Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam will deliver the budget address in the Assembly today.
Our reporters Sruthisagar Yamunan and Sangeetha Kandavel send us live updates:
12:25 pm: No new announcements for health. School education department over 46237 students brought back to school.
12:15 pm: Chief Minister O Panneerselvam reduces VAT on cellphones and LED lights from 14.5 per cent to 5 per cent.
12: 00 pm: Chief Minister appeals for fund allocation under the new NITI Aayog. Appeals that no new taxes are imposed.
Differently abled definitely will be disappointed. They wanted Rs. 1000 monthly allowance to be hiked to Rs. 3000
— R. Sujatha (@rsujatha_30) >March 25, 2015
11: 48 am: Tamil Nadu stands number 2 when it comes to tourism, says O. Panneerselvam.
11: 45 am: Sports: Government has created good infrastructure in the state
11: 32 am: "Chennai Metro will become functional in 2015-16 in phases," O. Panneerselvam says.
11: 27 am: Appreciate Centre for including Kanchi and Velankanni in Heritage cities list. State allots 46 crore for this scheme: CM
11: 20 am: Skill development for 2 lakh people: CM
>#OPS says, state has attracted good investments in last 4 years!!! Looks like he has forgotton what happened to >@nokia and other industries
— sangeetha kandavel (@sang1983) >March 25, 2015
11: 11 am: "Rs. 1421.6 crore used to buy over 7000 buses. Average age of buses has come down to 5.3 years."
TN tops country in new and renewable energy >#OPS>#TNBudget
— Sruthisagar (@sruthisagar) >March 25, 2015
10: 46 am: "4992 MW power added by AIADMK govt," Mr. Panneerselvam says.
10: 42 am: Efforts on to link the rivers in the state: CM
10: 42 am: Will do all to stop Karnataka from building dams across Cauvery in Megadatu.
12000 cows and 6 lakh goats to be distributed in 2015-2016 >#OPS>#TNBudget
— Sruthisagar (@sruthisagar) >March 25, 2015
10: 43 am: 4955 crore of farm loans distributed in 2014-2015: CM
10: 39 am: 3.06 lakh acres in TN under drip irrigation already: CM
10: 35 am: Rs. 134 crores sanctioned for 169 new courts to reduce case pendency.
10: 30 am: DMK MLAs had staged a walk out earlier.
10: 28 am: TN police protecting law and order well: CM.
10: 27 am: "43 lakh applications processed under AMMA revenue department scheme."
10: 26 am: Opposition benches see many vacant chairs. DMK MLAs absent.
10: 25 am: Funds from National Urban Livelihood mission to be integrated with State Urban Livelihood Mission.
10: 19 am: 55,100 crore the budgetory allocation for 2015-2016.
10: 16 am: No change in tax revenue apportionment to State in the 14th finance commission recommendations. 14th finance commission may not help TN much. 1137 cr loss to TN due to new recommendation: Mr. Paneerselvam
Growth percentage made a turn around in 2013-2014. State GDP will be higher than 9 percent for 2015-2016
10: 10 am: "Tax income has not gone up in last two years as expected. This along with the subsidies for welfare schemes have increased our burdened," he says.
10: 08 am: "When Jayalalithaa took over, Tamil Nadu was in a bad state 4 years ago. Now it is back on growth path. A record number of welfare schemes introduced in last 4 years," Mr. Panneerselvam says.
10: 06 am: "Under Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu has created multiple records."
10: 05 am: "Jayalalithaa is guiding Tamil Nadu," says the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.
10: 00 am: O. Panneerselvam begins to read the budget.
09: 50 am: O. Panneerselvam will be the first Chief Minister to submit a full-fledged budget after a gap of 15 years. >Read more
09: 35 am: In last few years, most announcements came via Rule 110 statements from Jayalalithaa. Tamil Nadu Budget had little. May change this year.
09:30 am : Tamil Nadu Buget to begin in half hour. First-ever budget for O. Panneerselvam as Chief Minister.
