The AIADMK co-coordinator, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, on Thursday urged the State government to oppose strongly the proposal for clearance sought by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation for hydrocarbon projects proposed by it in Ariyalur district.
In a statement, he recalled that the previous AIADMK regime did not give permission for any such project mooted by the ONGC or any firm in the private sector.
His statement follows the publication of a news item in The Hindu that the ONGC had sought environmental clearance for drilling exploratory wells at 15 places in Tamil Nadu, including 10 in Ariyalur district and five in Cuddalore district.
In a separate statement, Mr. Palaniswami and the party coordinator, O. Panneerselvam, criticised the DMK for, what they called, carrying out violence against members of the AIADMK’s information technology (IT) wing and filing “false cases” against their party volunteers. They asked the DMK leadership to intervene in this regard.
The two leaders also announced re-organisation of the Chennai and Coimbatore zones of the IT wing and appointed the party spokesperson, M. Kovai Sathyan, secretary for the Chennai zone, replacing ‘Aspire’ K. Swaminathan, who had been relieved of the membership of the party.
