Tamil Nadu Opposition flay Governor praising Jayalalithaa

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah faced flak from opposition parties for praising former chief minister J Jayalalithaa while delivering his address to the State assembly that opened its session today.

"Governor has congratulated former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. It is quite amusing and strange that a person who has been awarded a fine of Rs 100 crore and a four year jail term has been praised in Assembly," DMK Chief M Karunanidhi hit out in a statement here.

"The address was like an advertisement listing out the projects taken up by the government so far. There is no mention of projects and policies the government intend to initiate during the coming year," he said.

"It looks like the Governor's address was conducted just for the sake of it since Jayalalithaa was not the Chief Minister. It has not been satisfactory to anyone", Karunanidhi lamented.

The address was also criticised by PMK Leader S Ramadoss who said, "By praising Jayalalithaa who has been thrown away from her Chief Minister's post following her conviction, the dignity of Assembly has fallen into an immeasurable depth."

"Those who are in power have changed the Assembly like a AIADMK General Council meeting and Governor Rosaiah likes AIADMK officials", Ramadoss said in a statement.

"The objective of Governor's address is to highlight the proposed projects to be taken up by the Government in the coming financial year. But, there was no mention of projects to address the issues faced by Tamil Nadu," he added.

Addressing the session, Rosaiah lauded Jayalalithaa for her efforts to secure the rights of the state in river water disputes and highlighted Tamil Nadu's efforts on every aspect of governance like law and order over which it was criticised by opposition even as DMK, CPI(M) and Puthiya Tamilagam boycotted his first address to the House for the year.