Chennai: Vowing to continue striving for the development of the people of the State, Chief Minister M K Stalin wanted to know from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to which ‘people’ he passed on the benefits of his welfare projects directly without routing them through the State government as he had claimed during his recent visit to the State.
The Prime Minister had come out with a bundle of lies about reaching out to the people directly, Stalin said on Wednesday, in his speech marking the inauguration of the State government’s latest scheme,’Neengal Nalama’ (Are you doing well?), which primarily focused on ensuring that the benefits of the series of development programmes launched by the DMK government reached the intended people.
Referring to Modi’s charge that the State was indulging in ‘family politics,’ he said it was true that every family was being uplifted through the plethora of welfare schemes of the government, When his government assumed power he saw people waiting to meet him with petitions in their hands but now the situation had changed and he only saw smiles on the faces, he said.
It was to reinforce the success of the successive welfare schemes that had brought happiness to the people in the past three years that the latest one had been launched, he said and also spoke to a few beneficiaries about the delivery of the benefits under the various schemes with a view to rectifying any flaws.
Other Ministers and senior bureaucrats, too, would get in touch with the common people to elicit their views on the schemes and to take remedial measures. He said that he was taking so much care in ensuring the schemes benefited the people because thousands of crores of rupees were spent on each of them despite the financial constraints.
The new programme’s title, ‘Are you doing well,’ reflected his personal concern over the welfare of the people, he said and added that the Prime Minister had not released a single rupee as relief for the two natural disasters that struck the State, requiring his government to seek Rs 37,000 crore as assistance to tide over the loss.
However, the State government managed to mitigate the sufferings of the people in the four flood ravaged districts through the use of State funds to the tune of Rs 3406.77 crore, he said.
He also listed out the schemes started by his government and gave details about the benefits accrued by the people through their implementation.
Reacting to the launch of the scheme, Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami said, ‘No, the people are not doing well’ and added that the State had been put in such a situation after the DMK came to power. In his message, he listed lack of job guarantee, employment opportunities and old age pension, besides inflation, drug menace and loss of livelihood as some of the reasons for the people’s unhappiness.
He also said that the State had no water for agriculture, had not cancelled NEET and let the law and order situation deteriorate.
