3 Cong MLAs stage dharna

Three Congress MLAs, including
Leader of the Opposition V Vaithilingam, today staged a dharna in the assembly premises here, alleging 'deliberate neglect' of constituencies represented by their party in distribution of free mixies and grinders by the government.
The other two MLAs who took part in the sudden protest were A Namasivayam, also the PCC President, and K Lakshminarayanan.
Vaithilingam told reporters that the government was "ignoring" the constituencies held by the opposition in making available the home appliances to the ration card holders.
He said that the government should announce immediately constituency wise dates when the mixies and grinders would be distributed.

On hearing about the agitation, Assembly Speaker V Sabapathy came to the spot and persuaded the MLAs to give up their agitation, promising that all segments would be covered under the scheme before the end of this month.

Although Congress has seven legislators in the assembly, only three MLAs took part in the dharna.
Police were deployed in strength outside the Assembly campus and both the doors at the main gate were closed.
AIADMK also alleged discrimination in implementation of the scheme to distribute free mixies and grinders.
Deputy leader of the AIADMK legislature wing A Anbalagan alleged at a press conference that the government was ignoring his Uppalam constituency in implementation of the scheme.