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Kumar reiterates he quit due to ill-health

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham Rajya Sabha member Raghavachari Krishna Kumar, who quit last night as Union minister of state for finance, today reiterated that his resignation was due to health reasons.

Talking to the media at a private hospital in Madras, where he is being treated for the last week, he said he had submitted his resignation papers to AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha as early on as May 9 for forwarding it to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

''I had appealed to her to forward the resignation to Mr Vajpayee when she visited me here three days ago,'' he added.

Asked about the mass transfer of income tax officials attached to his department last month, he said it was a routine affair. Such transfers had been effected during the tenure of P Chidambaram as finance minister.

Kumar denied reports in a section of the media that he had to resign since he had failed to prevent the serving of a fresh notice by the Enforcement Directorate to Sasikala Natarajan, a close associate of Jayalalitha. The cases will take their course in the courts, he added.

Replying to a question, he said he was satisfied about Union Minister of State Kadambur Janarthanam taking additional charge of the portfolios held by him.

UNI

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