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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  We are going to do away with alcohol and corruption: Anbumani Ramadoss
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We are going to do away with alcohol and corruption: Anbumani Ramadoss

PMK chief ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss outlines his vision for Tamil Nadu, should he be elected to office

Ramadoss aims to provide free education, free healthcare, employment, and make agriculture profitable for farmers. Photo: Hindustan TimesPremium
Ramadoss aims to provide free education, free healthcare, employment, and make agriculture profitable for farmers. Photo: Hindustan Times

Katpadi/Vellore: The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) was launched in 1989 and has till now been identified with the Vanniyar caste, which accounts for 20-25% of Tamil Nadu’s population, according to government figures. Its chief ministerial candidate is former health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who says he is trying to inject fresh thinking into his party with the aim of broadbasing its votebank. This time, he says, his party has given tickets to Christians, Dalits, Brahmins and others who are educated, young and professionals and is urging the voters to embrace change. Arguably the youngest of the four key chief ministerial candidates, Ramadoss outlines his vision for Tamil Nadu should he be elected to office.

What are the issues that you as a party are highlighting in these elections?

There are six things that we are raising. We are going to do away with alcohol and corruption. And we are going to give them four things, free education, good quality free healthcare and then we are going to make agriculture a profitable source of income for farmers, and the fourth is employment—industrial growth and employment. These are the six things that I am focusing on.

How much of a challenge is it for you that the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam’s Vijayakanth has forged an alliance in these polls?

Absolutely not. They are a non-entity. That group is a group of parties who have been rejected by other parties. They were begging for seats from the others and then they all came together and formed an alliance. They don’t have any policies or principles. You mention Vijayakanth’s name and people start laughing. He cannot utter one sentence coherently.

What about the Bharatiya Janata Party? The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) himself is campaigning here.

They are nothing in Tamil Nadu, they are in some pockets of the state. They are just contesting, that’s all.

The people of the state seem to be asking for jobs, industrialization, connectivity, better education and healthcare. What are your plans to meet these demands?

Our policy is to give single window clearance in three weeks except for big projects where environmental clearance is required from the central government. We are going to have a land bank of 1.5 lakh acres mostly in rural areas. Industry in Tamil Nadu—60% of the industry is in and around Chennai—100 km around Chennai; 15% in Coimbatore and the rest 25% all over Tamil Nadu. Our industrial growth is -1.3%. There has not been any investment in the last five years; approximately 65,000 crore worth of investment has gone to other states.

A farcical global investors meet was organised and 242,000 crore worth of MoUs have been signed out of which last year, 500 crore worth of investment has been done. Nobody wants to invest because they cannot meet the chief minister, corruption is a big problem, electricity is a bigger problem. The requirement of electricity is some 15,500 megawatts. The state government produces 5,500 MW only. The rest we are buying at exorbitant rates. Three years ago, we had 14 hour power cuts, the small and medium scale industries closed down.

All the industrialists are very upset with her (chief minister J. Jayalalithaa). We are going to focus on energy and focus on more renewables. Solar, wind—this is what we are going to do. Plus, for job creation—Tamil Nadu has a long coastline out of which we are planning to make six major and 20 minor ports. We are going to make Tamil Nadu an international warehousing hub like Singapore or Rotterdam. The second is—Tamil Nadu was once known as the Detroit of India. But now that has all gone. Automobiles have gone to Andhra. I am going to bring them back. I am going to make Tamil Nadu an international health BPO hub, health tourism hub and health research hub. Then there is the potential of pilgrim tourism, the entire east coast—Thanjavur, Vailankanni. Then there is the regular tourism. Then I am going to divide Tamil Nadu into five zones of administration and each zone will have chief secretary-level cadre officers to administer that zone.

Added to that I am going to have regional economic commissioners, five regional economic commissionerates. The regional economic commissioners work will be (attracting) global investment. I will fix targets for investments in each area. Plus, in all districts, I am going to form agro-economic zones—rubber in Kanyakumari, turmeric in Erode, tapioca in Salem, cashewnuts in Cuddalore—like that in each area. There will be value addition for which the latest technology will be used. If any one wants to set up a start up business in Tamil Nadu employing a minimum of 10 persons, the government of Tamil Nadu will give loans from 50,000 to 10 lakh.

Western Tamil Nadu is seen as the big industrial hub and the growth there is seen as due to private investment and not government investment.

Coimbatore was once called the Manchester of South India and it had some 25,000 industrial units. Because of power failure, 60% of them have closed down. It was supposed to be manufacturing hub for water/irrigation pumps. That has also gone. It was known as a centre for solar panel manufacture. That has also gone. Today, they are in a pitiful state because there is no permission, there is no movement, there is no infrastructure. Tirupur earns investments to the tune of 14,000 crore every year for India. There were 60,000 units in Tirupur out of which 40,000 units have closed down. There is no power or infrastructure, water is a major problem. And the problem is that no one can meet the chief minister if they want to. If you want to invest, you should be able to meet the chief minister. And she is not willing to meet anyone. They meet the minister, the minister says give me 20% of the investment. Most of the investment from here has gone to Andhra Pradesh. I am going to focus on industrial investment. And jobs. Every year, 3 lakh engineering graduates are coming out and 3 lakh science graduates are coming out. Out of these, only 50,000 are employed. That is why they are going on a drinking spree.

There seem to be doubts about you and your party because of ideology (which is pro-Vanniyar). We understand you have fielded a lot of Dalit candidates this time. Do you think you could do something more that will remove this tag?

Absolutely. Firstly, PMK is not a casteist party. Our party works for all the communities—cutting across caste, religion, language barriers. It’s a party for social justice. We are the party that has done the most for Dalits; no other party has. When I was minister, I brought in reservations for Dalits—for the first time in 30 years in the all-India medical entrance exams. In my party, the general secretary is a Dalit. And we have done a lot for social justice of Dalits. Till the time we aligned with the DMK and the AIADMK, we were seen as a normal party. Once we came out of the alliance with both of them, then we became a casteist party. If we were a casteist party, why did the AIADMK and the DMK align with us? These are canards being spread because of our growing popularity. We are a progressive party... I am not saying we are perfect, we have had our shortcomings and issues are there. We are also changing.

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Published: 11 May 2016, 08:59 PM IST
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