After a lull, secretariat limps back to normalcy

Chennai: Majority of the ministers, who had been camping at the Apollo Hospitals where Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has been admitted since September 22, resumed their work at the secretariat on Thursday. The secretariat, which wore a deserted look for the past couple of weeks, limped back to normalcy with ministers conducting review meetings and signing files related to their departments. Party men and public visited the secretariat in droves on Thursday with ministers working till late in the evening at Fort St George.

“The mood in secretariat was dull since the last month due to various reasons starting from model code for local body polls, CM’s hospitalisation and then pooja holidays,” said a under secretary at the secretariat conforming that files have started moving. In the past one month, only government orders related to elections and file works related to litigations were handled. During this period not many gazette notifications were forwarded to the office of printing and stationary, he said.

The day also saw at least three ministers holding review meetings of their respective departments with senior officials and giving out instructions to them on various programmes. Co-operatives minister Sellur K. Raju held a review meeting to discuss the progress of interest free loans given to farmer by the co-operatives societies and also enquired about the procurement of copra by the government procurement centres. Food minister R. Kamaraj also conducted review meeting to discuss about the monsoon arrangement in place for the state run ration shops, He enquired about the sugar and dhal stocks available with the government.

“In case of complaints, the public can lodge their grievances at 9445190660 and 9445190661 mobile numbers”, the minister said in a press release. Minister for housing Udumalai K. Radhakirshnan also chaired a review meeting with state officials.