After being sworn in as the Chief Minister for the fifth time, Jayalalithaa or ‘Amma’ passed five files at her first day in office on Sunday at Fort St. George.
In the Chief Minister’s chamber after about a gap of around seven months, Amma gave the official nod for five schemes worth over Rs. 2,000 crore that included benefitting road users, urban poor and women. The major focus would be for urban and rural roads. Approximately Rs. 1,000 crore was allocated for urban roads, including all those under the Chennai corporation limits, as it was necessary to repair and rebuild roads dug up frequently by various agencies like Metrowater and those damaged due to heavy rains.
Under these new expanded schemes, roads will be laid straight to hamlets without any road connectivity; strengthening of roads will be taken up on bus and mini-bus routes. Further, each family would be granted around Rs. 2.10 lakh, and poor in town panchayats living in mud or thatched houses were eligible for the scheme to be implemented by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board.
Also, talks were on to set the Reverse osmosis plants at around 69 residential areas in Sivagangai and Ramanathapuram districts that have not been covered by drinking water schemes at Rs. 4.83 crore and 66 more in town panchayats at Rs. 3.90 crore, as of yet. In corporate and municipal areas, 1,139 RO plants would be put up to provide safe drinking water in public places, hospitals corporations and Amma Canteens. Amma has also allocated Rs. 100 crore for a special scheme benefiting families with women as heads.
