madurai chief minister edappadi k palaniswami on friday laid the foundation stone for a rs 1296crore project to bring drinking water through pipelines directly from mullaperiyar dam to madurai city when completed by 2023 all 100 wards of the city corporation would have water supply 24x7 he said the mega drinking water project would ensure that madurai corporation was not stressed for the next 50 years he said in the presence of deputy chief minister o panneerselvam and ministers s p velumani r b udayakumar and sellur k raju among others the chief minister also dedicated an additional building for the district collectorate constructed at a cost of rs 3019 crore he said the central and state governments were striving to ensure protected drinking water to people in the cities and also villages water supply in the state in 2011 when the aiadmk came to power was 4900 mld which has gone up to 7600 mld apart from this work was in progress on 76 comprehensive water schemes it was proposed to give 40 lakh pipeline connections at a cost of rs 3600 crore of which seven lakh had been given till date when the new scheme for which the foundation stone was laid is implemented an additional 11 lakh connections can be given in madurai he saidpalaniswami said the government was keeping its promises to the people and implementing schemes which were not visible only to the eyes of the opposition party which was always making allegations he said though 41 of rural students studied in government schools in the state only six got admitted to medical colleges after passing neet last year this year because of the 75 horizontal reservation given by the state government 313 government school students got into mbbs which was another achievement of this government the ministers said the schemes implemented in tamil nadu by the government would result in aiadmk sweeping the next elections