Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking an additional financial assistance of Rs. 25,000 crore for development projects.
The amount could be granted partly as grant and partly as loan. “The process of development which is languishing has to be galvanised. The revenue buoyancy in the State is also in need of a renaissance,” she said in her letter to Dr. Singh.
She added, “May I emphasize that judicious use of this package by my Government in various projects will accelerate national growth?”
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Her government had inherited “a very fragile financial system,” precariously poised on the brink of deterioration with very unsustainable deficits and enormous debts – the result of “irresponsible and inept administration” of the State finances by the predecessor, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government. “We have been taking the requisite steps with grit and resolve to emerge from this slide by adopting daring measures such as increase of VAT [Value Added Tax] rates, State excise duty, bus fares, [and] increase of milk prices.”
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To tide over the present acute power crisis in the State, she reiterated her plea for additional allocation of 1,000 megawatt (MW) from the Central pool to offset the unexpected delay in commissioning of the new power projects under the Central Sector and she wanted her request to be considered on priority basis.
She drew Dr. Singh's attention to the fact that the supply from the Central Generating Stations (CGS) to the State had come down by 700 MW since March. Ms. Jayalalithaa urged him to direct the CGS to keep up their power supply commitment to the State.
After the assumption of her government in May, the allocation of kerosene in the Public Distribution System was drastically reduced from June. The earlier monthly allocation of 52,806 KL (kilo litres) was reduced to 44,580 KL from June 2011.
Consequently, the people of Tamil Nadu were put to great hardship. There had been no prior notice to the State government and no discussions were held in this regard. “May I request you to kindly ensure that the Public Distribution System allotment of kerosene is completely reverted to levels that obtained in April 2011?” she stated, calling for five per cent enhancement from the level of April 2011.