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Karunanidhi threatens to sue Jaya over 'defamatory' statement

The Tamil Nadu government will take legal action against All India DMK general secretary J Jayalalitha if she does not retract her "false and baseless charge" that the state government has mortgaged its assets to cover up its administrative inefficiency in power and transport sectors.

Announcing this the media in Madras over the weekend, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi termed as "fictitious", Jayalalitha's charge that the TN Electricity Board had mortgaged some of its assets with the International Monetary Fund to pay bonus to workers and clear Rs 15,000 to each of them by way of wage arrears.

He also denied Jayalaitha's allegation that there was a delay of 18 months in negotiating a pay hike for the TNEB workers. In fact, the pay hike became effective within three months of the hike in salaries of state government employees, he added.

Karunanidhi said Jayalalitha, as former chief minister, was aware that the IMF could not grant direct loans to state. "But she is resorting to making baseless charges with a view to preventing flow of private sector investment in the power sector and lower the credibility of the TNEB. This amounts to nothing but defamation," he charged.

UNI

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