Tamil Nadu: Condemning the Tamil Nadu government for increasing electricity tariff, property taxes, milk and other commodities prices, the state opposition party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) held a series of protests over the past few days.

The protesters also condemned the DMK for its alleged failure to implement its poll promises in the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections and for the disorderly state of law and order in Tamil Nadu.

The protest demonstrations are part of AIADMK’s three-phase agitation across the state highlighting the ‘anti-people’ policies of the state government.

Since the shift in the ruling party in May 2021, the AIADMK has been criticised from various quarters for not being an “effective opposition”.

‘PROMISES UNMET’

Former Chief Minister and interim general secretary of AIADMK, Edappadi K Palaniswami, participated in the protest in his native district Salem on December 13. He said the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister “Stalin made 525 election promises, but none of the important promises was fulfilled”.

He listed out unmet promises from DMK’s election manifesto. It included Rs 1,000 per month assistance for women family-heads, monthly Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) subsidy of Rs 100, increasing old-age pension to Rs 1,500, increasing Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) work days to 150 days and others.

“The DMK has deceived people by promising all these attractive schemes that could not be fulfilled,” said Palaniswami.

He also denounced the ‘Dravidian model’ idea purported by the DMK, stating “it is nothing but commission, collection and corruption.”

The protests in Salem continued despite a brief spell of rain.

The protest programmes scheduled for last week were postponed in most of the districts in the wake of Cyclone Mandous, which hit the east coast on December 9.

CONSEQUENT HIKES

The power tariff in the state increased from Rs 3 per unit for 500 units to Rs 4.50 up to 400 units for domestic consumers on September 10. Also, the state announced that the power tariff would be hiked every year on July 1 from 2023-24 to 2026-27 based on inflation.

The state power tariff was hiked after a gap of eight years. Political parties across the spectrum condemned it for not considering the poor economic scenario led by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2022, the Tamil Nadu government increased the property tax in various corporations, municipalities and panchayats to the range of 25-150 per cent.

The state-run Aavin cooperative increased the price of the premium segment of milk by 25% on November 5 following the increase in the procurement price of milk.

Milk products had already faced a hike this year. Due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) imposed by the Union government, the price of milk and milk products was hiked in July 2022. Notably, Aavin’s hike was higher than the tax imposed by the Centre.

AIADMK’s protest demonstrations were held in the wake of Udhayanidhi Stalin’s induction into Stalin’s cabinet. At the protest speeches, AIADMK leaders condemned the decision to make him the Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development and denounced it as an assertion of ‘family rule’.

‘AIADMK ALSO RESPONSIBLE’

Commenting on the hikes and AIADMK’s protests, Communist Party of India (Marxist) state committee member Sindhan Ra said “these hikes are not limited to the present government, they are a continuation from the previous AIADMK regime.”

Sindhan gave an example of the power tariff hike and said, “AIADMK accepted the BJP-led union government’s policies towards privatisation and commercialisation of power. The present hikes are a result of that.”

AIADMK supported the union government’s Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), which bails out state-owned distribution firms struggling with debt.

“AIADMK claims to be a Dravidian party, the core principle of which is federalism, but they have supported centralisation of power. The states are not getting their due funds and the hikes are a means to expand state coffer. By holding these protests AIADMK is cheating the public” he said.

CPI(M) held a state-wide signature campaign in August 2022 demanding the DMK government to roll back the power tariff hike citing that businesses were recovering post-pandemic lockdowns and the power tariff would be a big blow.