New Cabinet boasts of 24 new faces, minister for poll promises, too.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Chief J Jayalalithaa was on Monday sworn in for the fourth time, chief minister of Tamil Nadu along with her 33 Cabinet ministers, which include 24 new faces. The new ministry will be the largest in the history of Tamil Nadu since Independence. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu and other notable leaders.
Interestingly, the AIADMK supremo has appointed a minister whose only job will be to implement schemes promised by AIADMK in the 2011 assembly manifesto. Such a portfolio has been created for the first time in the history of the state.
Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK swept the 13th Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, winning 150 seats in the 234-member House.
Jayalaithaa said she would fulfill all election promises in 18 months.
S P Velumani, who won from the Thondamuthur constituency, took over as the minister for special programme implementation.
The new government has a lot of promises to keep. Among the freebies promised by AIADMK include free housing for the poor , 20 kg of free rice every month, marriage assistance of Rs 25,000 for poor women, four gramme of gold for ‘Thali’ (mangalsutra), free mixer grinders, fan, free laptops to class XI and XII students, among many others.
The various freebies given by the previous DMK government, which came into power in 2006, has increased the state’s debt to over Rs 1.75 lakh crore from Rs 80,000 crore the previous year. This burden will only increase in the coming years, with more freebies in the offing by the AIADMK.
The other promise was addressing the electricity scarcity. The state is facing power shortage to the tune of around 3,000 Mw every day. The AIADMK has assured that by 2013, an additional 5,000 Mw will be generated to overcome the shortage and to provide three-phase connections across the state in four years. This will be crucial to attract foreign investments.
Jayalalithaa’s previous tenure (2001-06) was industry-friendly but she broke the back of government employee trade unions.
She also undertook several progressive measures including furthering a scheme to end infanticide of girls, compulsary water harvesting and passing legislation on moneylending.
