PMK founder S Ramadoss lashed out at the DMK and AIADMK

Kumbakonam:

        PMK founder S Ramadoss lashed out at the DMK and AIADMK, saying they had failed to find a solution to a host of issues especially agriculture. The Dravidian parties have been ruling the state for the past 44 years but have not found solution to the problem of agriculture, he said, canvassing for his party candidates in the local body polls in Aduthurai town panchayat and other union panchayats. He claimed that the PMK was the only alternative to both the parties.

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The Pattali Makkal Katchi will go it alone in the local body polls, party founder S. Ramadoss

IN SOLIDARITY: PMK founder S. Ramadoss at a demonstration organised by his party in support of those who are on fast against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power project, in Chennai on Monday. Photo : M. Vedhan

       The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) will go it alone in the local body polls, party founder S. Ramadoss said on Monday.

      “We have conveyed our decision to Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol. Thirumavalavan, who is keen on joining hands with our party to face the election,” Dr. Ramadoss told The Hindu.

         PMK president G.K. Mani and former Minister of State for Railways R. Velu met Mr. Thirumavalavan, who is undergoing treatment at Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital, Porur, and explained the reasons behind the PMK's decision to contest alone. The VCK wanted to create an alliance by bringing together political parties on the platform of Tamil nationalism. Even the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by Vaiko favoured the idea. However, the efforts have fallen through because of the PMK decision.

          “This election will be fought purely on local issues and ideology has no role to play. DMK president M. Karunanidhi has also expressed similar views,” Dr. Ramadoss pointed out. The PMK leader said that he had been saying that all parties should contest alone on their own strength and the local body polls had given an opportunity to prove his party's strength. “We can field as many candidates as possible and it will galvanise the party organisation and our party symbol will reach a wider section of the voters.”

            He said that going it alone would not come in the way of the PMK working closely with the VCK on people's issues. Later, addressing a demonstration organised by his party in support of those on a fast against the Kudankulam Atomic Power Project, Dr. Ramadoss urged Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to visit the area end their struggle. “She should ensure that the project is decommissioned in view of the potential threat it poses to the people in those areas. The Chief Minister should hold talks with the Centre to close down the atomic power plants in Kudankulam and Kalpakkam.” PMK president G.K. Mani, who called on the protesters in Idinthakarai village, said the government should withdraw cases against them.

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The Pattali Makkal Katchi has criticised the Navy's plan to hold joint exercises with its Sri Lankan counterpart.

       

         The Pattali Makkal Katchi has criticised the Navy's plan to hold joint exercises with its Sri Lankan counterpart.

   In a statement, PMK leader S. Ramadoss said it was learnt that after these exercises, it India planned to extend quite a lot of assistance to Sri Lankan Navy. “India, which has been renovating the Kankesanturai port in Sri Lanka at a huge cost, is about to extend training and other assistance to the Sri Lankan Navy. When the whole of Tamil Nadu is demanding that India have no relations whatsoever with Sri Lanka, it is improper for the Indian Navy to engage itself in joint naval exercises with the same country”. He pleaded that the Indian government respect the sentiments of Tamilians and cancel the joint naval exercises. Besides, it should sever military ties with Sri Lanka and initiate measures to treat the country as one that had committed war crimes.

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PMK slams India''s move to help Lanka set up power plant

Chennai:

            The PMK today condemned India''s move to help Sri Lanka set up a power plant, saying it only meant that the Centre had chosen "not to honour" Tamil Nadu assembly resolution seeking economic sanctions against the island republic over the Tamil rehabilitation issue.

           Criticising the move to help Lanka establish the 500 MW coal-based power plant near Trincomallee, PMK founder S Ramadoss said the "action was like saying they (Centre) will never heed to the voice of Tamils". Drawing comparisons between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee''s objections on the Teesta water-sharing issue and the assembly resolution, Ramadoss said while the Centre called off signing of agreement on Teesta with Bangladesh following her protest, it had "chosen not to honour" the Tamil Nadu assembly resolution.

          "It is shocking to see that the Centre which is observing federal principles with West Bengal did not do the same with Tamil Nadu," he said in a statement. India''s power generation utility NTPC had signed a joint venture pact with Ceylon Electricity Board in this regard.TN Assembly adopted an unanimous resolution in June seeking imposition of economic sanctions on Lanka by India to ''rein in'' Colombo on the Tamil issue while pressing for speedy rehabilitation of displaced Tamils.

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Hospital should be on par with AIIMS: PMK Founder S.Ramadoss

Chennai:

        PMK today welcomed the Tamil Nadu government's decision to make use of the newly built assembly complex for establishing a super speciality hospital and a medical college. 

        PMK founder S Ramadoss said that he had on August 11 suggested to establish a hospital on par with All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Delhi in the new assembly complex. "The decision to start hospital and medical college has brushed aside the fear in the people's mind that what was to happen to a building that costed Rs 1,200 crore of public money," he said in a statement.

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PMK founder leader S Ramadoss Briefing mediapersons

PMK founder-leader S Ramadoss yesterday said that his son Anbumani Ramadoss was more efficient as a Union Minister than former Chief Minister of Tamilnadu M Karunanidhi's elder son M K Alagiri.            Briefing mediapersons here, Ramadoss said that when Anbumani was the Union Minister, he spoke at length for more than 55 minutes. But Union Chemical and Fertilisers Minister M M K Alagiri had never spoken in the House. Taking a dig at former Minister Ponmudi who recently said dynasty politics was prevalent in PMK, Ramadoss said Alagiri without any caliber could become a Union Minister so what could be wrong in Anbumani becoming so for he was already a doctor.

'Anbumani in his capacity as a Union Minister had received three international awards and had won the appreciation from the Prime Minister of India and health organisations. According to a decision taken at the party General Council meeting, a front under PMK would be formed and contest in the local body elections. I apologise for having aligned with both the Dravidian parties. Refusing to give assessment about the functioning of the AIADMK government, he said the State government should take all private schools for a 99- year lease and run them. He demanded the State government to pass a resolution relating to annulling the death sentence for the convicts in the Rajiv assassination case.

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Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss staged a demonstration for implement the Samacheer Kalvi Thittam

  

 

 PMK founder S.Ramadoss being taken in a police van for staging a demonstration without permission at Tindivanam on Tuesday

      Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss, along with a large number of party workers, courted arrest here on Tuesday.

         Defying police direction, they staged a demonstration in front of the taluk office here, urging the government to immediately implement the Samacheer Kalvi Thittam. The police took Dr. Ramadoss and some other frontline leaders in a separate van and the party cadres in buses to a nearby marriage hall. Since the vehicles could not accommodate all of them, some cadres travelled on the roof tops of the buses. No sooner did they enter the marriage hall, instructions came from the higher-ups to free them.

During his brief stay at the hall, Dr. Ramadoss told The Hindu that the Jayalalithaa government could trifle with any thing but not the education of 1.20 crore students whose career prospects and future depended on it.

              Somehow, from the beginning, the government seemed to have adopted a reprehensible attitude towards the Samacheer Kalvi Thittam or Uniform System of School Education (USSE), which was intended to bring about equality among students regardless of their economic background. The PMK has been insisting that the government facilitate free, compulsory, standardised and equitable education to all and, with this objective, staged a number of agitations, he said. He faulted the erstwhile Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) regime for diluting the recommendations of the Muthukumaran Committee, particularly the one related to the medium of instruction.

          The Committee had favoured the mother-tongue as the medium of instruction except in English. But, what was dished out by the previous government was not in conformity with the Committee's recommendation. Therefore, he would prefer to call it not as an equitable system of education but a “compromised system of education.” Dr. Ramadoss said that the incumbent government should have rectified the shortcomings and implemented the system. Instead, it had gone for change of statute and moved courts against the USSE.

No to freebies

  

         Dr. Ramadoss said nobody wanted freebies but would opt for equitable education that would enable the poor and the downtrodden to get quality education thereby brightening their career prospects. He said that the distribution of free cattle could wait but the government should distribute the new books already printed and kept ready to students without delay. Dr. Ramadoss was critical of the government's restrictions on staging democratic and peaceful agitation on vital causes such as education. When the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagtam was in the opposition, it used to stage a series of agitations but the then government never came in its way. Though the PMK had sought permission from the Director General of Police and the District Police Offices for staging the State-wide agitation on Tuesday, this was denied. Yet, the party went ahead with the agitation. After his release, Dr. Ramadoss called upon the cadre to disperse peacefully and not damage public property.

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PMK Founder Dr.Ramadoss Released shadow Agri-budget for Farmers

          DMK’s ally, the PMK, on Thursday said law will take its course on the issue of CBI implicating DMK leader and Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran in the 2G spectrum scam.

         “Let law take its own course,” party founder S Ramadoss told reporters in Chennai. Asked about Mr. Maran’s continuance in the Union Cabinet, Dr Ramadoss said it was the Prime Minister’s prerogative to decide on the matter.

         Mr. Maran is in the eye of a storm following the CBI’s report to Supreme Court implicating him in the 2G spectrum scam. In its status report on the 2G scam probe placed in the apex court on Wednesday, the investigation agency alleged that Mr. Maran had ‘forced’ Aircel owner to sell its stakes in favour of a Malaysian firm which was granted spectrum licence when he was Telecom Minister during 2004-07.

          On the death of a 13 year-old-boy inside army premises in Chennai on Sunday, Dr Ramadoss said “Police should have by now arrested the culprit and put him behind bars (as) it is not a big deal to nail the accused. The incident had happened inside the army campus,” he said. Releasing his party’s ‘shadow Agriculture budget,’ Dr Ramadoss charged the army with not cooperating with investigating CB-CID wing of state police in its investigation. On his party’s ‘shadow Agri-budget,’ Dr Ramadoss said it had provisions for developing the key sector and contained various measures for the welfare of farmers. Organic farming, mechanised farming, revival and maintenance of water bodies and special nutritious meal schemes were some of the provisions, he said. 

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PMK general council to decide on ties with DMK

      Insisting that the ties with the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi will continue, Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss said here on Friday that a decision on the continuance of his party in the alliance led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the local body polls, scheduled later this year, could be taken only by the executive committee and general council of the party.

            He was addressing a press conference where he released the ‘shadow budget' of his party for 2011-12. Dr. Ramadoss was critical of the Dravidian parties ruling the State in the last 40 years, saying they had “ruined” several generations by allowing free flow of liquor. He sought total prohibition. To begin with shops should remain open only for three hours a day and there should be mandatory closure on festival days, Saturdays and Sundays. On the 2G spectrum allocation scam, in which Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran too had come under a cloud, he said: “Law will take its own course.”

Said Dr. Ramadoss: 

          “Though we have been demanding that an action taken report on the previous budget, an economic survey and an outcome budget regarding the impact of the previous budget as presented by the Central government every year be tabled, no party in power in Tamil Nadu had bothered to do so.” Urging the State government to shun freebies, he said: “All that we want is free, compulsory and equitable education. Similarly, everyone should get free healthcare, which should be made a fundamental right.” He sought a separate Minister for primary education.

        He demanded reservation of 100 per cent in which every community would have “proportional representation based on population”. He came down heavily on the previous government for failing to carry out a census as enunciated by the Supreme Court to determine the percentage of reservation. Dr. Ramadoss demanded a separate budget for agriculture, “which is facing total ruin in a few years from now.” He pleaded that farmers be given at least six hours of uninterrupted power supply during day time. His party was totally opposed to Special Economic Zones, which had no impact on the development of the State so far.

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PMK thumbs its nose at academicians on kalvi panel

              The appointment of Mrs Y.G. Parthasarathy of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan group of schools and Mr C. Jayadev of DAV group of school as members in the expert review committee under the academician’s category by the state government has evoked sharp protests from various quarters.

          Expressing shock over the appointment of the two in the panel to review Samacheer Kalvi textbooks, PMK founder S. Ramadoss said both candidates would not befit the definition of academician.

              “Both the nominees are running private schools in Chennai, which collect exorbitant fees from students. They run schools to cater to the needs of the elite and the rich. They do not know the struggle of poor parents to provide quality education to their wards,” Dr Ramadoss said.

          Raising doubts over their neutrality in the introduction of Samacheer Kalvi, Dr Ramadoss wondered why the government had chosen the two ignoring many eminent academicians. “It only shows the government’s intention not to introduce uniform education system. The nine-member panel should be scrapped and reconstituted with scholars who are really committed to the task,” he said. The SFI and DYFI, the student and youth wings of the CPM, came down heavily on the government for appointing the two.

          Stating that the SC should have constituted the committee on its own, social activist A. Marx said except the two NCERT members, the committee would not do any justice as the rest are bureaucrats and administrative heads of private schools who want different boards of education to continue in the state. 

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DMK-led front will secure impressive win: Ramadoss

TINDIVANAM: 

        The DMK-led front will secure an impressive victory in the Assembly elections, Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss said on Wednesday. Dr. Ramadoss was speaking to reporters after casting his vote , along with his family members, including former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, at the polling station in Muslim Middle School here.

People determined

           He said that since people were quite clear on returning DMK leader M. Karunanidhi to power, their verdict would enable the latter to assume office of Chief Minister for the sixth time.

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