Late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was keen on developing the arid and industrially backward district if the slew of schemes and projects she had announced for the district were any indication.
After chairing the Collectors’ conference in December, 2012, Ms. Jayalalithaa announced host of schemes for the southern districts and this backward district got the maximum number of schemes.
The schemes included upgrading of the district headquarters hospital to the level of medical college hospital, creation of a unit for communicable diseases in Rameswaram and mental hospital at Erwadi.
She had also announced that the Ramanathapuram-Thoothukudi road would be converted into a four-lane highway and its development as an industrial corridor to expedite industrialisation of southern districts.
Even while addressing an election rally in Aruppukottai, ahead of the Assembly elections in April, she had devoted major portion of her speech to mention about the developmental projects granted for the district.
She had said the 1,600 MW thermal power pant, coming up at Uppur in Thiruvadanai taluk would be commissioned in 2019 and another 4,000 MW thermal power unit would be established in Kadaladi block at total cost of Rs 24,000 crore. The Adani group’s solar power plant, the world’s largest solar park in a single location in Kamudhi became possible thanks to the interest shown by Ms Jayalalithaa.
After the district administration pointed out that huge quantum of water was going waste into the sea when the Vaigai river gets flooded, she had sanctioned Rs. 78 crore for building four check dams across the river to divert water to fill 100 odd irrigation tanks. As part of measures to address communal clashes, she had sanctioned three arts and science colleges in the district at one go.
Though she could not find a lasting solution to the fishermen’s issue, she had helped a lot the fishing community from the district. When the Colombo High Court awarded death sentence to five Rameswaram fishermen after they were arrested on drug trafficking charges, Ms Jayalalithaa said they were innocent and helped to secure their release after releasing funds to argue their case in the court.
