CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday charged that the Central government was ignoring the demands of Tamil Nadu and that there was no response from the Prime Minister’s Office for any of the demands for special assistance sought by her during her visit to Delhi in June.Intervening in the debate on the revised budget for the year 2011-12 in the State Assembly, the Chief Minister said the Centre had not fulfilled any of the demands for special assistance sought by Tamil Nadu. Further, there was no response to the State’s demands.Referring to the remark of Congress member Vijayadharani that the Centre had allocated more than what the State had asked for (Rs 23,535 crore as plan outlay), the Chief Minister said of the total outlay, only Rs 2,829.50 crore was the Centre’s share. Of this, the Centre would sanction Rs 588.40 crore as normal assistance, Rs 43.15 crore as Centre’s share towards the schemes being implemented with foreign aid and Rs 2,198.31 crore towards the assistance for other schemes. Apart from this, a whopping Rs 20,705.50 crore would be spent for various schemes only from the State funds.Jayalalithaa pointed out that she had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister seeking a special assistance of Rs 2,52,000 crore towards schemes like provision of laptops to students, fishermen welfare, solar power projects and linking of State rivers. However, there has been no response to this demand so far, she added.The CM intervened when P Dillibabu (CPM) requested the government to implement welfare schemes while insisting that the taxes imposed on various goods recently be withdrawn.Jayalalithaa said the CPM member, on the one hand, wanted the developmental schemes and, on the other hand, insisted on withdrawal of tax. “How can the State find the wherewithal to implement the schemes without funds?” she asked.
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