Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami claimed on Sunday that former Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao provided the state wrong information about the death of J Jayalalithaa, PTI reported. He alleged that Rao was trying to “shield someone” by doing so, but did not name anybody.
The Tamil Nadu government has ordered an investigation into the former chief minister’s death. The commission responsible for the investigation has been asked to “inquire into the circumstances and situation leading to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa on September 22, 2016, and the subsequent treatment provided to her till her demise on December 5, 2016”.
The Tamil Nadu government had set up a Commission of Inquiry under Justice A Arumughaswamy in September after state ministers made contradicting claims about their access to Jayalalithaa while she was hospitalised. Tamil Nadu Forest Minister Dindigul Srinivasan had claimed leaders of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had misled the public into believing that Jayalalithaa’s health was improving as they were afraid of Sasikala. Days later, Tamil Nadu Co-operation Minister Sellur K Raju added to the speculation by saying that all ministers met the former chief minister when she was in hospital.
On Sunday, Palaniswami also commented on several other matters. On the Cauvery dispute, which has led to recent protests across the state by political parties and even movie stars, Palaniswami said the problem cannot be solved through Twitter and Facebook, but only legally. The chief minister said he had submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to constitute the Cauvery Water Management Board as per the Supreme Court orders.
On the ongoing agitation against the Thoothukudi Sterlite Copper Smelter Plant, Palaniswami said the facility had been closed in 2003 and the case was in court. Since February, large-scale protests have taken place in Thoothukudi, where Sterlite Copper runs a copper smelter with the capacity to produce 4.38 lakh tonnes of copper anodes per annum, or 1,200 tonnes per day. The protestors accuse Sterlite Copper of contaminating the environment. On April 10, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board refused to renew the company’s licence to operate.
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