The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Tamil Nadu wronged by Union Finance Ministry, says Jayalalithaa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu wronged by Union Finance Ministry, says Jayalalithaa

Special Correspondent

"Mr. Chidambaram is hallucinating about a regime change to bolster his sagging performance record" The Chief Minister says Tamil Nadu has received no funds for the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, the Programme for Rehabilitation of Water Sources and the Programme for Backward Areas/Districts announced by the Centre

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa

CHENNAI: Claiming that Tamil Nadu was being wronged by the Union Finance Ministry, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, on Monday said the State got nothing under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme.

She said in a statement that despite her repeated pleas, the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, had done nothing for the State under the Programme, which had a Central outlay of Rs.4, 800 crores.

"The tiny Programme for Rehabilitation of Water Sources announced by Mr. Chidambaram is yet to take off and is no substitute," she added. Also, Tamil Nadu got virtually nothing under the New Programme for Backward Areas/Districts with an outlay of Rs. 5,000 crores which he had announced in the Budget.

Referring to Mr. Chidambaram's call for a regime change in Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa said he was "obviously rattled" by the popular mood of the people who appreciated the measures she had implemented for the State's development.

"Mr. Chidambaram has ended up hallucinating about a regime change to bolster his sagging performance record," she said. The people of Sivaganga, his constituency, were asking why he did not do anything constructive, such as assisting farmers, weavers, artisans and the poor, she added.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said she was dismayed at Mr. Chidambaram's continual raising of the issue of a Rs. 1000 crores offer for a Desalination Plant at Chennai, despite her detailed statement on the subject. Mr. Chidambaram was trying to posture as if the desalination project could come through only at his behest, but it was the Government of Tamil Nadu that had taken the initiative on May 2, 2003. Mr. Chidambaram was nowhere in the picture at that time, but he wanted to bask in the glory of getting Chennai a long-term solution for its water needs, she claimed.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said she had clearly set out the State Government's initiative to implement the scheme on a DBOOT basis. The process of technical evaluation was at the final stage and will be ready shortly.

After presiding over the harsh and peremptory action against the Sivagangai District Central Cooperative Bank when it was on a recovery path, Mr. Chidambaram was now trying to distance himself from the action taken. The Bank collapsed in 1999 during the period of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Government. The net worth of the bank had at that time dropped to less than Rs. 1 lakh. "My Government has actually facilitated the turnaround of the Bank. During 2004-2005, the Bank extended crop loans to the extent of Rs. 11.70 crores and exceeded its farm lending targets after a long gap," Ms. Jayalalithaa added.

She said she had written to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, firmly pointing out that the slew of rehabilitation measures had yielded improved results as of March 31, 2005.

`Constructive view'

Referring to Mr. Chidambaram's criticism that she never met Union Ministers during her visits to New Delhi, Ms. Jayalalithaa said she had taken up issues relevant to Tamil Nadu with the Prime Minister and other Union Ministers in the conferences and meetings that she attended. "Mr. Chidambaram should realise that he needs to first take a constructive view on the genuine needs of Tamil Nadu before he pontificates on `who meets whom'," she added.

In this context, Ms. Jayalalithaa wanted to know the number of times the Central Ministers from the State, including Mr. Chidambaram, met her during their visits to Tamil Nadu. "It is a pity that while Mr. Chidambaram has used many a public function in Tamil Nadu to weave a web of lies about this Government, he could never find time to meet the elected Chief Minister of the State with constructive ideas," she said.

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