Stalin scuttling project: EPS

‘Stormwater drainage was given importance under the project’

Leader of the Opposition Edapadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday accused Chief Minister M.K. Stalin of trying to stall the Smart City project in Chennai by making corruption charges.

He charged Mr. Stalin with making a “defamatory statement” and said storm-water drainage was given importance under the project executed in many municipal corporations. He visited rain-affected areas in Kolathur, Harbour, Villivakkam and R.K. Nagar, with party colleagues D. Jayakumar and J.C.D. Prabhakar.

Had precautionary measures been taken and coordinating officers posted, people would not have been affected; inundation could have been averted; and relief work could have been undertaken, he said. When the AIADMK was in power, an integrated storm-water drainage project for the Cooum and Adyar was executed at a cost of ₹1,385 crore, covering 406 km, he recalled.