China is giving sleepless nights to Tamil Nadu’s bureaucracy. Not directly but in one form or the other. On one hand, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) has been waging a legal battle with an Indo-Chinese consortium which has been taking it to court for every super-critical thermal power plant that it plans.
On the other, the government’s free laptop scheme this year also has run into trouble with a manufacturer going to the courts alleging that three companies that participated in earlier tenders violated the rules by sourcing laptops from China.
While the bureaucracy tends to think that anything from China comes at a lower price even if they are thermal power plants, the government was eager to seal the free laptop deal as it thought the prices quoted by the bidders were less this time leading to saving a couple of hundred crores. Therefore, the government was keen to finalise the tenders early as 11 lakh laptops have to be distributed.
The free laptop scheme is a populist scheme and considered a game changer as the elections are scheduled next year.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, especially the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), came under intense scrutiny following the Moulivakkam building collapse that killed 61 people, but have they learnt lessons from the tragedy? No, says a former urban planner.
Even a year after the tragedy, the State government has not taken any step to fill the post of CMDA Vice Chairman – usually occupied by a very senior bureaucrat. Incidentally, the post fell vacant in May 2011.
There has been no positive, definite response from the department to address crucial issues of safety, structural stability, says the former planner. Recently, the CMDA announced filling up of a number of vacancies, but there seems to be no indication that the Vice-Chairman’s post will be filled. It is likely to be a first and an achievement if the post remains vacant for the full five years of the present government.
Higher Education Minister P. Palaniappan was conspicuous by his absence during the most important events at the Anna University this academic year.
In a departure from routine, the Minister was not there to release the random number or the rank list for engineering admissions in the State. In fact, when the schedule was released by the university and journalists questioned the asterisk marks against the dates, officials said they were awaiting confirmation from the Minister.
During the release of random number and the rank list, only the Higher Education Secretary was present. The usual procedure of announcing the toppers and other information about the number of first-generation students or the cut-off were not followed during the release of the rank list. No press conference was held. On instructions, it was kept brief and simple.
All the time, the Minister, one of the most loyal foot-soldiers of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, was busy campaigning at R.K. Nagar where she is contested.
Now that the by-poll is over, the Minister is likely to be back for the general counselling on July 1 to present allotment orders to the toppers. And, he is unlikely to speak to the media. No departure from routine here.
(Reporting by B. Aravind Kumar, K. Manikandan and R. Sujatha)
