Tamil Nadu Forests Minister Commits Yet Another Gaffe As He Asks Centre To Help The State ‘Air Drop’ Electric Poles 

Dindigul C Sreenivasan, Tamil Nadu forest minister, has committed yet another blunder by urging the Centre to help the state with choppers and flights to airdrop electric poles in the areas affected by cyclone ‘Gaja’, reports The Hindustan Times.

“Our electricity board workers are struggling to replace the damaged poles. It is very hard to bring electric poles to the farmland. Therefore, the Union government should intervene and provide flights and choppers to place new poles,” said Sreenivasan on Tuesday (November 27) while addressing a meeting at cyclone wrecked Nagapattinam.

The cyclone is said to have uprooted more than 15,000 electric poles along seven coastal districts, which the government says, will take several weeks to fix.

The minister vehemently stuck to his point despite handlooms minister OS Manian, also present on the dias, trying to correct him by saying that it was not possible to airdrop the poles as it may damage agricultural fields. “How is it then that foreign countries are building bridges across the sea?” Sreenivasan retorted.

“Foreign countries are even making parks under the sea. So, it is possible to airdrop electric poles,” he argued.

This is not the first time Sreenivasan has committed a gaffe. Earlier, he said PV Narasimha Rao was the current Prime Minister, a few months ago, while addressing a public meeting. He also claimed that late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had died due to slow poisoning, which created a stir across the state.