Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan while speaking at an event held on 17 November 2022 criticized the functioning of the cooperatives department, saying, “On the basis of principle and historically, we can say that co-operatives have been functioning good. But the functioning capacity, data, technology requires work to be done. Daily, in many places, there have been reports of frequent raids and about smuggling being on the rise in the Cooperative department. In today’s world, it is difficult to administer these cooperatives without end-to-end computerization. So, there are lot of possibilites for mistakes. At the same time, the aggregate value.. in gross.. I am not satisfied. I am telling this as a Finance Minister. There is more work to be done.”
This interview with Tamil Nadu Finance Minister did not go well with the DMK Cooperatives Department Minister, who reacted sharply to his ministerial colleague’s comments.
கூட்டுறவுத் துறையில் ஊழல்,. போட்டு கொடுத்த PTR; பதிலடி கொடுத்த பெரியசாமி | Thamarai TV#thamaraitv #dmk #ptr #mkstalin #periyasamy #corruption @ptrmadurai @IPeriyasamymla @CTR_Nirmalkumar @BJP4TamilNadu @HRajaBJP @annamalai_k pic.twitter.com/LSw4cwQOAy
— Thamarai TV (@ThamaraiTVTamil) November 18, 2022
Minister for Cooperation I Periyasamy said on Friday (18 November 2022) that the people of Tamil Nadu were satisfied with the functioning of his department and that he didn’t care about comments from people who had no knowledge of ration shops, contradicting comments made by Minister for Finance PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Thursday that the Co-operative Department lacked transparency and that he was unhappy with how it was functioning.
In the presence of District Collector S Visakan, Ministers of Co-operation I Periyasamy and Food and Civil Supplies R Sakkarapani took part in the 69th All India Co-operative Week celebrations in the district and distributed welfare measures to the beneficiaries.
I Periyasamy told the press after the event, “Loans worth Rs 35,000 crore have been provided to farmers. We’re also attempting to make a record number of loans to self-help organizations.”
In response to a question about PTR’s remarks about the Co-operative Department, he stated, “I have been in politics for the last 50 years, and Minister Sakkarapani has been in politics for 30 years. He was elected MLA for the sixth time in a row. If PTR brings any specific irregularity to my attention, I will garland him and take action against the erring staff. Until then, I am not going to bother about comments from people who know nothing about ration shops.”
(with inputs from Vikatan)
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