Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today said he was happy about Tamilnadu emerging first among big States in National Good Governance Index.

Speaking to mediapersons in Salem, Palaniswami said, ”It is a proud moment that Tamilnadu has been bestowed with this honour. I thank all the Ministers, officials and everyone else who worked hard to achieve this”.

He further said there was no recommendation involved in all achieving this feat. ”The recognition has been given based on the data available. Everyone from the State should be proud of this achievement,” he said.

Palaniswami’s response has come at a time when DMK president M K Stalin questioned how the Centre adjudged Tamilnadu as the leading State in the Good Governance Index, stating that the State topped in only two of the nine parameters.

It may be noted that Tamilnadu secured an overall score of 5.62 in the 10-sector index ranking of States released by the Union Department of Administrative Reforms and Grievances.

The Chief Minister said that the opposition parties are blaming the government for something or other just for the sake of doing it, and added that the protests against CAA are being carried out by the opposition parties due to political vendetta.

”Though the Central government has explained in detail about the CAA, DMK is trying to confuse the people and create chaos. Everyone should understand that no Indian will be affected by this,” he said and added that people do not have to be scared about the National Population Register (NPR) as well. ”The scheme was brought during the Congress-DMK rule and it is being implemented now,” he said.

Further speaking about the ongoing rural body elections, Palaniswami said that it is not new to hold rural and urban civic polls at different times. ”The elections are happening without any influence and people will decide who will emerge as winners,” he said.

Palaniswami said he was in Salem to cast his vote in the rural local body elections the first phase of which was held Thursday.