CHENNAI: On the occasion of the DMK government led by him stepping into its second year, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday announced five new schemes and reiterated that initiatives on the Dravidian model would continue.
The schemes include the provision of nutritious breakfast to students of Classes I to V studying in government schools on all working days, upgrading 25 higher secondary schools run by municipal corporations and the state government as schools of excellence at a cost of Rs 150 crore, providing nutrients and medical assistance to children below the age of six to set right the nutrition deficiency in them, starting 708 urban hospitals in 21 municipal corporations and 63 municipalities in the first phase to cater to the healthcare needs of the urban people and extending the 'Chief Minister in Your Constituency' to all 234 Assembly constituencies.
The first scheme is to provide nutritious breakfast and would be implemented in certain municipal corporations and remote villages. The breakfast would be provided through the local bodies concerned and this scheme would be extended to all parts of the scheme in a phased manner. Explaining the reason behind this scheme, Stalin said the government has received information that most of the children did not take breakfast as they had to go to school early in the morning, while in the case of some children, their family background also causes this.
The second scheme is aimed at setting right the nutrition deficiency among children below the age of six. The government will implement a special nutrition scheme for children of this age group and under this scheme, medical assistance and nutrients would be provided to the children who are in need of these. He said after the DMK government came to power, a survey was taken and the information thus received was painful since most of the children below the age of six have nutrition deficiencies. Some children are underweight and this scheme has been devised to conduct medical tests for children of this age in a comprehensive manner.
The third scheme is to upgrade 25 higher secondary schools run by municipal corporations and the state government as schools of excellence at a cost of Rs 150 crore in the first phase. Upgradation of these schools would be done in line with the model government schools in Delhi recently visited by him. Steps would be taken to extend this scheme to all districts in due course.
In these schools, apart from the academic lessons, importance will be given to arts, literature, music, dance, practical science, sports, etc and infrastructure for these would be created. Also, the individual skills of students would be improved.
The fourth scheme is to establish 708 urban hospitals akin to primary and secondary health centres to provide quality healthcare to the people. In the first phase, these urban hospitals would be established in 21 municipal corporations and 63 municipalities. These hospitals would function between 8 a.m and 11 a.m and 4 p.m and 8 p.m to treat outpatients. Buildings for these hospitals would be built at a cost of Rs 180.45 crore. Each of these centres would have one doctor, one nurse, one compounder and an assistant.
The fifth scheme is to extend the already existing 'Chief Minister in Your Constituency' scheme to all 234 Assembly constituencies to fulfil long-pending needs of the people in consultation with the MLAs of the respective constituencies. This scheme would be implemented under the direct supervision of the Chief Minister. Each MLA should give a list of 10 priority schemes to the District Collector concerned and from them, the schemes that could not be implemented under the existing government schemes would be executed on a priority basis. For this purpose alone, Rs 1,000 crore would be allocated for this year. Stalin also assured that all constituencies including his own (Kolathur) and those of the Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami (Edappadi) and Deputy Leader of Opposition O Panneerselvam (Bodinaickanur) would be treated equally.
Leaders of several political parties in the state Assembly greeted Chief Minister Stalin and hailed the achievements of the DMK government during its first year. However, the AIADMK MLAs stayed away from the proceedings of the House on Saturday. Later, Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami levelled a long list of charges against the DMK government.