CHENNAI: Moving quickly moments after assuming charge as the Chief Minister for yet another term, J Jayalalithaa on Monday signed files pertaining to five of her key electoral promises: closure of 500 TASMAC shops and reducing the start of business hours from 10 am to 12 noon, 100 units free power supply to all domestic consumers, waiving crop loans availed of by small and marginal farmers, one sovereign gold for thali, and free power to looms — all within 30 minutes of being sworn in for the sixth time.
Within a few hours after the Chief Minister cleared the file, the Energy Department issued a G.O. for providing “100 units bi-monthly free power to all domestic consumers in all slabs”.
During a hectic day that began with the swearing in at a well-attended ceremony, Jayalalithaa expanded her Cabinet by adding four more members while divesting an equal number of ministers of the portfolios they held. With this, there are now 17 new faces in the cabinet of 33, including the Chief Minister. The first session of the 15th Assembly will begin from May 25 when the newly-elected MLAs will be administered the oath by pro-tem Speaker S Semmalai. The Governor has also announced that election for the post of Speaker will be held on June 3.
The CM also reshuffled the bureaucracy to bring back some of the senior officials moved out by the Election Commission ahead of polling, including the Chennai city police commissioner.
On assuming charge at Fort St George, Jayalalithaa affixed her first signature for the waiver of crop and other loans to the tune of Rs 5,780 crore.
The second file she cleared was for providing 100 units of free power to all 1.91 crore domestic consumers, of whom 78 lakh will not have to pay for electricity as they consume less than that. The gold for thali for girls from poor families has been doubled from 4 grams to a sovereign.
She also signed the file clearing the proposal to provide 200 and 750 units of free power to handloom and powerloom weavers respectively costing Rs 30 crore.
The most-expected file came the last: 500 TASMAC shops were ordered to be closed, and the functioning hours of liquor shops have been reduced by two hours. From Tuesday, shops will open at 12 noon instead of 10 am — the closing time will remain the same at 10 pm. “Officials have been directed to identify the 500 shops in locations such as highways, etc. A final decision would be taken by the CM’s office shortly,” sources said.
New ministers and their portfolios
G Baskaran — Khadi & Village Industries
Sevvoor S Ramachandran — HR & CE
Dr Nilofer Kabil — Labour
B Balakrishna Reddy — Animal Husbandry
The portfolios were earlier allocated to O S Manian, R Kamaraj, Sellur Raju and R Duraikannu, respectively
Seventeen IAS officials transferred on day one
On its first day in office, the State government on Monday ordered the transfer of 17 IAS officials, including collectors of Salem (V Sampath), Theni (N Venkata-chalam), Dindigul (T N Hariharan) and Vellore (R Nanthagopal), who were earlier transferred by the Election Commission (on April 23). They have been returned to their earlier postings.