Tamil Nadu's principal Opposition party DMK on Wednesday promised to waive off loans availed by farmers and students for their education if it were to come to power after the Assembly elections due in April-May this year.
DMK President M K Stalin also promised to take steps to abolish National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions into medical colleges in the state. Stalin made the promises after attending Pongal celebrations organised by Tiruvallur District DMK.
“I promise that the DMK government will follow the footsteps of Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) in taking care of the needs of farmers. We will waive off loans of farmers when we come to power after four months. We mentioned in our 2019 election manifesto that we will also waive off gold loans up to five sovereigns for families that had been forced to mortgage gold due to financial difficulties,” Stalin said.
The DMK president recalled that his father and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had fulfilled his poll promise of waiving off all farm loans and providing free electricity to farmers. He also utilised the occasion to launch a tirade against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami accusing him of “betraying farmers” by supporting the controversial farm laws of the Centre.
On NEET, the DMK president said the state kept the entrance exam at arm's length distance during the tenures of Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa but was implemented in Tamil Nadu only after Palaniswami became the chief minister.
“The DMK is against NEET. We will take all steps to scrap the NEET after we come to power. I have said this earlier, and I make the promise once again,” Stalin said.
(Published 13 January 2021, 14:39 IST)
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