The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government is pushing the State into bankruptcy, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary and Leader of Opposition Jayalalithaa told the Assembly on Monday.
Participating in the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the House, Ms. Jayalailthaa contended that due to the wrong economic policies of the government, there was a setback to the State’s revenue and a huge shortfall. The problems of unemployment and price rise were growing.
Comparing the annual growth rates of the Gross State Domestic Product during the AIADMK regime with those of the DMK government, Ms. Jayalalithaa said when her party was in power, the State recorded 11.45 per cent and 11.89 per cent in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, respectively. In the DMK regime, the rates went down to 4.41 per cent and 4.55 per cent in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, respectively.
Referring to the Finance Secretary’s interview to the press in February 2009 regarding the State’s debt, she said that going by the reports, the present debt had touched Rs. 90,000 crore and even the daily interest payment was said to be Rs. 20 crore. Assuming that the existing debt was Rs. 90,000 crore and the State had a six crore population, every citizen of the State had a burden of Rs. 15,000.
The burden had arisen not because of the government’s expenditure on infrastructure projects but due to, what she called, non-value creating commodities such as the scheme of distribution of colour television sets and other freebies.
Arguing that “sound economic policies” of the AIADMK regime had enabled the successor DMK government to secure loans, she wondered whether the present government would be able to maintain the credit rating of the State, going by its expenditure pattern.
Asking the State government why it had not spelt out any plan of action in the Governor’s address to contain the problem of price rise, the AIADMK leader contended that instead of sorting out people’s problems, the DMK government had been misleading the people by implementing schemes such as the distribution of land, colour television sets, gas stoves and houses free.
