Chennai, December 12: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday flayed AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa for her party’s decision to hold a demonstration in Delhi next week against the proposed Marine Fisheries (Regulation and Management) Bill.
Mr. Karunanidhi said Ms. Jayalalithaa was making the move with an intention of garnering fishing community votes in the coming assembly bypolls.
He said he had raised the issue with the Centre even before AIADMK had announced its opposition to the bill.
“I had written to Union Food Minister Sharad Pawar on November 19 itself (detailing the opposition by fishermen and calling for wider consultation with stakeholders on provisions of limiting fishing to 12 nautical miles).
“But she had remained quiet all this while and suddenly announced a demonstration in Delhi. She has done so only to garner the votes of the fishing community in Tiruchendur assembly by-polls (on Dec19),” he said in a statement here.
The DMK president said he had deputed Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran to meet Pawar on the issue early this week.
Pawar had assured that the bill would not be tabled in the current session without consulting Chief Ministers and other stakeholders, he said.
–Agencies