Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who also holds the Finance portfolio, on Monday, announced construction of two additional blocks in the Integrated Finance Complex and the entire complex would be rechristened after late chief minister J Jayalalithaa as ‘Amma Complex’.
O Panneerselvam
Chennai:
Replying to the debate on the demand for grants for Finance Department in the state Assembly, he said the additional blocks, each measuring 50,000 sqft, would be built at a cost of Rs 10.98 crore. He also announced construction of a new building for the more than century-old Treasury building in Tirunelveli district at a cost of Rs 3.52 crore.
The new building would have an office space of 21,400 sqft. Panneerselvam also announced that any irregularities and financial loss reported during audit of the accounts of the Cooperative societies would be released as an annual report, besides providing 250 laptops to the department at a cost of Rs 62.50 lakh. He also announced construction of a new Guest House at the Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi at a cost of Rs 57 crore, apart from taking up renovation works in the main building at a cost of Rs 2.50 crore.
Apart from announcing installation of CCTV cameras at the Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai in the state Secretariat at a cost of Rs 90 lakh to enhance the security measures round-the-clock, he said 1,000 solar-powered Green Houses would be constructed for repatriates under the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department. He also said the education assistance, being given to wards of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees for pursuing higher education, including UG and PG courses, would be hiked.
As per the announcement, the enhanced assistance of Rs 2,500 would be given to graduate course, Rs 3,000 for UG Arts and Science, Rs 4,000 for PG Arts and Science, Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000 for UG and PG polytechnic courses respectively.
Making a slew of announcements for the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, Panneerselvam said as part of making Tamil Nadu a hutfree state, 9.08 lakh tenements would be constructed at a cost of Rs 58,356.40 crore with the assistance from the Central and state governments.
He also announced construction of houses at a cost of Rs 4,648 crore with assistance from the World Bank for those living in areas near the river-bed, apart from upgrading them as Green areas.
He said this was for the first time the World Bank assistance was sought for the project. Of this Rs 3,348 crore would be funded by the World Bank and the balance Rs 1,300 crore would be the share of the state government.
Orderlies system abolished, Palaniswami tells Duraimurugan
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday denied the existence of orderly system in police department and listed the amenities provided for them while they were deployed during the visit of VIPs. He was reacting to the charge of Deputy Leader of Opposition K Duraimurugan in the Assembly. He said the reports of orderly system in police is not correct since it had been abolished. Instead, office assistants had been appointed in the department. The orderly system was in existence even during the previous DMK government and the AIADMK government had instructed the officials to abolish the system. Earlier, Duraimurugan who raised the issue alleged that crimes had gone up in the state and police staff are facing mental stress. The stress among the police is the reason for the spurt in crimes, he reasoned. Orderly system is one of the reasons for increasing stress among policemen, he said and charged that higher officials were treating the policemen working as orderlies as bonded labourers.