Close to one-third of investment assured at GIM has come: Minister

Intervening during the budget debate in the Assembly on Tuesday morning, Sampath said that the projects for which MoUs were signed at the GIM have three to six years for the actual investments to take place. 

Pointing out that about 69 projects worth over Rs 75,000 crore of the total Rs 2.42 lakh crore has been invested in the state so far, the minister said that the government would make sure that the remaining sum too was brought to the state. The state government has allocated Rs 75 crore for the second global investors’ meet to be held this year, he informed. 

Vijayadharani, Congress MLA from Vilavancode, participating in the debate, urged the state to extend the benefit of 9 months of maternity leave to women employees in private sector on a par with the government staff. 

Praising the government’s subsidised scooter scheme, she urged the government to relax the eligibility conditions to benefit all working women in the state. The Congress member also requested the government to waive the education loan of students. 

Speaking during the Question hour, Saidapet MLA M Subramanian wanted the government to adopt the ryotwari system of land categorisation for villages which were under the Greater Chennai Corporation limits for over a hundred years. He demanded that the residents of natham poromboke land in his Saidapet constituency be issued with pattas. Revenue Minister RB Udayakumar immediately reeled out statistics of pattas distributed to the beneficiaries in Saidapet village. During the debate, Subramaniam pointed out that Mambalam, Guindy, Nesapakkam and Kodambakkam were still classified as villages, though they were part of the city for a long time. He stressed that these areas should switch over to the ryotwari land classification, which was more suited for such urban settlements. 

Pointing out that work in this direction undertaken by the earlier DMK regime was aborted, he said a special tahsildar should be designated to complete the task. The Minister promised to consider the matter. 

The State government has achieved 88 per cent coverage of the rubella measles vaccine against the targeted 1.75 crore vaccinations, Health Minister C Vijayabasker announced in the Assembly on Tuesday. 

The rest of the target would be achieved before the end of this month, he said in a reply to a special calling attention motion by DMK member Poongothai Aladi Aruna. The DMK MLA claimed that misinformation on the vaccine on social media and compulsory vaccinations resulted in many women shying away from the scheme.