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Fiscal reforms at the cost of welfare schemes: PMK

By Our Staff Reporter

SALEM JUNE 13. The Tamil Nadu Government's comprehensive fiscal reforms, hailed by the Union Planning Commission, could be achieved, thanks to a string of anti-people policies being pursued by the AIADMK Government, the PMK leader S. Ramadoss, said today.

Claiming that the performance of a people welfare state should be assessed by the components of "non-plan expenditure," Dr. Ramadoss said the present regime, wiping out various people-welfare schemes, claimed to achieve the fiscal reforms which reportedly restored the State's fiscal health. "A people-friendly government would not sacrifice its welfare schemes to achieve such reforms." The Chief Minister had claimed that Tamil Nadu showed the highest growth in terms of total investment in the manufacturing sector during 2001-2003. "But reports are quite contrary," the PMK leader said.

Dr. Ramadoss described as a ``strange practice'' violative of the normal procedure the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, calling on the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, at the Tamil Nadu House during her visit to New Delhi. The BJP, he said, seemed to have forgotten the bitter experiences of the past, when the AIADMK played a crucial role in the collapse of its previous government.

Dr. Ramadoss asked the TNCC working president, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, not to politicise the issue of his letter to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, on the Cauvery issue. "It is just a request to Ms. Sonia Gandhi and I have blamed none in it," he said and pointed out that as the Supreme Court had observed, the Karnataka Government did not have the ``spirit of sharing''.

Stressing the immediate need for an early solution to the Cauvery issue, the PMK leader said forcing delta farmers to go in for alternative crops would mean compromising Tamil Nadu rights on Cauvery water.

The PMK would soon go to court against the government `failure' to provide safe and stipulated drinking water to the people of Dharmapuri district, where it is high in fluoride. Welcoming the ban on the extremist outfit, Tamizhar Viduthalai Iyakkam, Dr. Ramadoss, however, said the decision should have been taken much earlier.

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