PMK firm on not sharing power in TN: Ramadoss

Madurai, June 28 (UNI) Reiterating PMK's stand on not sharing power in Tamil Nadu, party leader S Ramadoss today maintained that the party had set its sight on coming to power in 2011.

Addressing a press conference here, he asserted that PMK, a dominant constituent of the ruling DMK-led DPA, would not join a coalition government, considering the present political situation.

Declining to predict the possibility of a coalition government taking shape in the state, the PMK supremo feigned ignorance over the subject.

The party's 'Ooty Declaration,' released after General Council meeting at Udhagamandalam positioned PMK as the real alternative in Tamil Nadu, to provide a government in the year 2011, he informed.

Stating that the party was preparing a document, 'Vision 2020', an agenda for the development of Tamil Nadu, he said it would be placed for wider debate before the academia, intelligentsia and the public. After incorporating the suggestions, it would be released, he added.

''It is necessary for the party acquiring power or leading a government to carry out the agenda,'' he noticed.

Talking about the Mullaperiyar dam issue, Dr Ramadoss said Kerala's demand for a new dam was unnecessary and misplaced besides being diversionary strategy. ''Why a new dam when the existing one is strong,'' he said.

Kerala's apprehensions over the safety of the dam were described and dismissed as 'unscientific.' Such misgivings have been cleared by the elaborate study of Central Water Commission. The only question was raising the storage to 142 ft as per Supreme Court's order, he said.

The PMK leader pointed out that hiking the storage from the reduced 136 ft to the court ordered interim 142 ft would account for only 1.6 tmc ft of water. Even if it is highly unlikely, in the event of a breach, water would flow to the 70 tmfc ft capacity Idukki dam, downstream.

Ridiculing the campaign that five districts would be submerged, as something that lacked simple logic, he said those places were at a much higher altitude. Such hoaxes were being played up with an ulterior motive, he added.

UNI