Tamil Nadu budget 2021-22 live updates: Rs 19,420cr allocated for healthcare

Rs 7,217cr budgetary allocations for power sector while Rs 19,420cr for healthcare.

Rs 5,478 crore has been allocated for higher education.

The finance minister has allocated 21,218 crore for rural development.

12,000 new buses will be acquired. Of that, 2,000 will be e-buses.

The Tamil Nadu government has allocated Rs 144 crore for Amma clinics.

Rs 5,000 crore has been allocated for farm loan waiver, says deputy CM O Panneeraselvam.

While revenue has decreased due to Covid impact, expenditure has increased, says O Panneeraselvam.

O Panneeraselvam has appreciated the efforts of the EPS-led government in bringing the Covid pandemic under control.

Tamil Nadu has continued to attract large-scale industrial investment even during the Covid pandemic, says O Panneeraselvam.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) members have walked out of the assembly.

OPS says the government has completed its full term and also enabled Tamil Nadu to emerge as No. 1 on several fronts. People have full faith in the AIADMK government.

S Durai Murugan, deputy leader of the opposition wants to raise a point. Speaker declines permission.

Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneeraselvam has reached at the state assembly to present the interim budget for the financial year 2021-22.

Deputy chief minister O Panneeraselvam will present the state's interim budget at 11am. This will be the 11th budget being presented by Panneeraselvam, who also holds the finance portfolio.

DMK’s IT wing secretary and Madurai (Central constituency) MLA P T R Thiagarajan on Monday lambasted the ruling AIADMK government's election campaign 'Vetri Nadai Podum Tamilagam’ and said, “It is nothing but a farce.”<link/><linkText> Read full story</linkText>

An inmate, who was arrested under the Pocso Act, for raping a minor girl, committed suicide by hanging in Salem central prison in the early hours of Tuesday. Prison SP Tamilselvan has initiated an inquiry along with Hasthampatty police.

The AIADMK government will present an interim budget, the last budget of its current term, on Tuesday. Deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, who also holds the portfolio of finance, will present the budget at 11am in Kalaivanar Arangam. As per the convention, the interim budget may not have new announcements but confine to the achievements of the current dispensation. The ruling camp, which eyes a third consecutive term, is betting on the recent announcements, including waiver of crop loans. “Any announcement, if at all, will be made by the chief minister outside the budget, like under Rule 110,” said a source. The EPS dispensation has been indicating the financial stress due to sharp decline in state’s own tax revenue growth rate owing to the pandemic and the market borrowings.

If at all Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority’s (CMDA) figures are to be taken at face value, then 1,240 schools have to be built in Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) in the next five years to meet a projection made around 13 years ago. In 2008, CMDA had said that CMA needed 4,976 schools in 2026. By that year, said the plan, CMA would be have 35.3 lakh school students in the age group of five to 17. The number of schools at primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary levels were estimated as per the projected young population in the metropolis. Today, CMA, spread over 1,189sqkm and comprising the city and parts of Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, has 3,188 schools at all levels, 36% lower than the projection.

It has been a week since metro rail commenced services in north Chennai, but electronic route maps in the coaches are yet to be updated to include the new stations on the 9km metro line from Washermenpet to Wimco Nagar. This has left commuters in the trains peering through glass panes to see which stop’s next. Though recorded announcement about the approaching station is played, commuters say it is not audible enough, especially during crowded peak hours.