Jaya govt ends DMK's pet schemes

Housing, health insurance projects for revamp, renaming; monorail replaces metro rail

The new government in Tamil Nadu, led by J Jayalalithaa, has decided to replace some of the social welfare schemes and infrastructure projects of the earlier DMK Government. These include the state-sponsored insurance and housing schemes (both named after the former chief minister) and the metro rail project in the capital (with a monorail one).

In his speech to the legislature, read out by state assembly Speaker D Jayakumar, Governor Surjit Singh Barnala said the new government's intention was to provide good healthcare for the people.

“The existing insurance scheme does not address the demand of the people fully, so it has been decided to replace it with a new scheme,” he said. The scheme was introduced by the DMK government in 2009 and Star Health and Allied Insurance, promoted by the Dubai-based ETA Group, was selected to implement it. The Group was criticised by Jayalalithaa before becoming CM, for its connection with the former government.

She earlier said, “Through this scheme, an estimated Rs 2,000 crore of state funds have been siphoned out over four years, ostensibly to provide health insurance cover to the people. With the same money, 20 medical colleges with state-of-the-art general hospitals could have been set up in 20 districts. This would have churned out over 2,000 new doctors each year, in addition to providing free treatment for all ailments to over 20,000 people every day.”

Star Health's promoter and director is Syed Mohammed Salahuddin, a Dubai-based billionaire. His son, Ahmed Syed Salahuddin, is a board member of Genex Exim, accused of being a front company of Etisalat DB in the 2G telecom spectrum scam, which has involved senior DMK figures.

Commenting on today's state government decision, V Jagannathan, chairman-cum-managing director of Star Health and Allied Insurance, said: “We are only the insurer. We will do what the insured want to do.”

Housing, rail
Also to be stopped is the Kalaignar Housing Scheme, started in January. The DMK government said it planned to spend around Rs 12,600 crore to build concrete houses for 2.1 million poor rural families over the next six years.

Instead it has been decided to introduce a ‘Green Housing Scheme, with solar power. The AIADMK government said there were several complaints against the earlier scheme and the cost of construction rose more than twice. The previous government allocation of Rs 75,000 per unit was not viable for a rural family. In the new scheme, the government would construct and deliver a 300 sq ft house to each beneficiary at a cost of Rs 1.8 lakh.

The metro rail project for Chennai is to be stopped and replaced with a monorail one. The new government has said public transportation accounts for 27 per cent of all journeys and by 2026 this had to be raised to 46 per cent.

“To achieve this target, the new government has formulated a Multi Modal Transport system for Chennai. The Metro Rail Project was planned for 45 km. The cost of the project is high and it is also taking a lot of time. Taking this account, it has been decided implement a monorail. As part of phase-I, 111 km has been planned, which will be increased to 300 km.”

The government is also considering the same project in other cities in the state, including Coimbatore and Madurai.