Tamil Nadu, the ultimate freebie State

[Cricket_Hacker]

Over the past decade, successive governments in the State have spent nearly $2 billion (Rs.11,561 crore) on just three freebie schemes – colour television sets, laptops and household appliances. These sops might have been acceptable when the State had excess money to spend. But with the government’s own recent budget projections indicating weak financial health, questions are beginning to be raised, such as whether the money spent on freebies over the last 9 years could have used for building over 25,000 schools or 11,000 primary health centres.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tamil-nadu-the-ultimate-freebie-state/article7046314.ece?homepage=true

[Detonator]

Thank God, someone wrote about this. It has to stop at some point

[bulbul]

Thank God' date=' someone wrote about this. It has to stop at some point[/quote'] It won't stop..there is an election next year.

[bulbul]

From comment section

The game of freebies started in a big way in Tamil Nadu in 2006, with the DMK supremo, who was desperate to somehow regain power, came up with the idea of a free TV in his election manifesto. It became an instant hit. Mr.P.Chidambaram who should have known better, claimed unabashedly, that the hero of the election was not the DMK supremo, but the election manifesto!! It immediately paid rich electoral dividends. So much so, Jayalalitha, who once made the right noises about such wasteful expenditure, having also got a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, started withdrawing her strict steps and ironically, joined the bandwagon by offering wet grinders etc. A competition started between the two Dravidian parties on identifying what free item can now be offered by them first. The economists talk of lack of funds for health & education. What then can an ardent Gandhian like me say about implementation of total Prohibition?

[amiret]

The Article does not mention the debt ridden State electricity board and the freebies given in the form of Power subsidy . Few days ago the state Govt extended over 13,000 crores to the electricity board. The budgetary allocation or power subsidy for 2015-16 has been enhanced to Rs 7,136 crore.

Between 2005 and 2013, Tamil Nadu’s expense on salaries quadrupled, from around Rs.8,000 crore to Rs.34,000 crore. “There is a tremendous amount of inefficiency in our public expenditure. Nobody is looking into that,†says Mr.Srinivisan. “Unlike the Union government, the State government has never released figures on the amount of revenue forgone as tax rebates and concessions to industry and businesses. †he adds.

" This notion that most Indian States are socialist and welfarist is a fallacy,†says Mr.Chandrasekhar. “We really don’t spend that much on the poor. Freebies are nothing more than a symbolic exercise,†he says."

The State is ruled by two Organized crime families and the public is placated with a few crumbs of apparent benevolence.

[Detonator]

^ only DMK is an organized crime family. Amma is just 1 woman army

[bulbul]

^ Imagine if Amma had a big family like Karuna

[BeautifulGame]

Yes freebies are an issue but as the article says this is the biggest issue for our fiscal state

Others, however, point out that while freebies remain an issue, there are more pressing concerns for the State. The State’s expenses on personnel and salaries have gone up tremendously, says R.Srinivisan, a public finance expert and professor at Madras University. Between 2005 and 2013, Tamil Nadu govt expense on salaries quadrupled, from around Rs.8,000 crore to Rs.34,000 crore. “There is a tremendous amount of inefficiency in our public expenditure. Nobody is looking into that,” says Mr.Srinivisan. “Unlike the Union government, the State government has never released figures on the amount of revenue forgone as tax rebates and concessions to industry and businesses. Forgone revenues might turn out to be the real culprit,” he adds.

Ever since the back lash for Amma trying to curb state union protests both parties had gone beyond extreme to pander to them

[velu]

i think TASMAC generates huge revenue for TN government free laptops , tv and other things are useless.. but things like subsided amma canteen and amma water kind of things are appreciated and useful to poor people.. amma :bandit: