Senthil Balaji dismisses ED's TASMAC fraud claims, calling them baseless and politically motivated amid AIADMK-BJP protests
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government’s assertion of its rights through the resistance to the three-language policy and the demand for fair treatment in the delimitation process were the causes for the Union Government unleashing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for searches at Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) offices, State Minister for Electricity and Prohibition V Senthil Balaji said.
Speaking to media persons at the Secretariat after the opposition parties, AIADMK and BJP, staged a walkout from the Assembly on the first day of the Budget session on Friday protesting against Speaker M Appavu’s refusal to allow a discussion on the alleged Rs 1000 crore fraud in TASMAC until the State Budget and Agricultural Budget were presented, Senthil Balaji said the government would face the ED action legally.
Pointing out that the ED had not clearly stated the basis for the allegation of irregularities by not mentioning the relevant FIR, he said that it was only a generalized charge without any evidence. The Minister recalled BJP State President K Annamalai making the same charge of Rs 1000 crore corruption in the past and said the ED was merely parroting it.
Asserting that absolute transparency was maintained in the operations of the TASMAC, he said the liquor marketing corporation was being run in the same manner in which it was run during the previous AIADMK government.
No fresh license was issued for opening distilleries, no additional shops were opened and the same procedures followed by the AIADMK government were being adhered to, Senthil Balaji said.
It was interesting to watch AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaiswami coming out with different figures for alleged corruption like Rs 1000 crore, Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 2,000 crore as though he was taking part in an auction, he said, denying all the charges of corruption made by ED.
Earlier, Palaniswami said the DMK government should resign taking moral responsibility for the Rs 1000 crore fraud in TASMAC, as the ED had mentioned, adding that his party had already given a notice for moving a no confidence motion against the Speaker.
They were walking out of the House because no action had been taken on the notice for a no confidence motion, he said. However, it is learnt that the Speaker had allowed the notice for moving the motion to be taken up on Monday.
Leader of the BJP party in the Assembly, Nainar Nagendran said that his party MLAs walked out because they were not allowed to discuss the alleged Rs 1000 crore fraud in TASMAC.
He questioned the need for the DMK government to change the widely accepted symbol for rupee in the logo for the Budget and the opposition to three-language policy that only mandated the teaching of any language and said the DMK had been doing these things to cover up its corruption.
BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan said that the DMK had lost the moral right to present the Budget after the ED had accused of large scale corruption in TASMAC and that their members had come dressed in black to draw the attention of all to the issue.
Senthil Balaji, in a statement, denied all the allegations made by the ED through its press release and pointed out the discrepancies in it. All transfers in TASMAC were carried out in a legitimate manner following the accepted procedures on various grounds and all contracts were issued properly, he said.
He said that allegations of irregularities to the tune of Rs 1000 crore had no basis and had been made with ulterior motives without any evidence.
