Tamil Nadu CM announces investment in education

Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin announced a Rs 68.77 crore investment in education by increasing the monthly allocation of Rs 1000 for the food expenses of government school students staying in hostels to Rs 1400 and from 1100 to Rs 1500 for college students which would totally benefit 1,71,844 students.

Among the other announcements that the Chief Minister made in his valedictory address at the two-day conference of district collectors, police officers and district forest officers, was an increase in funds for the rehabilitation of bootleggers who turn a new leaf in life from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000.

Making arrangements for trail prisoners to appear before the judges through video conferencing instead of producing them for physical appearance that is causing a lot of problems now, refurbishing the hostels for Scheduled Caste, Schedule Tribes, Backward Classes and Most Backward Classes and expediting the construction of link roads to ST settlements were the other announcements.

During the two days, the officials had expressed their views and problems on a wide range of issues that the government had taken note of to address them in future, the Chief Minister said and urged the officials to complete their responsibilities before they get caught up in work relating to the impending Lok Sabha elections.

Reminding the bureaucrats that the people were their bosses in a democracy, he told the district collectors to make themselves available to the people whenever they were in their offices by earmarking visiting hours. He regretted that many collectors were not accessible to the public on days other than grievances day.

Urging them to visit accident spots and scenes of tragedies caused by natural disasters and oversee the relief operations, he repeated the advice that he gave to new recruits in the government while handing over appointment orders to them recently to offer a seat to those calling on them with grievances.

Flagging domestic violence as a social crime, he said that his government had zero tolerance for any violence against women and children. Urging the officials to follow up on cases relating to domestic violence, he said the Home Secretary would prepare the modus operandi for the follow up operation and pass it on to the police department by next month.

Calling up the officers to treat every project as important, he said the benefits of welfare schemes would reach the people only if the authorities were passionate about them and took responsibility for their implementation.

To address the recurrent land related disputes arising in the districts, Stalin advised the land survey, revenue, municipal administration and police department to have coordination meetings to resolve the disputes relating to survey of land, use of public land and temple land.

He expressed happiness over the State’s economy and development being taken on the right path through the proper implementation of schemes in the past one and a half years after overcoming the setbacks of the pandemic and disaster brought about by the heavy rains.

Other advice that he had for the officials was speedy implementation of schemes to enable the people getting the maximum benefit, living up to the expectations of the people by listening to the complaints raised in the media and by the people and setting right the drawbacks and monitoring the functioning of health services closely and ensuring proper delivery of services.