Chennai:
Hitting out at DMK President M Karunanidhi for questioning her stay at Kodanadu hills for the last one month, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday said she has been doing her duties and her being away from the capital did not matter in this day of modern technology.
Listing out some of the key issues such as arrest of fishermen by Sri Lankan navy and actions taken by her on the NLC disinvestment issue during her stay at Kodanadu, she slammed Mr Karunanidhi for talking like a "stone-age man" at a time when modern communication facilities were available.
"It is important whether the Chief Minister is taking determined, selfless, just and impartial decisions on any issue or the decision is taken with selfishness considering the welfare of the Chief Minister's own family. It is not important from where the decisions are being taken," she said in a statement.
"Even after the advent of modern communication facilities like e-mails, fax, mobile phones and video-conferencing, Karunanidhi's statement like one living in stone age is an expression of ignorance," she said.
She was responding to Mr Karunanidhi, who has been critical of her stay out of the state capital for over a month.
The AIADMK supremo said Kodanadu was part of Tamil Nadu, where tea workers and tribal communities were living and everyone would accept that she has been sincerely discharging her duties, even though she stayed there.
A state government communique had informed the people of the state about her visit to Kodanadu.
She also referred to the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) disinvestment issue and said because of her government's persistent efforts a solution was evolved.
"Only on my advice and guidance, there was a way to buy these shares on behalf of public sectors of the government of Tamil Nadu and a smooth solution was arrived at."
Ms Jayalalithaa said that Rs one lakh relief was given to the families of each of the 16 fishermen from the state languishing in prison in Iran and observed that she had written to Prime Minister Singh for their release.
She also mentioned her letters to the Prime Minister over the attacks on Indian fishermen, her orders to release waters from reservoirs across the state, her meetings with senior home and police officials over the probe into the murder of BJP leader V Ramesh and her actions in the case of mysterious death of Dalit youth Ilavarasan in Dharmapuri.