CHENNAI: Promising that all the electoral promises of the DMK would be fulfilled in due course, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday made several key announcements. This included the establishment of mega industries at Cheyyar and Tindivanam creating job opportunities for 22,000 persons and opening of clinics in all government medical college hospitals across the state to treat those suffering from post-Covid complications.
In his reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address, the Chief Minister said the post-Covid clinics will have specialist doctors.
Stalin said, “We have already announced that industrial units which offer huge employment opportunities for the educated youth would be started in northern Tamil Nadu. In the first phase, big industrial units which would provide job opportunities would be started in Cheyyar and Tindivanam. While the unit at Cheyyar would provide jobs for 12,000 persons, the unit to be established at Tindivanam would provide jobs for 10,000 persons."
Further, the cases filed against the media, farmers protesting the three agricultural related legislations of the Union government, people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act, people protesting methane extraction, neutrino project, Kudankulam atomic power plant and Chennai-Salem Greenfield Expressway would be withdrawn.
Later, during the discussions after his reply, Stalin said all cases registered in an unfair manner during the previous AIADMK regime are being scrutinised by the law department. He indicated that cases relating to all agitations which did not give room for violence would be withdrawn.
Stating that former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had established 240 Periyar Ninaivu Samathuvapuram (Periyar Memorial Egalitarian Village), Stalin said, “Now, these places remain without any maintenance work. These Samathuvapurams would be renovated and more Samathuvapurams would be established in the state."
Referring to the electoral promise of the DMK to allocate Rs 1,000 crore for renovation of Hindu temples, the Chief Minister said in the first phase, Rs 100 crore would be allocated during the current financial year for renovating 100 temples, tanks and temple cars attached to them.
Under the scheme "Chief Minister in Your Constituency", so far 75,546 petitions from the people have been resolved while the government had paid the treatment cost of 20,520 Covid patients who took treatment in private hospitals. Besides, Rs 77.53 lakh has been spent on treatment for those affected by black fungus. Over 65 lakh doses of vaccine have been given to the public in 47 days after May 7. This is double the number of vaccinations done in the past.
The Chief Minister also charged that the previous AIADMK government failed to take serious steps to contain the infection after the Assembly election was notified.
Promising that the issues raised by members of all parties during the discussions would be resolved, the Chief Minister countered the charge of the AIADMK that the Governor's address did not mention all electoral promises of the DMK by saying the address is just the policy outline of the government for a single year.
“The objectives and plans for five years cannot be contained in this address. In a nutshell, the Governor's address is akin to that of the trailer of a film. The path to be tread by this government, the plan for its journey, the obstacles to be faced during the journey and the strategies for removing them would be unveiled in the ensuing budget for the current financial year. We have just assumed office. You need not have any doubt. We will fulfill all our promises in due course,” Stalin asserted.
Recalling the history of the Dravidian movement and its parent party -- the Justice Party that ruled Tamil Nadu between 1920 and 1937 -- and the social reforms they brought in during the past many decades, the Chief Minister said, "In 1967 when the DMK assumed power, the then Chief Minister Arignar Anna described his government as a continuity of the Justice Party's rule. In the same way, I take pride in saying that our government too is the continuity of the Justice Party's rule. So, Arignar Anna was the continuity of the Justice Party and Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) was the continuity of Anna and in the same way, the government headed by me is the continuity of Kalaignar."