Jayalalithaa sworn in as Tamil Nadu CM

BS Reporter / Chennai May 16, 2011, 13:23

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The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief J Jayalalithaa today sworn in as the 16th Chief Minister of Tami Nadu along with her 33 cabinet ministers, which include 24 new faces. The new cabinet will be the largest in the history of Tamil Nadu, since independence.

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It is also interesting to note, the AIADMK supremo has appointed a minister, who will implement schemes, which were promised by AIADMK in the 2011 Assembly Manifesto. This is the first time such portfolio was created in the state.

Jayalaithaa, who took over for the third time of the state said, that she fulfill all the election promises in 18 months time.

AIADMK has won the 13th Tamil Nadu Assembly Election with an absolute majority by winning 203 seats in the 234-member House.

S P Velumani who won from the Thondamuthur constituency took over as the Minister for Special Programme implementation.

The new government has lot of promises to fulfill. It is a battle of freebies. Here's what AIADMK has promised free Green houses, 20 kgs of free rice every month, marriage assistance of Rs 25,000 for poor women, four grams of gold for 'thali' (mangalsutra), free mixies, grinders, fan, 20 litres free drinking water, free laptops to class XI and XII students and the list goes on.

The various freebies given by the previous DMK government, which came into power in 2006, has increased the state’s debt to over Rs 1.75 lakh crore from Rs 80,000 crore, a year ago. This burden will further only increase in the coming years, with more freebies in the offing by the AIADMK.

The other promise was addressing the electricity scarcity. The state is facing power shortage to the tune of around 3000 MW every day.

Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) has restricted power consumed by high tension (HT) industries to 70% of their full usage. The capital of the state, Chennai, has one hour of load shedding, while the duration of load shedding in other parts of the state is up from two to three hours.

The AIADMK has assured that by 2013, another 5000 MW of additional will be generated to overcome the power shortage and to provide three-phase power connection across the state in four years. This will be crucial to attract foreign investments.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan, among others.