Chennai, March 18 (BPNS)
Tamil Nadu Finance minister, PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan has said that the driving force for the DMK government under M.K. Stalin will be Dravidian ethos and philosophies. He was addressing the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly while presenting the state budget for the financial year 2022-23. The minister said that the state government would incur Rs 20,000 crore losses.
Opposition AIADMK boycotted the budget speech.
He said that the government would be firm to achieve social justice on all fronts and added that a powerful leader who is caring for the people is the Chief Minister of the state.
Thiagarajan said that the budget has been prepared keeping in mind the current macroeconomic environment and added that the Russia- Ukraine crisis is likely to cause demand shock and global supply disruptions to the country and to the state’s economy.
The state finance minister said that priorities will be based on infrastructure which will be socially inclusive. He said that attracting investments, creating more jobs, and improvement in the lives of downtrodden people will be ensured.
PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan came down heavily on the central government and said that while the state of Tamil Nadu was contributing 10% towards the growth of the nation, the union government was not allocating sufficient funds to the state.
Thiagarajan said that the state government under M.K. Stalin wishes to spread the pride of Tamil language and culture and was allocating Rs 2 crore for some initiatives in this regard.
He said that the teachings and literature of Periyar would be translated in various languages and that he had allocated Rs 5 crore for this.
The Finance minister said that new museums and onsite museums will be established at Villupuram and Ramanathapuram. The minister said that a special wing would be established to monitor social media.
The government has decided to distribute free textbooks for school children from Classes 1 to Xth in government schools, the minister said.