After Stalin’s barb on MGR event, AIADMK hits back

Chennai: Ruling AIADMK on Sunday lashed out at DMK over its criticism of former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran's birth centenary celebrations, saying the amount spent on it was a fraction of that used by DMK for the world Tamil conference when it was in power in 2010.

Senior party leader and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said not even 10 per cent the amount spent for the conference by the DMK government in 2010 was being spent now to hold the centenary celebrations.

"We have not spent even 10 per cent of Rs 200 crore spent for the Semmozhi Manadu (World Classical Tamil conference) by them (DMK government)," he told reporters here.

His retort came a day after DMK chief M K Stalin charged the government with using late leader M G Ramachandran's birth centenary for "political mileage" and holding "pompous" centenary events.

Jayakumar said the government has details of expenditure for both the events.

Stalin had dubbed as "pompous" the centenary celebrations using taxpayers' money to further the "remaining political journey" of the incumbent AIADMK government.

The Minister said the government was ready to release details of the expenditure for both the Tamil conference and the MGR centenary celebrations.