Mega infra, fisheries push for poll-bound TN

CHENNAI: Ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in the State, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced a slew of projects, including 3,500 km National Highways project in the State at Rs 1.03 lakh crore and sanctioned Rs 63,246 crore for the 118.9 km Chennai Metro Rail Phase-II project.

In her Budget speech, Sitharaman said that further augment road infrastructure, more economic corridors are being planned. The projects include Madurai-Kollam corridor and Chittoor-Thatchur (Tiruvallur), which will commence next year. She said that the construction work on 278 km Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway would begin this financial year. She also announced that the contract would be awarded for the controversial Chennai-Salem expressway project. As part of 1,100 km of National Highway works in at an investment of Rs 65,000 crores, she said that 600 km section of Mumbai-Kanniyakumari corridor in Kerala would be built. Sources in the Metro Rail said that the original cost of the phase-II project was nearly up to Rs 88,000 crore but it was brought down to Rs 63,246 crore after the Centre asked to cut down the cost.

In fisheries, Sitharaman proposed substantial investments in the development of modern fishing harbours and fish landing centres. "To start with, five major fishing harbours – Chennai, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Petuaghat – will be developed as hubs of economic activity. Seaweed farming is an emerging sector with the potential to transform the lives of coastal communities. It will provide large scale employment and additional incomes. To promote seaweed cultivation, I propose a Multipurpose Seaweed Park to be established in Tamil Nadu,” she said. Meanwhile, farmers here expressed their shock and disappointment with the Budget as there was no mention of loan waiver which they had been waiting for years and suspected that the Budget intended to help the private firm and not the farmers.

CHENNAI: The multiple visits by senior AIADMK Ministers P Thangamani and SP Velumani to hold alliance talks with PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss has borne fruit and the alliance deal with the PMK is expected to be confirmed this month, highly placed AIADMK sources said.

Besides the 20 per cent reservation quota for Vanniyars, demands of PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss have been conveyed to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and a consensus appears to be brewing on both sides, sources added.

The AIADMK has also agreed to give a lion’s share of seats to the PMK, somewhere between 30 and 40 seats, in the NDA alliance when compared to the BJP and the DMDK. The party wants to form a mega alliance in the state to take on the formidable DMK -Congress combine.

Regional satrap and AIADMK strongman Minister CVe Shanmugham had also conveyed to the party high command about the need to ally with the PMK, which has a traditional vote bank in Vanniyar-dominated north Tamil Nadu and parts of Dharmapuri, Salem and Erode.

However, the alliance talks with the DMDK has hit a roadblock. “The open support of Premalatha Vijayakant to ousted AIADMK leader VK Sasikala had irked the AIADMK leaders and this is one of the reasons delaying the alliance talks. Though the DMDK has invited the AIADMK to start the alliance talks, the ruling party is currently working to seal the deal with the PMK . After this, negotiations with other allies will commence,”. said AIADMK sources

Meanwhile, the open greetings from Premalatha, supporting ousted AIADMK leader

Sasikala, has elated the AMMK cadres. There is every possibility of the DMDK joining hands with the AMMK and we are also pinning hopes on the merger of the AIADMK and AMMK before the Assembly polls, a senior AMMK functionary, who is also a district secretary, told DT Next.

In a related development, AIADMK deputy coordinator KP Munusamy told reporters in Krishnagiri that the party high command might consider taking back TTV Dhinakaran into the party, if he submitted an apology.

The AIADMK has also agreed to give a lion’s share of seats to PMK in the NDA alliance, in contrast to the BJP and DMDK