Tough Tasks for new government
Dravidian parties excelled in implementing several welfare schemes to improve the lot of citizens of Tamil Nadu. While these are welcome, making these universal without target, denies the benefit of spending scarce resources on the most deserving sections. It has to be ensured that such benefits are made available only to the weaker sections of the society.
The dmk has assumed charge of the Tamil Nadu government with M K Stalin as the chief minister. The alliance led by DMK won 158 seats with DMK winning 131 seats assuring it as a comfortable majority on its own in the legislative assembly.
The campaign was guided by the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) led by well-known poll strategist Prashant Kishor. The scientific analysis of the strengths and weaknesses constituency-wise, selection of winnable candidates and the issues selected for projection… all seemed to have proved effective.
The credit for the decisive victory of DMK should go to Stalin, the DMK President. Like his father
M Karunanidhi, he vigorously campaigned across the state spread over several months. The well-organised party set up with deep roots in villages was a big help.
Stalin, explaining the campaign theme Towards Dawn (Vidiyalai Nokki), met with thousands of citizens promising them a better tomorrow. The party’s election manifesto had over 300 poll promises for quick implementation. These included welfare measures like cash in the hands of housewives, free bus transport for women…
The opposition led by the AIADMK alliance did offer a spirited fight. But AIADMK suffered the anti-incumbency factor as also the split of the votes by the AMMK led TTV Dinakaran. The AIADMK government did provide an efficient administration,
especially during the last couple of years. Its focus on industrial development and on the ease of doing business did result in attracting investments.
Experienced administrator
Stalin brings with him over three decades of experience in administration. Groomed by Karunanidhi he honed his talents both in organising party affairs as also in public administration. Started as the first elected Mayor of the Chennai Corporation, he gained experience later as a
minister and as the deputy chief minister. Thus it was relatively easy for him to constitute his cabinet in quick time. This consists of a good mix of experienced old hands like Duraimurugan, K N Nehru, Thangam Thennarasu, K Ponmudi… and inducting new faces like Ma Subramanian, Palanivel Thiagarajan, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi…
Political parties believe in rewarding party loyalists with membership of legislature, Parliament, posts of ministers… The winnable criterion results in selecting wealthy individuals, even those with pending criminal cases. In this system the advantage of picking meritorious candidates even outside the party fold is missed. This should explain the relatively poor record of Parliamentarians thrown up by the Dravidian parties. Even those who held ministerial posts in Delhi for long have not made much of a mark for their efficiency or performance nor won all India recognition.
In his first move as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin signed orders fulfilling some of his poll
promises: Rs 2000 as Covid-19 relief for all ration-card holders (first instalment); slash in prices of milk by Rs 3/litre; free travel for women in ordinary buses; costs of treatment for Covid-19 patients incurred in private hospitals borne by the state under the Chief Minster’s Healthcare scheme…
One is familiar with the well-set practice: parties in opposition instantly opposing any and every major initiative/project of the incumbent government. It, therefore, becomes difficult to pursue the project after assuming power. Sadly, we do not have the system of a shadow cabinet of the opposition, as in the matured democracy of the UK, to analyse objectively the relevance and importance of projects. This also arises from the absence of consultations and attempts to build a consensus. The result is a humongous wastage of public resources in discontinuing a project or not proceeding with one in progress.
Focus on upgradation of road network…
I cite a case for not following this: the eight-lane high way project from Chennai to Salem that met with opposition. The resistance by a few hundred farmers and a few environmentalists contributed to the delay in firming up the plan. Though Tamil Nadu traditionally has a strong network of roads that has contributed to a flourishing road transport system, the state has miles to go in terms of upgradation of the entire road network. Gujarat under Narendra Modi as chief minister focused on this to great effect. Eight lane high speed roads have provided great stimulus to economic development of Gujarat. It’s worth emulating this.
Ensure access…
Strong charismatic leaders – CN Annadurai, M Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalithaa – kept distance from business leaders and industry associations. This denied the state opportunity to benefit from the latter’s involvement and expertise. Chief Minister Stalin should be accessible to these as also to professionals and other citizens of the state. He should welcome and be receptive to suggestions/advice from different quarters.
Stalin has an admirable record in this; he met citizens in thousands spread across the state during his extensive election campaign. Among the first tasks as chief
minister, he created a department exclusively to attend to the petitions received during the election campaign. Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, IAS has been appointed as the head of this department, with a mandate to respond within 100 days.
Look for talent outside the party…
The time has now come for this experienced Dravidian leader to look for talent outside the party fold as has been done in other states like West Bengal and Bihar. For instance, parties in West Bengal have been attracting renowned economists, litterateurs… into the party fold and, in course of time, turn them into staunch party loyalists. eg. Dr Amit Misra, Derek O’Brien, Mahua Moitra… of Trinamool Congress.
Target welfare schemes for the most deserving…
The Dravidian parties excelled in implementing several welfare schemes to improve the lot of citizens of Tamil Nadu. While these are welcome, making these universal, denies the benefit of spending scarce resources on the most deserving sections. It has to be ensured that such benefits are made available only to the weaker sections of the society. The Public Distribution System (PDS) covering all or the 100 units of free power for all need a relook.
The state’s finances are not in great shape. With the advent of GST, states have limited areas for raising revenues on their own. On the other hand there has not been much effort to contain expenditure. The huge outgo on salaries and pensions, subsidies and debt servicing, accounts for over 133 per cent of the state’s total revenue.
There is a huge increase in the debt burden on the state: from around Rs 100,000 crore in 2010 it has exceeded Rs 400,000 crore in March 2021. Due to Covid related additional expenses and depressed growth in revenues, public debt is estimated to grow to Rs 571,000 core by March 2022. This has its serious implications; the increase in provision for interest on public debt, of over Rs 40,000 crore, plus repayment of a portion of the debt annually, together amount to nearly a third of the state’s revenues. This results in more borrowings and consequent higher outgo on debt servicing.
Privatisation and monetisation of state PSUs
The Centre is embarking on a bold policy of privatisation of PSUs and monetisation of public assets. The state would do well to adopt these measures. Profit making PSUs like TNPL can be considered for disinvestment. The Tamil Nadu government could sell a portion of TIDCO’s investments and expand its financial resources (The current market value of TIDCO’S equity investment in Tata’s Titan Company alone is over Rs 20,000 crore).
Encourage contract and corporate farming…
The lion’s share of the state’s GDP has been contributed by the services and industry sectors. The share of the primary sector of agriculture has been falling and is estimated around 8 per cent of the state’s GDP. Still, around half the population is dependant on agriculture and allied activities. With the average size of farms at less than two acres, there is the urgency to agglomerate these as also to wean large numbers from this sector by providing alternate avenues for employment. The farmer producer organisation has been an important model helping in the efficient management of a cluster of farms. More important will be the encouragement of contract and corporate farming. This is particularly suited to Tamil Nadu with its small average holdings.
The record of the sugar industry in the state in recent years has been dismal. For decades the sector was a pampered one with liberal incentives offered by the government. With scarce water, the fortunes of the industry have been cyclical. In the last couple of years more than half the sugar mills in the state have closed down and production has fallen steeply.
The average growth rate of the agricultural sector is just 1 per cent, much lower than the country’s 3 per cent. As does Gujarat (focusing on cotton and groundnut), the state needs to focus on crops most suited to its agro-climatic conditions and water endowments. The state should encourage cultivation of vegetables, fruits, pulses, oil-seeds, maize… and reduce focus on water-intensive crops like paddy and sugarcane.
Bring investments and technologies through foreign visits
Chief ministers of Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh encouraged ministers and officials to visit projects in economically advanced countries to bring investments and technologies to their states. The remarkable transformations of Bengaluru and Hyderabad as leaders in IT are instances to emulate. AIADMKs Chief Minister E K Palaniswami attempted this in his short tenure to good effect. Stalin would do well to continue and expand such initiatives.
Recently Tamil Nadu succeeded in attracting a few mega investments in electronics and electric vehicles. The Tata electronics project and the Ola electric scooter project seem to be making good progress.
The state leads in sectors like automobiles, textiles, leather, IT… The focus should also be on production of fertilizers and chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals… These have potential for large investments and higher rate of growth. The copious availability of natural gas at modest prices could be a trigger.
One of the key priorities of the new government should be to expand public health infrastructure. Special attention should be paid to the production of medicines, vaccines, medical equipment…
Revive stalled projects
The new government must take bold to focus on some of the projects that got stuck during the previous regime. These were the result of certain emotive issues and also due to the established practice of undoing or neglecting projects of the previous regime. Abandoning the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated road project is an instance. This project was conceived after deliberations by an elected government and involved large sums of public money. It was designed to ease traffic through the highly congested sections of the metro and also to facilitate speedy movement of export and import cargo. For more than a decade the project was kept in limbo after hundreds of crores of rupees were spent on it. The delay has caused huge escalation in costs and is further constrained by issues relating to re-alignment.
Precious resource of natural gas
The abandonment of construction of a national gas grid through Tamil Nadu is another instance of denying the state access to a precious source as fuel and feedstock. There is rich evidence of such transfer and use of gas resulting in the flourish of a large number of industries in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Haryana, Delhi and elsewhere.
The Parliament sanctioned the national gas grid in January 2010. The state lost more than a decade due to self denial. Even two years after the facility of a gas terminal was established at Ennore Port, there has been little progress in laying pipelines to take gas to other parts of the state. Opposition by a few hundred farmers refusing to lease small portions of their land for laying the pipeline has been denying the elegance and economy of piped gas to thousands of consumers.
Costly closure of Copper plant…
Equally bizarre is the unconcern over the continued closure of the Sterlite Copper plant at Thoothukudi. The issue involved the complaint of pollution affecting the health of the locals.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa invited Vedanta to set up the copper plant at Thoothukudi in the early 1990s. This marked the beginning of the flow of mega investments into Tamil Nadu – DuPont, Ford and Hyundai followed in quick succession. When Sterlite established the unit, Thoothukudi was sparsely populated. At that time there were not many avenues for employment in that reigion. SPIC and Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals that flourished earlier in the 1970s and 1980s were on a decline. The Tuticorin Port was a handsome facility for importing copper concentrates and refining it into copper, a precious raw material for a wide range of industries. The multinational Vedanta group made a huge success of this project providing direct employment to around 3000 and indirect employment to around 25,000 (to handle movement of around 15 million tonnes of products a year; the company engaged over 4000 trucks daily). The company also planned to double production to 800,000 tonnes.
Chemical plants across the world do face such opposition on complaints of pollution. Using technology, these have been able to address the problem effectively. I cite the evolution of Chembur-Trombay belt in Mumbai as a classic instance of doing this. This belt has one of the richest concentrations of industries – the large refineries of BPCL and HPCL, the fertilizer complex of Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre – to mention a few. The region which was sparsely populated in the 1950s, thanks to these units has evolved into a thickly populated one. The industrial units took steps to take care of the environment and convinced successfully those around on environment safety.
In contrast, the Centre and the state did not exert to address the issues raised by the 100 day long agitation against Sterlite which ultimately went out of control. The mob became unruly resulting in the police firing and loss of 13 precious lives.
Even the potential for the production of vital oxygen at Sterlite for the Covid times was blindly opposed by the agitators.
Technology is today available to keep emissions with in limits. It should be possible to enforce compliance.
Just contrast this with the difference brought about by the then government in ending the agitation at the Kudankulam nuclear power project. In quick time the 2000 MW plant earned more than the huge investments made on the project by the production of vital power. The company is now doubling its capacity.
Build consensus on development goals…
A suggestion that is rather difficult for political leaders to digest or agree, relates to building consensus on the development goals of the state. This has come in the way of setting goals for longer term development. Karunanidhi attempted this in 1990-91 when his government worked on a Madras 2011 vision. Experts entrusted with the task prepared a vision of Chennai in 2011 later. Sadly, the successor government threw it into the dustbin.
Jayalalithaa’s Vision 2023 for Tamil Nadu again just remained in paper. All ideas on the state emerging numero uno and catching up with standards of Singapore remained as just ideas.
I suggest a Tamil Nadu 2030 plan prepared through wide participation. With the end of the era of strong charismatic political leaders who commanded awe inspiring loyalty of sizeable sections, the scope for a democratic, professional, consultative mechanism should evolve. The state is rich in talent and enterprise to help this.
