Way forward for Jaya

The J Jayalalithaa-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has a lot on its agenda going by the promises made in the manifesto — free green houses, 20 kg of free rice every month, marriage assistance of Rs 25,000 for poor women, four gm of gold for Thali (mangalsutra), free mixers, grinders, fans, 20 litres free drinking water, free laptops to class XI and XII students, and the list goes on.

“While the first priority will be to restore law and order in the state and make the state’s economic strong, we will fulfil our promises, which was given in the party’s 2011 manifesto in the next 18 months,” said Jayalalithaa soon after she was elected.

The question that arises is who is going to bear the cost? In an exclusive interview to Jaya TV, she said making Tamil Nadu as number one state in the country would be the focus and reducing state government’s debt. “The state had been pushed into a debt trap with borrowing amounting to Rs 1 lakh crore. The state treasury is empty and I have to start from scratch.”

How will all this expenditure be met? The various freebies given by the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, which came into power in 2006, increased the state’s debt to over Rs 1.75 lakh crore from Rs 80,000 crore a year ago. This burden will only further increase in the coming years, with more freebies offered by AIADMK. The other major task for the new government is electricity. The state, once was surplus in power is now started buying from the open market, as the power shortage is in the tune of around 3000 megawatt (Mw) every day.

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

AIADMK has assured that by 2013, another 5000 Mw of additional power will be generated to overcome the shortage and it would provide three-phased power connection across the state in four years.

This will be crucial in attracting foreign investments. Jayalalithaa’s loyalists including O Pannerselvam and K A Sengotain are likely to get the key portfolios, as in past, including PWD and transport have been their major tasks.

It will be interesting to see who is going to occupy the office of state’s finance minister, which was held by C Ponnaiyan in earlier AIADMK’s regime. This time, he was denied ticket by the party supremo. The new government’s priority list is to find a solution for the power shortage, keep the current growth momentum and financial position at least at current levels, fulfiling the freebie promises, not introduce any new tax and continuing foreign-investment friendly policies.