Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa attacks DMK over safety of students

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today hit out at opposition DMK over safety of students in the state and referred to the clash among law students here during previous Karunanidhi-led government, charging the police of being mere silent spectators.

Intervening DMK member Govi.Chezhiyan when he spoke about safety of students during his party's regimes during a discussion in the assembly on the grants for Higher Education Department, she said "we all know how the DMK government safeguarded students."

Without mentioning the 2008 campus violence involving two groups of Dr Ambedkar Government Law College students, Jayalalithaa said, "the entire country saw on TV how their (DMK) government made one group of students attack another, while making police stand as silent spectators."

The affected students were severely injured, she added. Meanwhile, responding to a question of delay in distribution of laptops to colleges students as promised in AIADMK's manifesto made in 2011, Jayalalithaa said the problem was on the supply side.

With the suppliers, selected on the basis of tenders, sourcing hard-disks from Taiwan, the process had been affected severely due to recent floods there, she said.

"We intend to distribute laptops to all; we are prepared, but the supplying companies are not ready and they are doing it in a phased manner," she said.