BJP has Not Learnt Lessons from its Debacle

Chennai: The continuous and repeated electoral debacles in Tamil Nadu had not taught any lessons to the Union Government that was still neglecting the State by not acceding to its major demands like sanctioning funds for the Metro Rail project and also not devising any scheme for the State in the past 10 years, Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Thursday.

Launching the second phase of the ‘Makkaludan Mudhalvar’ (Chief Minister with the people) scheme at Palayamputhur in Dharmapuri district, Stalin said his demand to the Union Government, on behalf of the people of the State, was that it should transcend beyond its political likes and dislikes and treat all States and people equally providing what was due to them.

The DMK was with the people and the people were with the DMK which explained the repeated electoral triumphs of the party, he said and vowed to transform the State that was already the number one in the country into a wonderful, magnificent State, he said.

Under the ‘Chief Minister with the People’ scheme, whose first phase was launched on February 18, 2023, at Coimbatore, 66,25,304 grievances, related to 13 government departments, raised by people in urban areas were looked into and the testimonials had praised the government glowingly for the addressing their problems, he said.

In the second phase that was launched on Thursday, the problems of people in rural areas connected with 15 departments would be looked into. Stalin, besides inaugurating the second phase and supervised the collection of the petitions from the people and also spoke to them.

Simultaneously, people’s petitions were collected in all the districts by the Collectors with the assurance that they would be looked into in a month’s time. So, all grievances connected with the departments of revenue and disaster management, rural development and panchayat raj, energy, housing and urban development, police and MSMEs will be addressed under the scheme.

The other departments listed in the second phase of the ‘CM with people’ scheme are: Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes welfare, Backward Classes, Most Backward Class and Minorities Welfare, Social Welfare and Women’s Rights, differently-abled welfare, labour welfare and skill development, agriculture and farmers welfare, veterinary and animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries and fishermen’s welfare, Cooperative and health and family welfare.

Since his government was receptive to the people’s needs and was acting accordingly to redress their problems, the opposition parties were jealous and irritated over the Dravidian Model government, he said. So, they were bad mouthing the government and indulging in false propaganda with a view to bringing a bad name to the government.

The opposition parties showed no magnanimity like the ruling party that was implementing programmes for the welfare of all the people in the State without discriminating between those who voted for the party or those who did not, he said.

Stalin first made seven announcements for new projects in Dharmapuri district and the increased the number to 15 after going through the petitions received from the local people of the district. The newly announced projects related to infrastructure development, health care, addressing the long time needs of SC and ST populations and improving water supply in different places through overhead tanks and other facilities.

He also announced a renovation programme in the school in which the event was being held - Palayamputhur Panchayat Government higher Secondary Schools - as some classrooms were in a rundown state.