Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday inaugurated a number of projects, implemented by the Department of Energy in various parts of the State at an outlay of Rs. 519.21 crore, through video conferencing from her camp office at Kodanadu. But what surprised many was that the entire proceedings lasted for hardly 10 minutes.
Nevertheless, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) officials in Madurai were elated because out of 50 electricity sub stations, constructed at a cost of Rs. 509.88 crore across the State and inaugurated by the Chief Minister at the click of a button, she chose to get connected virtually only to the sub-station established at Mahatma Gandhi Nagar here.
After entering the venue at her camp office in Kodanadu exactly at the scheduled time of 11.45 a.m., the CM heard a brief overview of the projects read out by K. Gnanadesikan, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of TANGEDCO. Later, she pressed the button of a remote control to inaugurate the 50 sub stations and sat down to listen to Madurai Collector L. Subramanian from Mahatma Gandhi Nagar here.
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The Collector informed the Chief Minister that a total of 21,000 power consumers in the district would get quality power due to the establishment of the new sub station. He was flanked by TANGEDCO Chief Engineer-Distribution (in-charge) M. Balasubramanian, two female power consumers and three male consumers from the nearby localities.
However, only one consumer, P. Oyyammal (50) of S. Alangulam was given the opportunity to address the Chief Minister and she expressed happiness over having been relieved of low voltage problems due to the establishment of a new sub station. Later, talking to The Hindu , the woman said that this was the first time she got to speak to the Chief Minister though she had been a member of AIADMK for years together.
At Kodanadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa gave away Compact Fluorescent Lamps to a few beneficiaries to inaugurate the government scheme of distributing such lamps to hut dwellers at a cost of Rs. 88.77 crore.
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She also inaugurated a solar power generation facility at the TANGEDCO headquarters in Chennai at a cost of Rs. 55.80 lakh. All this was done at a lightning speed and the function got over by 11.55 p.m.
Thereafter, she went on to inaugurate schemes of other departments such as transport, health and industries in Theni, Karur and Chennai until 12.30 p.m.