Chennai: Tamil Nadu has grown on its own without much patronage from the successive central governments, while such patronage has been extended to many other states, deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam said during his budget presentation on Thursday.
“It is very clearly evident that we have grown on our own efforts and on our own strength. Tamil Nadu stood at fifth place during 1950s. Today, ours is the second largest economy in the country. All these achievements have been made possible by the social equity agenda provided by the Dravidian movement,” he said.
Those who criticize Dravidian movement should understand that Tamil Nadu is the crucible of socio-economic transformation, which others must emulate.
The five decades of Dravidian rule in Tamil Nadu had ensured the southern state’s progress in various social sectors in the last 50 years. There are political critics with myopic vision and indulge in fallacious propaganda against the Dravidian rule. They are living in an illusion and day dreaming about destroying the Dravidian movement.
“To them, I want to send a clear message, that Tamil Nadu has progressed much better than many other States and achieved stupendous progress on various socio-economic fronts during the last fifty years. In the recent publication of NITI Aayog, Tamil Nadu stands at third place among all the States in the country in health indicators and first place in higher education enrolment,” he said.
In 1973-1974, the percentage of persons living below poverty line in India was 54.88 per cent. At the same period, it was 54.94 percent in Tamil Nadu. As per 2011-2012 NSS survey, this percentage has come down to 11.28 per cent in Tamil Nadu as against 21.92 per cent at all India level. At the same period, this percentage has come down from 48.15 per cent to 16.63 per cent in Gujarat, 54.47 per cent to 20.90 per cent in Karnataka and 61.78 per cent to 31.65 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, he said.
Similarly, the per capita income at current prices in Tamil Nadu was '334 during 1960-1961 as against the national average of '306. During 2016-2017, the per capita income has gone upto '1,53,263 as against the national average of Rs 1,03,219, Panneerselvam noted.
