Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa takes charge at Fort St George
CM begins work on Sunday afternoon
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-05-25 06:25 GMT
Chennai: Sluggish Sunday pulsated with activity at the historic Fort St George housing the state secretariat, when AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa turned up, a day after she was sworn in as CM for the fifth time, and signed five files besides launching a series of welfare schemes.
Ms Jayalalithaa assumed office at the state secretariat and launched a series of welfare measures, including opening of more low-cost Amma Unavagams (Amma Canteens) and Amma Pharmacies in various parts of the state.
Earlier, she was accorded a warm reception and greeted by the chief secretary, advisors to the government, her Cabinet colleagues and senior police officials, upon her arrival. She immediately got down to work and inaugurated a slew of welfare measures that included opening of 201 Amma Canteens and 16 Amma Pharmacies through video-conferencing.
Many of the new Amma Canteens were built in areas not served by the existing canteens. Of the 201 canteens, 45 were opened in 15 wards of Chennai corporation and the rest in various municipalities and corporations across the state.
During the previous phase in September 2014, Ms Jayalalithaa had declared open four canteens, increasing the number of such canteens in the city to 207. Last year, she had visited the government Kasturba Gandhi hospital, here, and inaugurated one of the canteens.
The Amma Pharmacies are now expanded by opening 16 more for the benefit of the public. Ms Jayalalithaa cleared a slew of welfare schemes worth over Rs 1,800 crore, including those for improving road and drinking water facilities and extending assistance to indigent families headed by women.
Under the scheme for indigent families headed by women, loans with a grant component on interest will be provided to eligible beneficiaries alongside skill development training with employment opportunities.
The government will spend between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 for development of each beneficiary and the scheme is intended to cover all women-run indigent families in five years. “While the total outlay for the scheme is Rs 750 crore, the Chief Minister has ordered allocation of Rs 100 crore in the current fiscal for the scheme,” the release said. “Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalithaa, has ordered improvement of roads in urban local bodies at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore,” the release added.
Besides Rs 800 crore Tamil Nadu rural roads development scheme, 3,500-km stretch road development work, the Chief Minister gave consent for a special housing scheme for the poor in town panchayat areas. An assistance of Rs 2.1 lakh will be given to the poor to convert their thatched houses into concrete roof structures with solar power. In the first phase, 20,000 families will be given assistance in the town panchayat areas.
About 1,274 reverse osmosis plants will be set up in residential neighbourhoods, Amma Canteens, hospitals and public places at a cost of Rs 77.13 crore. This includes providing drinking water facility in 69 neighbourhoods in the arid areas of Sivagangai and Ramanathapuram districts.
The Chief Minister also inaugurated new police buildings, constructed at a cost of Rs 449 crore, inaugurated new building for Uniformed Services Recruitment Board built at a cost of Rs 6 crore at the old police commissionerate in the city, besides 68 new buildings for police stations in Maduravoyal and Madipakkam among other areas, and 4,000 housing units for police personnel.
CM J. Jayalalithaa thanks PM Narendra Modi:
Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Sunday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu for greeting her on her assuming office.
Mr Modi had greeted the AIADMK supremo through a Twitter message. Mr Jaitley had also extended his greetings to her. “I thank you for your congratulations and good wishes on my being sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time. I convey my best wishes to you,” she said in separate letters addressed to Mr Modi and Mr Jaitley who while greeting her said the Centre would maintain best relationship with the Tamil Nadu government.
According to an official release, Mr Naidu called Ms Jayalalithaa over phone on Sunday and congratulated her and she thanked him for his wishes.
Pricey dal within people’s reach:
On her first day in office after becoming Chief Minister again, Ms J. Jayalalithaa launched a new people welfare scheme under which toor and urad dal would be sold at government outlets at subsidised rates.
The new initiative is aimed at easing the burden of the common man affected by the rising prices of toor and urad dal in the open market. As per the scheme, half-a-kg of toor dhal will be sold at a subsidised rate of Rs 53.50. Half-a-kg of ‘A’ grade urad dal will be sold for Rs 56 and ‘B’ grade, Rs 49.50.
The CM officially launched the scheme through video conferencing from the secretariat. An official release here said in a bid to protect the people from the rising prices of dal in the open market, the government decided to procure toor dal and urad dal through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and
National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) and sell them in half-a-kg packets through 25 retail outlets run by the state civil supplies corporation in Chennai.