Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday charged that the Central government had, for the first time in the history, shattered its own credibility by failing to keep to the financial commitments made to State governments.
Intervening in the speech of Deputy Leader of Opposition S Ramachandran who was speaking on the measures to be taken by the State government to cope with the rise in the price of essential commodities, the Chief Minister said, “The State government starts spending money on various schemes hoping that it will be reimbursed soon as has been assured in the budget allocation. But for the first time the Centre has cut 20 per of the allocation promised to the State government. Already the State government has been grappling with many problems caused by the wrong economic policies of the Centre. However, with a view to cushion the poor and downtrodden people from the onslaught of these wrong policies, the Tamil Nadu government has been doing its best to bring down the prices.”
Stating that the Goods and Services Tax would be detrimental to the State, she said if the Central government decided to go ahead with enforcing the GST Act despite stiff opposition, then the impact of this legislation on Tamil Nadu would not last long. “After the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, there will be a change of guard at the Centre and there will be changes in everything. At that time, we will throw this law into the dustbin,” she asserted.
Giving examples of the steps taken by her government, she said, “At a time when onions are sold at higher prices in other States, quality big onions are being sold at `50 per kg and sambar (small size) onion at `60 per kg in the 30 Farm Fresh Consumer Outlets in Chennai.
Steps are being taken to open 10 more such outlets in the city. At present six tonnes of big onions and one tonne of sambar onions are being sold at these outlets.”
The Chief Minister mentioned the Amma eateries where food items were being sold at very cheap rate and the sale of Amma Mineral Water to passengers at a cheaper rate.