Administrative lapses are the reason for the spread of the pandemic: MK Stalin

CHENNAI: DMK President MK Stalin on Thursday called out Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami's for seemingly passing the buck onto the vendors of the Koyambedu market as being the reason that the cluster was formed and cases rose exponentially over the last few weeks.

"The administrative lapse of the AIADMK government is the basic reason for the spread of the pandemic," Stalin said in a statement that was put out on his Twitter handle.

This comes after Palaniswami said the vendors of the large vegetable and fruit market in Chennai refused to move out of the premises to another market that the government had set up outside the city.


"Now, because many from Koyambedu have travelled to other districts, the number of infected people has gone up... This is the reason for the spike in cases in Chennai also," the leader of the opposition in the State said.

Further, Stalin said the government's move for a total lockdown was yet another reason for the dramatic increase in numbers.

"The government also announced a lockdown within a lockdown, and this also made people converge at large numbers at Koyambedu market. How can people and traders be blamed when the blame lies on the government," he questioned.

On Thursday, Tamil Nadu reported a marginal drop in the number of cases with 447 people testing positive for Covid-19. Of these cases, 363 were from Chennai. The total number of cases in the State stands at a whopping 9,674. This comes after the formation of several large clusters that led to the rapid spread of the infection.

As many as 2,240 people have recovered so far and the death toll in the State stands at 66.

Chennai is the worst affected district in the State with 5637 Covid-19 cases. The Chief Minister attributed the massive numbers in the state capital to high population density and emphasised that the State was testing aggressively.

A total of 2,80,023 individuals have been tested so far.