At the massive rally organised at Trichy on March 7, DMK leader MK Stalin unveiled his party’s 10-year vision document. He made seven big promises — ‘Stalinin 7 Urudhimozhigal’ — under the heads of economy, agriculture, water, education and health, rural development, urban development, and social justice. One of the big announcements is a plan to give Rs 1000 per month income “as a right” to all households that procure foodgrains using ration cards, which will be transferred to the bank accounts of the woman in the house. "All families who procure food grains from ration shops will benefit from this," Stalin said.
Other important announcements include increasing the state’s per capita income to Rs 4 lakh, doubling scholarships for SC/ST/OBC students, tripling the state expenditure on education and healthcare, ending the practise of manual scavenging etc.
At the rally, Stalin appealed for votes and said, “We can do it and only we can do it. A TN that’s going forward will start going upward. In two months, it will not be Stalin’s government — but it will be your government.”
Drone visuals of the crowd at #DMK rally in #Trichy pic.twitter.com/ayQSYqVQGD
— Shabbir Ahmed (@Ahmedshabbir20) March 7, 2021
He also made the attendees take a pledge. “We will change Tamil Nadu into a place where everyone gets all rights. We will together end every force that attempts to split the people. We will function as a government that gives access for everyone to everything. We will strictly ensure law and order. We will function against crime with iron fist. We will create a foundation for a peaceful life. We will give a 100% transparent, corruption-free governance. We will follow these promises every day.”
He also took a pledge to follow through on his promises.
Here’s the complete lowdown of Stalin’s vision plan ahead of the 2021 assembly elections
> A double digit state growth rate, to hit Rs 35 lakh crore.
> Increasing per capita income of the state to above Rs 4 lakh.
> Creating capacity for 10 lakh jobs every year, to reduce unemployment.
> Becoming the first state in India to eradicate poverty by rehabilitating and pulling 1 crore persons out of extreme poverty.
> Increasing the cropping area from the current 60% to 75% by including 11.75 lakh hectares of land for farming
> Presently Tamil Nadu has 10 lakh hectares of double-cropping lands. This will be increased to 20 lakh hectares.
> Improving food grains, coconut, sugarcane, cotton, sunflower and other such cash crop production and bringing Tamil Nadu within the first three places in the country.
> Increasing annual per person consumption of water from 9 lakh litres to 10 lakh litres.
> Reducing daily water wastage from 50% to 15%.
> Increasing usable recycled water from 5% to 20%.
> Increasing greenery from 20.37% to 25% by linking 7.5 hectares land.
> Tripling the state expenditure on education and healthcare, from 1.9% to 6% for education, and from 0.75% to 2% for healthcare
> Bringing Tamil Nadu within the top 10 spots on the Learning Outcomes scores, from its current 17th spot.
> Bringing down the student dropout rate from 16% to less than 5%.
> Developing exemplary schools and hospitals in every Panchayat Union.
> Doubling the number of doctors, nurses, assistant doctors, and other polytechnic graduates.
> Increasing the percentage of concrete houses in rural Tamil Nadu from 57% to 85% by constructing 20 lakh new concrete homes.
> Providing drinking water connection to every household in every village.
> Building roads and drainage systems that will weather all seasons.
> Providing broadband facilities in all villages.
> Ensuring a waste management system in at least 50% of the villages.
> Providing water connections to 36 lakh more households, increasing the percentage of households that have a drinking water connection from 35% to 75%.
> Implementing waste management systems in all urban areas.
> Constructing 9.75 lakh new concrete homes, to reduce the population living in huts from 16.6% to 5%.
> Ensuring 15 cities from Tamil Nadu make it to the list of 50 best cities in the country.
> Providing Rs 1000 per month income as a right to every female head of household.
> Doubling scholarship amounts for SC/ST/OBC students.
> Abolishing manual scavenging completely.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had erroneously reported that DMK would give Rs 1000 to homemakers. The error is regretted.