The Hindu Business Line : Bread and butter issues in TN election

IT is not only financial or industrial issues such as Cenvat, the closure of spinning mills, farmers forced to pay electricity tariff or the handloom sector on the deathbed that form the sound and fury of the Lok Sabha election campaign in Tamil Nadu but also bread-and-butter issues that include the high price of kerosene in the open market, an inefficient public distribution system (PDS), stopping mini-bus services to villages and an increase in electricity tariff and bus fare.

Voters are angry with the AIADMK Government over its denial of free bus passes to private school students and its disbanding many single-teacher schools. These schools with primary classes have been merged with middle schools situated several km away, forcing children to walk the distance. Non-availability of kerosene in ration shops and its high price in the open market seem to bother the electorate.

What has alienated a sizeable section of voters is the Jayalalithaa Government introducing "honours" card by which families with an income of more than Rs 5,000 a month were totally kept out of the PDS. The others - those below the poverty line - who would get rice, kerosene and sugar from ration shops are not happy either. The introduction of a coupon system by which these people can draw their quota of rice, and a differential price system for rice has hurt them, they say.

These ration-card holders are eligible to receive 20 kg of rice a month, 10 kg at Rs.3.50 a kg, and another 10 at Rs 6 a kg. They should give the coupons every fortnight to draw 20 kg of rice in two instalments. If the ration-card holders fail to buy the rice for a fortnight, they would forego it.

Lakshmi Perumal at Salem was furious. "Why should the Government give me the `H' (honours) card which is of no use?" she asked. "Kerosene is selling at Rs 30 a litre in the open market," she said.

At Perambalur, T. Natarajan said kerosene was available only at Rs 22 a litre in the open market. It was a scarce commodity in the ration shops.

At Thottappanaickenur, near Andipatti, S. Kannusamy said, "When Kalignar (M. Karunanidhi, DMK President) was Chief Minister, we used to get kerosene at Rs 9 a litre. Now, it sells at Rs 30 a litre. Even then it is not available." Just outside the Namakkal district collectorate on April 19 morning, a group of women and men from Manikattipudur, Anakkampalayam and Bombampatti were holding placards, demanding the re-introduction of mini-bus service to their villages.

P. Rani said, "We have to walk a couple of miles to reach the nearest bus stop. There are no street lamps for any route and it is scary to walk in the dark at night." Inside the collectorate campus, another group of women, armed with empty plastic pots, were demonstrating because no drinking water was available in their village, Veeravampalayam.

Ramani Nallagounder was in a rage. "No drinking water is available in our village for the past three months. It is turning into a Rajasthan." The denial of free electricity to hut-dwellers is a sore issue with them.

The Jayalalithaa Government introduced a scheme by which hut-dwellers, who were hitherto receiving free electricity, would now receive Rs 100 by money-order from the Government, and they should pay that amount to the TNEB. At "Godown Medu", a Dalit colony situated near Sathyamangalam, M. Rangasamy, a daily wage labourer, showed the meter that had been installed in his hut. He claimed he paid electricity bills ranging from Rs 106 to Rs 400 every two months.

Another M. Rangasamy alleged that electricity connection to his hut was cut because he did not want the meter to be installed in his hut. "All those who did not want meter to be installed do not get power supply now," he said.

Women are angry that although the free distribution of saris and dhoties was revived this year after a two-year stoppage, not all got them. At Godown Medu, women said that out of 70 houses, only five received free saris and dhotis.

For their part, the AIADMK leaders are confident that the ban on lotteries, the economic empowerment of women through self-help groups, the ban on charging of usurious rates of interest, police coming down on "katta panchayats" (kangaroo courts), the Government taking over the sale of Indian-made foreign liquor and the projection of Mr A.B. Vajpayee as Prime Minister would see the AIADMK-BJP alliance do well at the hustings.