Sparks fly over greenhouse SCHEME
Chennai: Whose brain-child is the greenhouse scheme? Claiming ownership of the idea, the two Dravidian majors had a war of words in the Assembly on Monday. DMK MLA AP Nandakumar alleged that the Chief Minister’s solar-powered greenhouse scheme was, in fact, a poor imitation of the Kalaignar housing scheme implemented under the DMK regime during 2006-2011. But, the beneficiaries of the present scheme find it difficult to finish the housing works as the allocated money is only Rs 2.10 lakh per house, he said. Refuting the charge, SP Velumani, Minister for Municipal Administration, said the greenhouse scheme was a brain-child of former CM J Jayalalithaa, meant for the rural poor in the State. “During the DMK regime, the beneficiaries were allocated only Rs 75,000 per house. But now each gets Rs 2.10 lakh under this fully state-funded scheme,” he said.
Only ryots allowed to execute works: CM
Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said the ‘kudimaramaththu’ works were being carried out only by farmers associations, and no politicians’ intervention was allowed. He said that in all, there were 39,000 lakes in the State. On trial basis, the government allocated Rs 100 crore for carrying out kudimaramathu works of 1,519 lakes in 2016-2017 with the help of farmers. In 2018-19, 1,511 lakes were taken up for desilting at the cost of Rs 328 crore and of them, works on 1,406 lakes were completed. Similarly, Rs 499 crore has been allocated for 1,829 lakes in the current fiscal year 2019-20.