Chennai: Finance Minister O. Paneerselvam had a lot of explaining to do for the questions raised by the DMK in the state assembly during the general discussion on the revised budget.

DMK MLA P.K. Sekar Babu pointed out ‘discrepancies’ in figures in the interim budget that was submitted before the state elections, and the revised budget that was presented last week. While explaining the differences, O. Panneerselvam said that the differences were because “the Union budget was not presented when the interim budget was tabled here.”

He also chided Sekar Babu for making a mountain out of a molehill.

On the question about increasing crimes in the state, Panneerselvam said that the crime rates have actually come down now since the police are working without political interferences. Congratulating the police for solving crimes, including the Swathi murder case, RTI activist Parasmal Jain’s killing, and advocate Murugan’s murder, he said that people are happy with the way crimes are solved.

Also denying the allegations made by Sekar Babu were the Food Minister R. Kamaraj, Housing and Urban Development Minister Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan, Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar, Minister for Commercial Taxes K.C. Veeramani, School Education Minister P. Benjamin, Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabaskar, and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister Sevvoor S. Ramachandran.

The Housing and Urban Development Minister said that record number of houses are being constructed for the poor. Veeramani informed the Assembly that 76,314 teaching vacancies were filled, and promotions and transfers are being made through counselling. Udhayakumar enlisted the allocations made to various departments after the November rains.

Noisy scenes and chaos prevailed inside the House for some time, until the Speaker, P Dhanapal, intervened.