Social welfare,reversal of DMK schemes mark 100 days of Jaya government

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Storming back to power with a landslide mandate in the April 13 assembly polls, AIADMK's first 100 days in office has been a mixed bag of welfare measures and reversal of pet schemes of previous DMK regime.

Party supremo Jayalalithaa started her third innings as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on May 16 by inking seven files giving effect to key electoral promises, including free 20 kg rice to family card holders.

In her first major policy decisions, Jayalalithaa dumped the Rs 1,200 crore new Assembly-Secretariat, a pet project of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, citing administrative reasons and announced that she would function from the 17th century Fort St George, a move dubbed as political vendetta by DMK.

She also ordered a probe into alleged irregularities into the construction of the complex, inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in March last year.

Later, she announced setting up of a multi-super speciality hospital and a new government medical college in the sprawling complex, putting at rest speculations on the fate of the incomplete structure.

Other pet schemes of DMK regime such as the medical insurance for the poor, free colour television and housing were also scrapped by Jayalalithaa, though the insurance and housing schemes have been replaced with revamped ones.

Crying hoarse, Karunanidhi saw political vendetta behind Jayalalithaa government's decision in not using the new assembly complex and said she had chosen to keep off it only because it was constructed by his government.

The first three months also saw the Jayalalithaa Government ordering a crackdown on landgrabbing, fulfilling yet another poll promise. Jayalalithaa during the campaign had alleged DMK men were behind land grabbings and vowed to restore the land to the rightful owners on coming to power.

Senior DMK leaders, including its regional satraps and former ministers Veerapandi S Arumugam, K N Nehru and N K K P Raja and confidants of Union Minister M K Alagiri, son of Karunanidhi, have been arrested as the government restored Rs 419 crore worth of land to rightful owners.

Stung by the action targeting party functionaries, Karunanidhi said the spate of arrests reminded him of the Emergency days but said the DMK cannot be finished off by such action and it would bounce back.

Police have receievd over 10,000 complaints about alleged land grabbings ever since special cells were set up in the districts to deal with the cases.

The government also reversed the controversial decision of DMK to shift the Tamil New Year to the month of Thai (January), a move resented to by several Hindu groups besides Jayalalithaa herself in 2008.

Jayalalithaa not only reverted the New Year to the Tamil month of Chithirai (April) as had been traditionally celebrated but also charged Karunanidhi with hurting people's sentiments by his step which she described as 'useless.'

However, Jayalalithaa government faced embarrassment when it lost the legal battle over its move to defer the Uniform System of School Education with the Supreme Court directing it to implement the scheme from this year itself, ending uncertainty faced by 1.2 crore students.

The Chief Minister started implementation of her poll promises of freebies such as free rice and four grams of gold for 'mangalsutra' for women getting married besides announcing that schemes like providing goat and milch animals and free laptops to students will be initiated in September.

A sum of Rs 8,900 crore has been allocated for the new schemes in the regular budget presented by her government.

She also took up the Sri Lankan Tamils issue by getting the Assembly unanimously adopt a resolution piloted by her seeking imposition of economic sanctions on the island nation by India and immediate rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamils.

While blaming the DMK for leaving the state with Rs one lakh crore debt, she had a dig at the Congress-led UPA for not granting a special component plan of Rs 2.5 lakh crore.