One Year Of Stalin Govt: Some New Initiatives, Some Unfulfilled Promises —The Bouquets And Brickbats

While Stalin-led government implemented many social justice measures in the past year, the DMK is yet to fulfill many major poll promises including Rs 1,000 assistance for women family heads.

MK Stalin in the Assembly | Credit: ABP Nadu

Chennai: Last year, on May 7, DMK president Stalin started his oath with "Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin enum naan" (I'm Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin) as he become the Chief Minister of the state. On Saturday, as his government completed a year, Stalin said in the Assembly: “I'm not Kalaignar (DMK patriarch and Stalin's father Karunanidhi). I cannot speak like Kalaignar. I cannot write like him but I took a pledge to work like him and I hope I have kept that word."

From taking his oath with Karunanidhi's name to invoking his father on completing a year in office, the ‘Dravidian Stock’ has been going strong amid charges of nepotism by the Opposition parties. 

On Saturday, Stalin first met his mother Dayalu Ammal in Chennai to seek her blessings, before traveling in a government bus along with the public to reach the Assembly.

Addressing the Assembly, CM Stalin announced a slew of measures to mark the first year anniversary. These included a free breakfast scheme in government schools for Class 1-5 students and ‘CM in your constituency scheme’ for the entire state.

In the past year, the DMK government announced and implemented several schemes. While some of them received appreciation, many others drew criticism from the public.

Here is a look at projects and schemes and the kind of response they received.

Big Announcements Made By Stalin

As soon as CM Stalin took charge last year, he announced an assistance of Rs 4,000 to be distributed in two installments to the needy ahead of the lockdown induced by the second COVID-19 wave. He slashed the price of Aavin milk by Rs 3 and later slashed the price of petrol by Rs 3.

Stalin also set up a five-member economic advisory council comprising Nobel prize winner Esther Duflo, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, development economist Jean Dreze, former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and former Finance Secretary S Narayan to bring the debt-ridden economy out of the slump.

In 2021, the Tamil Nadu government also released a white paper on the state's economy for the past 10 years.

Within the first year, fulfilling one of the poll promises made in the manifesto, Stalin increased the representation of women in local body polls and reserved the Chennai Mayor seat for a Dalit woman. After the public gave DMK a thumping victory in the local body polls, he appointed Priya Rajan as Mayor of Chennai, who is one of the youngest and first-ever Dalit woman to hold the post.

On the social welfare front, the DMK government also appointed trained non-Brahmin aspirants as priests at the shrines in the state. He also implemented the Samathuvapuram (equality village) scheme introduced by Karunanidhi in 1997 and inaugurated an 'equality village' in Villupuram. 

Stalin also wrote to 37 leaders across India to float a national forum for social justice in order to build a forum against the BJP.

Towards education, the government announced that it would provide Rs 1,000 aid for girls pursuing higher education, and also launched the 'education at home' scheme and 'Makkalai thedi maruthuvam' (healthcare services at the doorstep).

The Criticisms

Though several measures taken by the government received a positive response, Stalin also drew criticism during his one year.

The Stalin-led government first faced opposition for failing to implement the poll promise of passing a legislation to bring an end to NEET in the first Assembly session. 

The CM finally announced this past week that TN Governor Ravi forwarded the NEET Bill to President for getting his assent.

The CM had also assured education loan waiver, gold loan waiver, monthly electricity bill, Rs 1,000 for women family heads, Rs 100 subsidy for gas cylinders and release of seven Tamilians in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. All these promises are yet to be fulfilled.

The government also received the wrath of the public and witnessed widespread protests during the distribution of Pongal gift hampers. The public complained that the materials were of substandard quality. Following this, Stalin ordered the officials concerned to blacklist the errant firms responsible for the products.

The Opposition had also been condemning the state government for not maintaining law and order proper after there were a series of murders in the state. Earlier, Opposition leader Edappadi Palaniswami also said that there is a total breakdown of law and order in the state. He also sought a response from the CM who is in charge of the police department. However, Stalin said that there is no compromise on law and order matters in the state.

The government has of late also started to face flak due to an increasing number of custodial deaths in the state.