Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday told the Assembly that in the last 10 months the DMK government had made announcements for 208 of the 505 election promises and issued orders for implementing 171 of them.
He also promised to implement the “unfufilled announcements” made in the last 10 years by the AIADMK government if they were found to be beneficial to the people. In this context, he recalled the words of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai that the “jasmine in the garden of the enemy also has fragrance”.
He pointed out that though the AIADMK made 186 promises in its 2011 election manifesto and 321 promises in the 2016 manifesto, it had issued orders for only 269 of the 507 promises.
“The announcements still remain on paper. They were made just for the sake of publicity,” he said.
Mr. Stalin said while the DMK government was fulfilling its election promises, questions were asked about them. “It is like asking a 10-month-old child to tell you about its 10th standard marks. But let me tell you. The child will score marks not only in the 10th standard but also win a medal in graduation,” he said.
The Chief Minister said he had chosen to make the suo motu statement to explain the truth to the MLAs and people alike because the opposition parties were criticising and raising doubts about the announcements made during the election.
“DMK’s manifesto was prepared in such a manner to fulfill the promises in a stipulated period and restore the State economy. The government is committed to fulfilling even the promises not made in the manifesto,” he reiterated and listed out the promises for which orders had already been issued.
On the other hand, he said 26 announcements made during AIADMK regime with an outlay of ₹5,470 crore were given up because they were made without studying the feasibilities of their implementation.
“Of the 26 announcements, 19 were made between 2011 and 2016. Orders were not issued for 20 announcements made with an outlay of ₹9,741 crore. Approval and orders were issued for 491 announcements and funds were not released for 143 announcements made with an outlay of ₹76,619 crore,” he said.
Some of the announcements for which funds were not allotted include the ₹2,160 crore satellite town in Thirumazhisai, integrated satellite town covering 586.86 crore near Madurai airport, fee mobile phones for ration card holders and coupon worth ₹500 to purchase cloths at the Co-optex, he added.
