NLC divestment: Jaya seeks DMK Ministers' resignation

Chennai, June 27 (UNI) AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa today said the DMK had collective responsibility in Centre's decision to disinvest ten per cent of the equity in NLC and NALCO and demanded the resignation of DMK Ministers from the Union Cabinet.

In a three-page statement here, she said ''if the DMK Ministers in the Union Cabinet state they had no collective responsibility to the Centre's decision, then they should resign, owning moral responsibility''.

Rebutting DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's remarks that he was not aware whether the DMK Ministers attended the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs meeting, she said people would not believe this.

''Is it not possible for Mr Karunanidhi to check and verify whether the Ministers had attended the meeting or not. In the event of the Ministers giving their nod without his knowledge, then the DMK Chief should have pulled them up and made them resign from the Union Cabinet,'' Ms Jayalalithaa said.

After being part of the decision and announcing that his party would participate in the agitation to oppose the disinvestment move, 'only showed the double standards of the DMK,' she added.

Announcing that the Anna Thozhir Sanga Peravai, affiliated to the AIADMK, would participate in the July four indefinite strike by the NLC employees to condemn the disinvestment move, Ms Jayalalithaa called upon the leaders of other trade unions to oppose the DMK's participation in the stir.

''The NLC employees should understand the double standards of the DMK.

''If Mr Karunanidhi is really interested in opposing the disinvestment proposal, then he should ask his party Ministers to resign from the Union Cabinet,'' she demanded.

She urged the Centre to immediately drop the disinvestment move following opposition from various political parties, trade unions and the public.

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