Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

CM against budget cuts for social sector

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai Dec. 1. The Tamil Nadu Government is faced with the "heart-wrenching prospect'' of cutting down allocations for the social sector, especially health and primary education, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, said today. However, she was "determined not to allow this (budgetary cuts) to happen".

The Chief Minister's remarks came at the inaugural of a symposium here on the International Fund for Agricultural Development strategy for rural poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific.

Conceding that unemployment in the State was the third highest in the country with 15 per cent of the people without jobs, Ms. Jayalalithaa said it only strengthened the perception that the growth process in the past did not involve the poor and had, in fact, widened income inequalities. Noting that the State's finances were in complete disarray, she squarely blamed it on the "mismanagement of finances and wrong policies" pursued by her "predecessor" (DMK) Government.

The Chief Minister reiterated that her vision was to double the per capita income by 2010. As high and unsustainable revenue deficits could imperil the Government's ability to provide security for the poor, fiscal consolidation was a "must", she added.

In the context of the Government's commitment to increasing the agricultural growth, Ms. Jayalalithaa appealed to the IFAD President, Lennart Bage, to support the State's new project on transformation of wasteland, improving sub-optimal cultivation by small and marginal farmers and encouraging rural non-farm activities. In his address, Mr.Bage said developed countries too had committed themselves to increasing their allocations for poverty alleviation by 25 per cent over the next few years. The developing countries, he said, should take active part in the WTO negotiations to ensure greater market access for the rural produce, which was central to rural poverty eradication.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Entertainment | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• CM against budget cuts for social sector
• 2 extremists held
• 7 `godmen' held with 109 human skulls
• Naxalism in Dharmapuri contained: Centre
• Souvenir released in memory of Papa Venkataramaiah
• Why compose new songs, asks Semmangudi
• TTDC package for tourists from north
• 14 fishermen `abducted' by Sri Lankan Navy
• Bypoll a launch pad for forces against anti-conversion law: DPI
• Common front needed, says Elangovan

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu