Tamil Nadu CM Stalin seeks an appointment with PM
Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin has sought an appointment with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, September 20, to press for the release of the pending funds due to the State.
Since the Prime Minister will be on a tour of the US from September 21, Stalin wants to meet him before that and prevail upon him the need for releasing the Rs 573 crore funds under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme that had held back by the Union Government as the State was opposed to the implementation of the New Education Policy.
Another grouse of the Chief Minister against the Union Government was the non-release of funds meant for the second phase of the Chennai Metro Rail Project, on which the State had started the work but has been waiting for the Union Government’s share of funds.
Several attempts by the State government through letters had not yielded any results and requests made at the official and ministerial levels, too, had not helped the State get the funds due to it. So, the Chief Minister wanted to personally brief the Prime Minister on the manner in which the State was being handed out a step motherly treatment.
The ambitious Metro Rail second phase covering a distance of 118.9 km and costing Rs 63,246 crore proposed by the State government in 2017 and recommended that it be made a Central Sector Project. However without waiting for the Union Government to release its share of funds, the State started the work.
However, the Union Government had not released the funds though the Public Investments Board recommended the scheme to be a Central Sector Project in August 2021.
Though the State government allotted Rs 12,000 crore for the project in its Budget estimates for 2024-25 and had obtained a loan of Rs 21,560 crore from international financial agencies, the continuous funding without the Union Government’s assistance has become a burden on the State’s exchequer.
Since none of the Union Ministers responded positively to the demand for assistance placed before them for the release of the funds for the Metro Rail scheme, the Chief Minister announced on his return from the United States on September 14 that he would meet the Prime Minister to sort out the issue.
So, now the Chief Ministers’ office has written to the Prime Minister’s office for the appointment on September 20 to find a means to get the funds due to the State under the SSA scheme and for the Metro Rail construction.