The DMK on Sunday rolled out a manifesto that seeks to gar ner votes by striking a fine balance between populist schemes and developmental politics, primarily aimed at women and youth.
Assembly Election Results
The manifesto has something to offer to every section of society , starting from the poor to the rich and government employees. The key attractions are on the job front are filling up of close to four lakh vacancies in state government, police department, schools and colleges, and reinstatement of several lakh people's welfare workers, their regularisation and regularisation of several lakh contract workers in various government and quasi-government agencies. Part time teachers in all government schools will be regularised. Another benefit to government employees is the promise to implement seventh pay commission recommendations.
The 2016 manifesto of the party, which came to power with the populist promise of providing ration rice at Rs 2 per kg and free TV sets to the poor in 2006, is low on welfare schemes, except for a few like waiver of agricultural loans extended to small and medium farmers and education loans given to the student community .
The document also promises free smart phones to the poor, laptopstablets with 3G4G facility to 16 lakh students in higher secondary schools and colleges and free wifi in public places, all with a view to appealing to the youth.The promise to reduce the price of Aavin milk by Rs 7 per litre and issue domestic power bills on monthly basis instead of once in two months would be a big money saver for consumers. By shifting to monthly power bills, the slab rates would drastically fall for almost all consumers, except the high-end ones.More free power has been promised to handloom and powerloom units.
The importance given to the agriculture sector stands out. It promises to create a separate department for organic farming and a ministry for irrigation.High-tech cooperative and organic farming are being given a big push with substantial subsidy on input cost. For forward integration and ensuring a fair price for farmers' produce, farmers' markets will be revived, the document says. Minimum support price has been promised for a range of agricultural and horticultural produces with a view to making agricultural operation profitable. The party promises to earmark an initial Rs 10,000 towards desilting water bodies across the state. It has also offered Rs 1 lakh per farmer for creating water harvesting structures in dry land.
With the state planning commission losing its relevance, the party has promised to set up a state economic development board.