CHENNAI: Electricity and law minister CTR Nirmal Kumar on Monday said DMK president MK Stalin had lost the moral right to question the TVK government, alleging that several malpractices took place under the previous DMK regime when Stalin was at its helm.The minister criticised the previous government over its handling of cases involving crimes against children and alleged irregularities in school safety certification.Defending the present government’s response to the missing girl case in Gingee, he said police teams had been searching for her for several days, with the Director-General of Police reviewing the investigation daily.“Teams were pursuing various leads and a statewide alert had been issued,” he said.Nirmal Kumar accused the previous government of failing to ensure accountability in cases involving offences against children.Referring to the Kumbakonam school fire tragedy, he alleged that school safety certification had become a means of collecting money from educational institutions. He also alleged corruption in the issuance of safety certificates to thousands of schools.On electricity-related matters, the minister said the government had strengthened its monsoon preparedness by flagging off 82 additional fuse-of-call (FOC) vehicles to attend to power faults, in addition to the existing fleet of 70 vehicles.“Each vehicle will have four personnel and be deployed across Chennai and neighbouring districts, including Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu. Similar arrangements would be made in other districts. The department had also deployed 12 crane-equipped vehicles to attend to faults involving high-tension lines,” he said.On the power situation, Nirmal Kumar said several states had faced shortages and were forced to purchase electricity at high rates, with Rajasthan reportedly paying as much as Rs 46 per unit.He blamed inadequate national-level forecasting and coordination for the situation and warned that higher temperatures and the possibility of El Niño could push up power demand next year.Tamil Nadu is working to streamline solar power applications and address grid constraints, he said. The state was also preparing a battery storage policy to manage the gap between daytime solar generation and evening demand.On rooftop solar, the minister said around 28,000 applications had been received under a scheme targeting one lakh beneficiaries by March. The government would expedite application processing and net-metering arrangements, he said.An announcement on recruitment to vacant gangman posts would be made after the required approval was obtained, the minister added.
