Ms. Jayalalitha means business. She does not wish things to rest and rust. She is according the highest priority for the development schemes which matter most for not mere economic betterment but for securing whatever improvements that are sought to be effected against slips in fulfilment.
She has been quite open in her discussions with the Managing Director of the World Bank, Mr. Ernest Stern. She was not drawing the wool over his or any one’s eyes when she said that Tamilnadu had established its deserts by concentrating on result-oriented programme.
The eastern coastal belt of the State being cyclone-prone, she has asked for financial support for her Rs 2,500 crore cyclone and flood mitigation and reconstruction project. In other parts of the globe, the World Bank has helped such schemes even more liberally. Tamilnadu requires similar help.
The World Bank cannot be unaware of the critical importance of the Madras Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation project which is expected to cost Rs. 1,100 crore. For her part, Ms. Jayalalitha has eased the hurdles in the implementation of the Telugu Ganga Project.
‘Drama’ Rao held out a lot of promises which were his inefficient traps to distract the gullible. With the Congress at the helm in Andhra Pradesh, Ms Jayalalitha and Mr. V.B. Reddi have ordered the taking up of a technical study for finalising the operational rules.
While the World Bank has to do its best towards helping the Water Supply project to fructify on target, it has also to outline what it is able and willing to do in respect of Tamilnadu’s Rs. 1200 crore education project with the emphasis on the girl child.
Ms Jayalalitha’s concern for the girt child is quite well known. Her present attempt is to ensure that the girl child is not merely rescued from being murdered but is equipped with the education that will eliminate the economic straits that cause female Infanticide.
It is important to note that, as she was laying before the World Bank president her socio-economic insurance schemes, the latter was complimenting Tamilnadu for its high disbursement level of World Bank assistance. Does it not improve the State’s deserts for aid yet more?
The World Bank is against subsidies and against the maintenance of artificially low prices. The offer of rice if less than the Central official price may not fit in with the World Bank’s perceptions. But Ms.Jayalalitha is tapping funds for this from within the system only.
It is easy to fault any good proposal because it is good or because it is not good enough. The former type of faulting reveals a fear complex that Ms.Jayalalitha could become more popular. The latter type of faulting is the outcome of political frustrations. Both deserve to be ignored.
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