PM Narendra Modi assured action on TN's demands: CM Stalin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that appropriate action will be taken on the issues raised on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said.

Expressing satisfaction and happiness over his meeting with the Prime Minister and other Central Ministers, Stalin said, "I explained in detail the demands of Tamil Nadu, and the Prime Minister assured me of appropriate action."

He took up the Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution seeking for the State NEET exemption. He had said the Governor delayed sending to the President the resolution for his assent. "Apart from this, I requested the Central government's intervention in ensuring equal civil and political rights for Eelam Tamils," the Chief Minister told reporters after his meeting with the Prime Minister.

During his meeting with the Home Minister Amit Shah, Stalin said he stressed on further modernisation of the police and fire service. He said he sought defence and infrastructural projects during his meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

"In addition to urging the Centre to set up Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) labs in Tamil Nadu, I sought several road infrastructural projects, including six laning of the Chennai- Kanyakumari national highway and Tambaram-Chengalpattu elevated expressway," he said.

He said he would meet Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday. Stalin said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would accompany the former to the Delhi Model School on that day.

Meanwhile, AIADMK co-coordinator K Palaniswami ridiculed Stalin and asked him to explain what the AIADMK leader said was a mystery behind the Delhi visit after his DMK flew "Go back Modi" black balloons in Chennai protesting against the Prime Minister's visit to Tamil Nadu during the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Wondering if it had anything to do with his recent trip to Dubai, Palaniswami mocked the DMK's change in stance and referred to the party's black balloon protest. "Then, the DMK members stooped to a low level in criticising the Prime Minister. People now say that Stalin undertook the Delhi visit with the hope that the Prime Minister, forgetting the past, will save him and his family," Palaniswami said in a statement here.

The AIADMK senior leader, who has criticised the Chief Minister's overseas trip as a family trip rather than one to attract foreign investments, said complaints have been sent to the Central government on the matter. This probably prompted Stalin to go to the capital, Palaniswami added.