Speakers at a protest meeting organised by INDIA bloc parties here on Friday flayed the Union Government for returning the proposal for Metro Rail project for Madurai and Coimbatore citing lower population.
Addressing the protesters, senior leader of DMK Pon Muthuramalingam said that the Union Government had not given the right reason for denying the Metro Rail project to the two major cities of Tamil Nadu.
He described as “fake argument” the Union Government’s basic criteria of 20 lakh population of the cities to qualify for getting Metro Rail projects.
Mr. Muthuramalingam wondered how the Union Government had given the nod for similar project to cities in northern India, like Patna and Agra, which had less than 20 lakh population.
Pointing to the BJP leaders’ argument that Agra was given an exemption from the criteria of 20-lakh population for its tourism attraction, he said that Coimbatore was known as the Manchester of South India which has got greater network with the world.
