It is a Budget proposal full of irresistible offers which the man and woman in the street will find difficult to say no. Free bus rides to all women in the State, a free and sumptuous daily breakfast with a cup of milk to all students in the Government run schools and climate-smart agriculture to mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture.
These are some of the mouth-watering proposals which are incorporated in the shadow Budget prepared and presented to the people of Tamil Nadu by PMK, a regional outfit dominated by the Vanniyar community in the State. Since the inception of PMK as a political party, its founder Dr S Ramadoss has made it a point to come out with shadow Budget proposals every year ahead of the presentation of the State Budget.
Dr Ramadoss is a votary of transparent and corruption-free governance. He was the first politician in the State to call for auctioning the quarrying and mining of sand and beach sand along the East Coast of the State which are known for its rare earth minerals like monazite, ilmenite, garnet and other elements. Sand mining and quarrying in Tamil Nadu are sectors enmeshed in corruption and favouritism.
The axis between the mining industry, politicians and bureaucrats is plundering the beach and river sand in the State causing the exchequer losses worth Rs 15 lakh crore every year, according to Daya Devadoss, a mining baron turned evangelist in
Tirunelveli.
The PMK founder has also proposed to create smaller districts for speedier and transparent governance. “The maximum population in each district should not exceed 12 lakh so that the bureaucrats would find them easy to administer,” said the medical doctor-turned-politician.
He said it was possible to create 50 lakh jobs in agricultural and horticultural industries in the next five years. The PMK’s main focus would be to see to it that the water table in the State, especially in areas known for cultivation, goes up.
Whether these proposals would find place in the budget to be presented by Panneerselvam is anybody’s guess. But Ramadoss is confident that these are all projects which could be implemented if the Finance Minister has determination and sincerity.
There is nothing secret about our budget proposals. These are all implementable ideas and missions. If the Government uses some of the proposals, we will be happy because millions of people would be implemented. We are the one and only political party in the State which has been demanding the declaration of Cauvery Delta region as Protected Agricultural Zone.
The AIADMK Government has listened to our demand and we are happy over it,” said the doctor.
“If all opposition parties in the State and elsewhere in the country follow the footprints of Ramadoss and prepare shadow budgets instead of simply lambasting the Budgets, the country stands to gain a lot,” said Dr C Murugadas, professor of economics, Madras University.