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It is all there in the DMK manifesto — total prohibition, waiver of education and small farmers’ loans, free 3G/4G enabled laptops or tablets with free data to 16 lakh higher secondary and college students, a separate agriculture budget, higher price for paddy and sugarcane, formation of a new ministry for irrigation, single-window clearance for projects, sops for government employees, etc.
Prohibition heads the agenda. At the release of the party’s election promises, DMK chief M Karunanidhi started his speech with the word “Prohibition”, and his supporters broke into loud cheer.
After waiting for the crowd to settle down, he said the DMK, if voted to power, will enforce prohibition and formulate schemes to compensate for any losses. An integrated marketing corporation will be created to re-employ TASMAC staff. Karunanidhi said his government will come out with a separate agriculture budget focussing on farmers’ welfare; the minimum support price for paddy will be hiked to ₹2,000 a quintal from the present ₹1,520 and increased gradually to ₹2,500; sugarcane price will be hiked to a total of ₹3,500 a tonne from the present ₹2,850.
Karunanidhi assured a five-year tax holiday to attract investments in medium and large scale industries. If at least 75 per cent of employees are recruited from Tamil Nadu the government will bear a portion of the wage bill for the first 240 days, he added. Not less than ₹50 lakh for major industries and ₹25 lakh for medium enterprises will be given.
The government will also reintroduce 15 per cent reservation and 10 per cent price concession in government procurement for small and micro industries.
The DMK will also restore the old pension scheme for government employees and teachers and will do away with the new participatory pension scheme; the family welfare fund will be hiked to ₹5 lakh from the present ₹1.5 lakh without any hike in recovery from the employees, he said.
Party treasurer MK Stalin said that as in 2006, when the DMK had come to power, the manifesto this year will be the ‘hero’.
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