Karunanidhi surprised at allies criticism of land scheme

Chennai, July 24 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today expressed surprise that some of the allies of the ruling DMK have found fault with the free land distribution scheme.

In a statement here, he said the opposition AIADMK and a section of the media, which supported it, had been alleging that the scheme was a failure, but he was surprised to see some of the DMK allies joining the list.

He said soon after coming to power in May last year, the DMK government had launched the free land distribution scheme to fulfill the promise made in the party's election manifesto.

Mr Karunanidhi said while launching the first phase of the scheme in September 17, coinciding with the birth anniversary of rationalist leader Periyar E V Ramasamy, he had made it clear that the scheme would be launched every three months, till all the available lands were distributed.

''After the launch of four phases, the DMK government had distributed 1,01,623 acres of land free of cost to 91,576 poor landless farm workers in the last one year,'' he said, adding that the beneficiaries included 24,774 Scheduled Castes and 28,880 Backward Classes.

He also said whenever the DMK came to power, it had shown interest in not only distributing lands free of cost to the poor, but also providing free house site pattas.

During 1967-75, 5,03,697 people were given free house site pattas and it was 4,78,095 during 1989-90, and 7,51,235 during 1996-2001, Mr Karunanidhi said.

UNI