Accusing the Congress and the BJP of having taken the same stand on issues such as the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils, the interests of Tamil Nadu fishermen, the Cauvery water sharing dispute and the Mullaperiyar dam, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has said it will align with “like-minded parties” for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, keeping in mind the interests of Tamil Nadu.

The party’s youth wing leader, Anbumani Ramadoss, told mediapersons on Sunday that the general council, which met in Coimbatore over the weekend, empowered party founder S. Ramadoss to decide on alliances.

The former Union Health Minister said the transfusion of HIV-infected blood to a pregnant woman in Virudhunagar district was unpardonable. The incident had resulted in people losing whatever little confidence they had in government hospitals, he said.

Resolutions passed

Detailing the resolutions passed during the party’s special general council meeting, he said the party urged the Central government to withdraw the permission granted to Karnataka to study the feasibility of constructing a dam at Mekedatu. The present water-holding capacity of the dams in Karnataka was 104.59 tmcft, and Karnataka seldom shared water with Tamil Nadu. If the Mekedatu dam comes up with a capacity of 67.14 tmcft, the water-holding capacity of Karnataka would rise to 171.73 tmcft, spelling disaster for Tamil Nadu and turning the State into a desert, a party resolution said.

Claiming that not a paisa of relief was received from the Centre even 45 days after Cyclone Gaja, the resolution stated that the central committee was yet to submit its report, adding that the ‘callousness’ was highly condemnable.

The party urged the State government to drop a proposal to lay high-tension power lines along farmlands. It sought the convening of a special Assembly session to prevent the re-opening of the Sterlite Copper plant in Thoothukudi. It also called for the scrapping of the Salem-Chennai green corridor project.