Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has reiterated his charge, this time by quoting files, that his predecessor and AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha allowed the memorandum of understanding that her government had signed with the Tatas for a titanium dioxide project to lapse in 2005.
She did this in order to favour Vaikundarajan, proprietor of V V Minerals and a shareholder in Jaya TV who was involved in illegal mining of garnet stone in the Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts where the project was proposed to come up.
Denying the charge, Ms Jayalalitha has threatened to initiate legal action against him. Denying her contention that she allowed the MoU, signed in 2002 to lapse in 2005 in the face of opposition from Tirunelveli and Tuticorin district collectors to acquisition of 15,000 acres of land, Mr Karunanidhi has cited a letter dated August 8, 2005, from the then Tuticorin collector, recommending acquisition of 12,500 acres of land.
The CM referred to the relevant clause in the MoU, which said the government of Tamil Nadu would acquire necessary lands and transfer them to the Tata Steel.