During the past 33 months since the AIADMK government assumed office in May 2011, the Chief Minister’s Special Cell at the Secretariat has received as many as 10,75,743 petitions through post, e-mail and in person and a whopping 9,97,280 of them have been disposed of.
In an bid to take action on the petitions received from the public expeditiously, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on August 8, 2012 launched a website for the purpose. Everyday, around 3,000 petitions are being received through online, post and walk-ins.
There are several cases of needy persons, including children, getting timely relief after filing the petitions.
Many parents, whose children suffer from hearing and speech impairment from birth, had represented to the Chief Minister seeking financial assistance of upto Rs 7 lakh for performing a special surgery. Their problem was that said under the Comprehensive Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme, only `1 lakh could be availed as assistance.
Considering their petitions, the Chief Minister allowed an assistance of `7.90 lakh per child for performing Cochlear Implantation. During the past 11 months, this special surgery was performed on 692 children at a cost of `53.56 crore. Due to this surgery, these children can now speak and hear like normal children. These children have also been provided with a special device and battery. Since the battery lasts for nine to 12 months, the children have been given additional batteries free of cost.
On February 27, the Chief Minister distributed financial assistance to the tune of `5.35 lakh to the needy who have submitted petitions to the Special Cell. Four girl children from Madurantakam received documents for fixed deposits for `1 lakh each from the Chief Minister. The parents of these children died in successive incidents and the children were rendered helpless.
S Kalaiselvi, a differently-abled person who has won three gold medals at the National Archery Championship for Differently Abled held in Maharashtra in 2012, received `1.14 lakh as assistance from the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister has sanctioned this assistance in appreciation of her feat at the 2012 meet and to encourage her to take part in the international events besides buying archery equipment.
The Chief Minister, as a special case, also sanctioned Rs 21,430 to N Bharani, a differently-abled student with the Anna University Engineering College in Kancheepuram towards the expenses to be incurred for his first year studies.