Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Efforts on to improve CM's interface with public

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI March 28. A day after a couple committed suicide at the Secretariat here in full view of the police and the public, a youth from Salem today lunged towards the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's convoy to present a petition.

As it swerved out of the Secretariat, the youth waiting at the bus stop opposite Fort St. George threw himself on the road, creating a flutter.

However, he suffered no injuries as the convoy halted and the Chief Minister received his petition. She is said to have chided him, asking him not to resort to such dangerous steps.

Earlier, before leaving the Secretariat, the Chief Minister, who did not receive petitions yesterday in view of the budget presentation, personally heard the grievances of several petitioners.

Couple commit suicide

Ms. Jayalalithaa also granted Rs. 1 lakh as solatium and promised a job to the daughter of a Coimbatore couple who committed suicide allegedly because they could not hand over their petition to the Chief Minister yesterday.

According to an official release, Velu and his disabled wife, Nalini, who had come to the Secretariat to present a petition, in a sudden fit of depression, drank poison around noon.

The solatium for their daughter, Uma, would be deposited in the Tamil Nadu Power Corporation and the monthly interest given to her.

The suicide is a grim pointer to the difficulties faced by the people who arrive at the Secretariat from across the State to hand over petitions to Ms. Jayalalithaa.

After getting past the police at the entrance of the Secretariat, the people are subjected to several rounds of checks and asked to wait when they enter Fort St. George. And, they wait at least a couple of hours in the heat until she emerges, at the Secretariat portico.

Besides, the Chief Minister's special security personnel throw a ring round the petitioners. And, minutes before she arrives at or leaves the Secretariat, the officials of the Chief Minister's Cell perfunctorily receive the petitions from the crowd and put them into a large bag. It is not often that Ms. Jayalalithaa receives petitions directly.

And, on days when she is unable to receive the petitions, the Chief Minister's Special Cell lends no sympathetic ear to the petitioners.

The stifling security and the special cell do not complement the Chief Minister's practice of personally receiving petitions for a direct interface with the public, some of those who wanted to present petitions said.

When contacted, the Chief Minister's Cell Special Officer, Beela Rajesh, said efforts were being made to improve the system of receiving petitions.

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