The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Friday criticised the State government for the power shortage and said people were experiencing severe hardship.
Participating in the debate on the budget in the Assembly, AIADMK deputy leader O. Panneerselvam said the shortage had affected students and industrial production and resulted in job loss and adverse impact on the economy.
Contending that the State was surplus in power during the AIADMK regime, he blamed the State government for not doing enough on capacity addition. Referring to the establishment of new industrial units, he wondered how power supply to them would be ensured, without affecting supply to the existing units.
Congress deputy leader D. Yasodha called upon the government to take stringent action against those indulging in activities such as production of fake property documents and fake drugs. Expressing concern over incidents of chain snatching and burglary, she demanded effective police action to bring the guilty to book.
She alleged that some industrial units in Oragadam had not obtained statutory clearances and permission from authorities, causing revenue loss to the exchequer.
She wanted to know whether the increase in assistance given to women belonging to poor families under the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Memorial Marriage scheme would be applicable to other marriage assistance schemes such as the Maniammaiyar scheme (for daughters of poor widows) and Anjugam Ammaiyar scheme (in the case of inter-caste marriages). There should be no discrimination among such schemes.
Pattali Makkal Katchi president G.K. Mani expressed his party's support to the government move to revive the Legislative Council. He urged the State government to provide toilets to houses to be covered under the Kalaignar Housing Scheme.
Referring to the dismissal of the State government's petition on the Empowered Committee issue in the Supreme Court, Mr. Mani asked the government to spell out its stand.
When he said that land acquisition should be carried out only for public purposes, not for projects to be executed by multi-national companies, Law Minister Durai Murugan clarified that the government acquired land only after negotiations with owners and providing them appropriate compensation and not rock bottom prices as stated by the PMK leader.
