DMK has given golden years to Tamil Nadu

Empowering people … Empowering Tamil Nadu has been the One Agenda that the DMK has worked on and delivered in the last 5 years. 2006 – 2011 has been a period of strategic empowerment and development. Education, Health Care and upliftment of the downtrodden have been, amongst others, the three thrust areas towards realising the dream of Social Justice in Tamil Nadu. However, this has always been tainted with the view that these are “freebies” handed out by our Government  to appease the various vote banks.

The narrowness of this perspective however cannot take away from the value of the investment by the DMK Govt. in the field of Education. This is the basic investment which paves the way for an aware society. The DMK Government has allocated over Rs 40,000 crores towards school education and has been placed among the high performing states in the field of school education. The system of Activity Based Learning followed in the primary schools of Tamil Nadu made the process of learning ‘joyful’, with children looking forward to going to school and thereby significantly reducing dropout rates. This initiative of the DMK Government has been a model for the entire country to follow. When you educate a woman, you educate a family which results in a  literate society. In order to motivate parents to let their girl child study, the  Govt. introduced this scheme of awarding Rs. 25,000 to girls who have studied up to 10^th standard for their marriage. We have now pledged to increase this assistance to Rs 30,000. Computer education with its lure of lucrative jobs was always the bastion of the rich but the DMK government has taken a pioneering step to provide computer education, thus ensuring that government run school students were second to none. Taking this further, the DMK Government promises a laptop to every student in Government and Government-aided colleges to keep up with current advancements in higher education. 

The Common Entrance Test (CET), introduced by the ADMK Government, for admission to professional colleges had put the rural students on the back foot as students in urban areas had the benefit of coaching classes. Despite strong opposition from city students, the DMK Government abolished CET and helped many students from the rural areas to realize their dreams of becoming an engineer or a doctor. To facilitate this further, the DMK promises that every District in Tamilnadu will get a Medical and Engineering college, and Universities will be set up all over Tamilnadu.

Kalaignar Kaappeedu Thittam (Health Insurance Scheme) has been attacked by the opponents of the DMK Govt. on the ground that it is a vote garnering ploy failing to see or more pointedly refusing to see that for the poor, the area of Health Care is the least on their scale of priorities. Labourers and daily wage workers have always overlooked their health as lack of money and access has prohibited the poor from approaching private hospitals for specialized treatment for several life threatening diseases. The insurance premium for this scheme has been fully borne by the Government. The scheme was introduced by the DMK Government in order to reinforce our commitment to the welfare and the wellbeing of the poor, thereby providing Quality Health Care services over 3 lakh people so far. 

Among the Welfare Schemes, the first and foremost of these was the eradication of starvation.  Towards this end, families in the lowest section of society were ensured up to 20 Kgs of rice @ 1 Re./Kg per month which has been increased to 35 kgs of free rice, thereby ensuring that even the poorest of poor were shielded from starvation. Empowerment schemes have not only been for the masses, but even for marginalized groups like the transgenders. A separate welfare board and also Aravani Self Help Groups along the lines of Women Self Help Groups were constituted.  

Differently-abled citizens, once again a small percentage of population in Tamil Nadu, were also given their due recognition in society by constituting a separate department under the Chief Minister. The DMK has started with distribution of pension for the differently-abled and continued with various other welfare schemes including the provision of ramps in all Govt. offices. In a society that is struggling to rise above its circumstances, the plight of Senior Citizens has been neglected and keeping their situation in mind, the DMK has promised to increase the Old Age Pension to Rs 750 per month as well as free bus passes. 

The Industrialisation seen across verticals which has led to the creation of jobs, accelerated development in backward areas, raised the standard of living and brought with it prosperity to the State. This has been possible only because of the foresight of the DMK Govt. to provide an ambient climate to investors. During the last 5 years, there has been an investment of over Rs 60,000 crores. 

The five years of DMK regime has unquestionably been golden years of Empowerment in Tamil Nadu. 

Link to the Article: https://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/2011/Apr/10/dmk-has-given-golden-years-to-tamil-nadu-243111.html