The Tamil Nadu administration is working overtime to ensure the success of Tuesday’s meeting of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A visit to Fort Saint George (seat of Tamil Nadu Government in Chennai), is enough to understand the excitement and expectation among the bureaucracy which is pinning big hopes on Jayalalithaa’s meeting with Modi.
The Chief Minister is flying to New Delhi by a special aircraft on Tuesday to call on the Prime Minister. This is her first visit to New Delhi after getting re-elected for a record second term as Chief Minister in the Assembly election held on May 16. Though it is customary on the part of all Chief Ministers to call on the Prime Minister after getting elected, Amma’s (as Jayalalithaa is addressed by the party cadre as well as top bureaucrats) visit is special as she enjoys a unique rapport with Narendra Modi. The relation dates back to nearly two decades and last August, the Prime Minister gave a go to all protocols when he drove down to Jayalalithaa’s Veda Nilayam residence during his visit to Chennai for an official function.
Jayalalithaa is expected to submit a detailed memorandum to Modi listing various demands of Tamil Nadu. The top priority is for financial assistance from the Centre to meet the expenses of welfare measures announced by Jayalalithaa. Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of welfare measures and programmes targeting the poor and downtrodden ranging from Amma Hotels which give heavily subsidised food to Amma Medical Scheme offering state-of-the-art health care at rates affordable by the common man. The Chief Minister in an earlier memorandum to the Centre had urged to allocate Rs8,000 crore to take up flood relief operations and rehabilitation works in the five northern districts including Chennai following the December 2015 deluge.
Considering the draught situation prevailing in the Cauvery Delta, the five districts which constitute the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa is expected to urge the Prime Minister to constitute the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority. The Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal in its final verdict in 2007 had asked for the constitution of CMB and CWRA for the judicious sharing of the Cauvery River Water among the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Though the verdict of the CWDT was gazetted in 2012, the CMB and CWRA are yet to be constituted. Jayalalithaa is certain to take up with Prime Minister the need to constitute CMB as Tamil Nadu farmers are facing a severe crisis due to shortage of water.
Issues like the harassment suffered by Tamil Nadu fishermen at the hands of Sri lankan Navy and the future of the islet Katchatrheevu too will figure in Jaya’s talk with the Prime Minister. Besides the Prime Minister, Jayalalithaa is also calling on union finance minister Arun Jaitley. She is returning to Chennai on Tuesday evening itself.