Monday 15 July 2013

Empty announcements: Everybody has right for day-dreaming!

Questioning the possibility of implementation of grandiloquent announcements made by Jayalalitha in the Assembly, whether they were properly discussed and designed, DMK President and former Chief Minister Kalaignar compared her inconsequential and empty announcements just for the sake of securing headlines in dailies on the next day to the story of Claudius, the glass merchant and the consequence of his daydream.
In his epistle to Party cadre on April 28, Kalaignar said DMK General Secretary Prof. K.Anbazhagan started his speech at the public meeting held at Tiruvanmiyur on 24th saying ‘Tamil Nadu and the hillarious comedy going on now’. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha was proving everyday what he said. The proceedings of the Assembly as reported in dailies showed that it was conducted to the extent nobody had right to express opinion in the House against this regime. The Assembly is getting changed into a forum for singing in praise of the lady, convey gratitude for all announcements and everyone should bow heads and listen to whatever she read in the House.
So far there were so many Chief Ministers in Tamil Nadu but none of them did like the preset Chief Minister reading out announcements not pertaining to her departments but to those of other ministers. As the Chief Minister herself reads out all announcements under rule 110, leaders of other parties and the Speaker speak welcoming and applauding them. If anybody wants to point out any deficiencies in them, the Speaker will rule that there was no permission to criticise statement read out under rule 110, and if tried to speak in violation he will evict him from the House. Evicting like that four times, he will rule that the concerned member shall not attend the House for the whole session. It is such democracy that is ruling the roost everyday in Tamil Nadu Assembly.
On 25.4.2013 alone, the Chief Minister has read out all that has to be said by the Minister for Power. Then why a Minister for Electricity? Has he been assigned any other separate ‘duty’? will he attend to only that ‘duty’? How many announcements which are worth several thousand crores? Why those announcements were not made under the budget? Do not the funds to spent under those announcements require the consent of the Assembly? On if they were to be truly implemented, such concerns? Were they just announced for the sake of publication in dailies everyday? Will not the announcements of the CM discredit the value of demands for grants?
For instance I ask one thing. On 3.5.2012 last, Jayalalitha made some announcements relating to police department. Did not a debate on demand for grants for police department take place and the CM reply to it? She did; she read out for a long time to the debate on police department on 24.4.2012; made announcements. Still after 10 days on 3.5.2012 she made a very big announcement. Could not that been made during the reply for grants for police department? But it was not done. Why? If it was done then, it would have become one among the many. Is it because only if it is read separately under rule 110 it will come in a big way in dailies waiting to publish it on the first page and leaders of parties in the Assembly applaud ‘Amma’? Why we don’t know. What was the statement read out by the CM under rule 110 on 3.5.2012? Here it is:-
“Tamil Nadu Police Housing Board will take steps to construct own houses for those in the ranks from constables to deputy superintendents in the Police department and in the ranks from fire fighters to divisional officers in Fire and Retrieval department under ‘own your house’ scheme. Under this scheme 36,000 houses will be constructed. 10 acre land in every district headquarters and 100 acre land in Mela Kottaiyur village in Kancheepuram district will be allocated”. After the CM made this announcement under rule 110, beginning with C.K.Tamilarasan, U.Thaniyarasu of Kongu Tamilar Katchi, Dr.M.H.Jaswarihullah of Manitha Neya Makkal Katchi, M.Kalaiyarasu of PMK, A.Narayanan of Samathuva makkal Katchi, S.Vijayatharani of Congress, M.Arumugam of CPI and A.Soundararajan of CPM applauded and thanked the CM. Outdoing all of them, the then Speaker D.Jayakumar recited a poem in praise of their ‘Amma’.
It is one year since the CM made that announcement, and how many of those 36,000 houses have been constructed? Were those residential quarters for which police department staff remitted money constructed and opened? Did the CM visit and inaugurate? Or was it inaugurated through video-conferencing?
It was one such very big announcement the CM read out in the Assembly on 25.4.2013. for which very big first page headlines in newspapers.
*Hydel power project at a cost of Rs.7000 crore in Nilgiris district. * Rs.5000 crore plan buttressing electricity infrastructure and transmission network *19 new 400 KV sub-stations at a cost of Rs.3572 crore *sub-station and transmission corridor in Tiruvalam at a cost of Rs.1000 crore * Rs 30,602 crore plans for making TN power surplus state again!
The CM has read out power projects worth Rs.30,000 crore under rule 110 in the Assembly. But none of the leaders of parties in the Assembly asked any question whether those projects were feasible, whether they were discussed in the Cabinet or at least at the level of officials etc., Because according to the rule there is no permission to question.
This announcement was published in a very big way in all dailies in the state.
Till now there is power cut for over 15 hours a day in villages and children could not sleep in nights without air with the onset of summer. People are carrying their children and wander on streets. Industrial units in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode are closed and workers have lost means of livelihood. Are these rulers concerned about all these things? Yes, only because of her concern she had thought over for long to formulate these projects and announced.
These announcements of the CM under rule 110 can be printed as leaflets and distributed among women suffering due to power cut. The line that all these plans will take 8 to 10 years to be completed must be underlined. Meetings can be arranged to campaign that ‘the announcements made by the CM will be completed in ten years, and power cut will be relaxed then to make air available to you all and you can make your children sleep.’
From the already planned Kudankulam power project, whether power generation will begin, and how much of it will be available for TN are question marks. Because there is a stir going on against the project itself. First those protestors were instigated and later refused to even meet them. In an interview given to ‘Anandavikatan’ this week the leader of the protestors group R.Udayakumar has openly said about Jayalalitha first giving assurance to them and later gave up them.
At this stage only Jayalalitha has announced the plans in the Assembly. The 2000 MW hydel power plant in Nilgiris district at a cost of Rs.7000 crore to be implemented in two stages will take 8-10 years for completion; a plan is said to have been evolved to butress power infrastructure and transmission corridor at an estimate of Rs.5000 crore, works for setting up 14 new sub-stations of 230 KV each at an estimate of Rs.822 crore will be taken up; the works for setting up 400 KV sub-station and transmission corridor at Tiruvalam at an estimate of Rs.1000 crore will begin this year. (If so, nobody should ask, in which year the other plans will begin because the CM has said under rule 110) Work for establishing a corridor from Kayatharu to Chennai at a cost of Rs.2300 crore is said to be undertaken; works for establishing sub-stations at a cost of 1230 crore will be started; a sub-station at a cost of Rs.150 crore will be set up in Kanarpatti in Tirunelveli district; the works for 11 new 33 KV sub-stations will begin this year and totally it is said 56 sub-stations will be established at an estimate of Rs.8000 crore. They say that investment subsidy of Rs.20,000 will be paid to those who set up solar power plants on the roofs of their houses. Nobody should laugh at the final announcement. Yes. They have said that they will provide 11 lakh new power connections this year! How are the announcements? When the total provision of the budget of an year is about Rs.One lakh crore, if the Chief Minister is announcing plans for Rs. 30,000 crore under rule 110 on a single day, it is like the saying in villages, “nkiy¡nf thœ¡if¥gl¥ ngh»nw‹; fG¤nj R«kh ÏU”.
In the story for children in textbooks, a glass merchant Claudius was going on the streets selling glass wares. Unable to bear with hot sun, he kept the basket containing glass wares down under the shade of a tree, lied down and slept. A dream in his sleep. The glass merchant sells his wares getting lot of profit and slowly rises up as a rich man. He becomes a big industrialist and developed in status. When his servant came and said something, he gets angry and kicks at his servant. Thinking that he was kicking at his servant, the merchant actually kicks towards the basket containing glass wares and all those glass wares get smashed. That is the story. Similarly, everybody has the right to daydream, isn’t it?

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