CHENNAI: When it comes to projecting itself as the ultimate welfare state, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is really pushing the envelope. In
the annual governor’s address delivered in the assembly on Wednesday by Surjit Singh Barnala, it unveiled an ambitious housing scheme for the rural poor, which will cover more than two million families, and introduced free professional education in engineering, medicine and law for students from families that have not produced a graduate so far.
Having deepened its base by supplying rice at Re 1 a kg to ration card holders, waiving farm loans, distributing free television sets and introducing a health insurance scheme for life-saving treatment, the 44-month-old Karunanidhi regime announced more schemes aimed at strengthening its popularity in the run-up to the May 2011 assembly elections. This year’s policy pronouncement was significant for chief minister M Karunanidhi personally as he has indicated that he may shed his administrative responsibilities soon.
The housing scheme, which aims at a ‘hut-free’ Tamil Nadu, targets nearly 50% of the state’s rural residents by envisaging conversion of mud huts with thatched roofs into concrete dwellings. “Dalits and the most backward classes will greatly benefit from this,” said a senior official.
The rural development department aims to spend Rs 1,800 crore in the first year to build three lakh such houses.
Also, in a move to encourage families denied access to higher education and professional courses, the governor said it would henceforth pay the tuition fees of potential first-generation academic achievers — be it in government or private institutions — if they wished to pursue engineering, medicine or law.
Both the schemes are expected to boost the feel-good factor ahead of the assembly polls, just as the welfare measures unveiled before the Lok Sabha elections did. They may also upset the opposition’s calculations, although leaders of parties outside the ruling alliance sought to underplay the significance of the announcements by dubbing the governor’s address as one that lacked vision.
AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa said there were no initiatives to create jobs or bring down the cost of living or to resolve the state’s perennial river water disputes.
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