Many footprints of a chief minister
On august 15, tamil na du chief Minister mk sta lin made history by appointing 24 non-brahmin “arch aka rs ”, or priests, in temples, fulfilling a dream of the dravidian movement’ s founder, evr periyar, who broached the idea in 1937.
Though the opening of the temple door for non-brahmins was a step sta lin’ s father, mk a run an id hi, had attempted twice, first in the 1970 sand then in 2006, it was stuck in legal tangles.
A lot has been talked about the way the dr avid a mun net ra Kazhagam (dmk) supremo has managed the pandemic in the state by containing infections, attracted investments of ~17,141 cr ore, and appointed an economic advisory council comprising world renowned experts. however, it is the minute aspects of leadership like appointing priest sand accessibility for people through measures like “Un gal thogudhiyil cm ”( chief minister in your constituency department ), speedily disposing of petitions by people, is what makes Stalin a leader with a difference.
Another important decision was the announcement on bearing the cost of Covid-19 treatment for patients in private hospitals by the state, covering it under the chief minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
On the economy, Sta lin has lined up his vision of making tamil Nadua “one-trillion economy” by 2030, making it the most investor-friendly region in south asia. This intention was evident when after the decision to exit kerala, citing a witch hunt, sa bu M jacob, managing director kit ex Garments, the third-largest infant garments brand in the world, stated Tamil na du was the state that reached out to him for shifting his ~3,000- cr ore investment to the state within hours. later, tamil na du lost the project to a more aggressive Telangana.
The state announced setting up an economic advisory council— with former reserve bank of india governor raghu ram ra jan, nobel laureate esther du flo, former chief economic advisor arv ind Sub ram an ian, development economist jean dreze, and former Union finance secretary sn a ray an as its members — to come up with suggestions to revive the state’ s economy and reduce its debt. Causing concern for the Stalin government’ s future, the state is likely to see a debt for the current financial year at ~5.7 trillion as compared to ~4.5 trillion in 2020-21. To tide over this, the state has lined up a medium-term fiscal plan (Mtfp ), which set a road map of keeping the fiscal deficit within 3.5 percent of state gross domestic productin 2022-23 and 3 percent from 2023-24.
“The biggest challenge for the government over the next couple of years would be to lower the state’ s revenue deficit close to zero from over 3 percent expected this fiscal year. this would ensure that the government borrow only for productive purposes ,” said vi dy a Mahambare, professor of economics at the great lakes institute of Management, Chennai.
Ma ham bare said the pandemic would require continued elevated support to the poor through direct income transfers and public distribution system subsidies for some time.
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan said the state might go for major reform sin the Budget next year, coming up with a white paper on its financial situation. experts indicate the state might go for a hike in key components like power bills, which remained untouched for years and affected the finance soft he state distribution company.
Bjp spokesperson na ray an an Thirupathy said: “The DMK is going back on its poll promises, citing the state’ s finances. it had promised a cut of ~5 ali tr eon pet roland ~4 al it re on diesel. however, it reduced it by ~3 ali tr eon diesel only. moreover, the Budget did not give a road map on additional revenue plans and lacked ideas on bringing investment and creating employment.”
To improve agricultural production, the sta lin government presented a separate budget for the sector, the third by a state in india, showing intentions to improve the quality of spending on the sector.
While there is concern on how the state’ s finances will be managed, Stalin is improving his stature as a leader through his views on issues like karna taka’ s adamants tan don building adam across the c au very in M eked atu, with drawing cases against journalists, and even minute aspects like not coming in public or photographs without wearing am ask.