Responding to Chief Minister MK Stalin who said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had not fulfilled the promises it made for Ramanathapuram district, BJP state president K Annamalai questioned him on what the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had done for Dhanushkodi, (a town abandoned after the 1964 cyclone), in spite of being in power for six times in the state.

Speaking to people during the En Mann En Makkal padayatra in Kanyakumari district, he said that it took Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come to power for starting work on a bridge and a road to once again connect Dhanushkodi with Rameswaram.

Further, he said that it is because of the road built by the Modi government that people are now able to visit Dhanushkodi.

He added that Chief Minister Stalin should use his own knowledge to speak instead of reading out text written by others so that he does not commit mistakes like this.

In a letter posted on social media, he said that the DMK had forgotten about the rehabilitation of the town in spite of holding ministries like Shipping and Highways at the Centre as it was busy looking after the interests of the first family.

He said that the DMK had not fulfilled its poll promises of building 2 lakh houses for fishermen, setting up a fisheries college, cold storage facilities and increasing the aid provided during the fishing-ban period to Rs 8000.

After addressing a meeting of DMK booth agents in Ramanathapuram yesterday (17 August), Chief Minister Stalin today (18 August) addressed a conference of fishermen in Mandapam town of the district.

He said that the BJP had promised to retrieve Katchatheevu Island which was given to Sri Lanka but did not take any steps to do it.

Saying that his party had always stood by the fishermen, he said that his father M Karunanidhi had opposed the move of the Indira Gandhi government to give Katchatheevu and that he (Stalin) always writes to Prime Minister Modi whenever fishermen from the state are arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy, seeking their early release.

He also announced the increase in financial aid during the fishing-ban period to Rs 8000.