Chennai: Reacting to the charge of the Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami that the DMK government had shut down several welfare schemes launched during AIADMK rule and the attempt by the opposition party supporters to create a narrative that its developmental programmes were abandoned, the government clarified that AIADMK’s programmes were only being implemented in a more effective and efficient manner now.
On the contrary, it was the AIADMK that had closed down and tried to do away with many initiatives of the earlier DMK governments. Giving a plethora of examples, the government said the AIADMK government headed by J Jayalalithaa made a desperate bid to close down the Anna Centenary Library, constructed at a cost of Rs 172 crore. It recalled how it was the Madras High Court that saved the library from being converted into a marriage hall or a hospital.
Among the many other examples quoted were the AIADMK government, on assuming office in 2001, terminating the services of 10,000 road workers and 10,000 community welfare workers just because they were appointed during the tenure of M Karunanidhi in 1998 and ruining the families of those poor people.
While giving a long and exhaustive list of the DMK’s welfare schemes that were jettisoned by the Jayalalithaa regime, it made special mention of the conversion of the Rs 1000 crore new Secretariat building into a multispecialty hospital, the way in which the Valluvar Kottam, built in 1974, was allowed to go to seed without any maintenance and the blocking of the Harbour Maduravoyal flyover project.
However, the DMK, whenever it came to power, ensured that the welfare projects started by the previous AIADMK government were only improved and implemented efficiently to make them more beneficial to the people that when they were launched and gave examples of the mid-day meal scheme of M G Ramachandran and the free bicycle scheme of Jayalalithaa among others.
Though MGR started providing breakfast to school children in 1982, the scheme started living up to its name nutritious meal scheme only in 1989 when Karunanidhi added a fortnightly egg to the menu. When the DMK was elected again to power in 1996 when the children were served five eggs a week, they pointed out.
Similarly, the scheme to provide free bicycles to poor girls from the SC and ST communities by the Jayalalithaa government in 2001 was expanded to include students from all communities leading to the distribution of 19,54,627 bicycles, costing Rs 465.91 crore.
Palaniswami, who launched his attack against Chief Minister M K Stalin after the latter visited the Amma canteen at Teynampet on July 19 and ordered the improvement of the scheme itself by sanctioning Rs 21 crore, was accused of misleading the people with his lies. For, they said, that the DMK government, after assuming power in 2021, had allocated Rs 250 crore for the Amma canteens that were functioning without any hitch.
