobbyist son of a DMK MLA and his mother are named as directors. “Like they did with 2G, they are now monopolising all major land parcels in the state,” Annamalai said.
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