TN Govt Seeks To Dispel Charge Of Reneging In Promises

Chennai:The State Government sought to dispel the doubts raised by many top opposition party leaders persistently over its alleged failure to honour the promises given by the DMK during the 2021 Assembly elections by pointing out that the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) that stood at 0.07 per cent when it took charge on May 7, 2021, rose to 11.19 per cent in 2024-25, marking an all-time high in a decade.

State Ministers Thangam Thenarasu (Finance, Environment and Climate Change), S S Sivashankar (Transport) and Kovi Chezhian (Higher Education), who met the media to explain how the government had implemented several long-term schemes based on the election promises at the Secretariat on Tuesday, also said that revenue deficit and fiscal deficit had come down after the government took charge.

They said the State’s fiscal deficit came down to 3 percent from the 4.91 percent in 2021 and that the revenue deficit came down to 1.19 percent from 3.49 percent in 2021. They were among the major achievements of the government as it managed to do them despite the financial crunch caused by successive natural disasters and the failure of the Union Government to release funds.

Similarly exports went up by 52.07 percent in 2024-25 from the 2021 figure of $ 26.15 billion and the number of industries in State shot up from 46,189 in 2021 to 52,616 in 2024-25, they said, adding that the 897 memoranda of understanding signed with various companies due to the efforts of Chief Minister M K Stalin had brought in Rs 10.28 lakh crore investments and generated 32.23 lakh direct and indirect jobs.

Elaborating on the benefits brought by the welfare schemes of the government, they said that the free bus travel facility for women had enabled the women save an average of Rs 838 a month and the free breakfast scheme for students of government and government aided schools had increased attendance in classrooms by 9.21 percent.

The State was on top in the county achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in export of electronic goods and in export preparedness Index.

The Ministers were trying to drive home the point that the State was ahead of other States in the country on several areas like environmental protection – maximum Ramsar sites – and that most of the promises made in the election manifesto had been implemented.

They said that the promises in the manifesto were submitted at the Cabinet meeting held on June 24, 2001, for implementation and permission was granted for turning them into long-term goals by issuing 505 government orders. Work was on for implementing 364 promises as orders had already been issued for that and 40 projects were under the consideration of the government, they said.

As of now there were only 64 promises on which the government had not acted upon, 404 other promises had been fully implemented or under implementation or under consideration of the government, they said.

The Ministers also said how the long-term schemes were being implemented and gave statistics on the various departments that were involved in that and gave details of some plans of the government on some efforts like granting SC status to Christian Dalits.