Soft budget, hard battles expected in Tamil Nadu House

CHENNAI: Issues of land-grabbing, unified syllabus and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees make a recipe for a turbulent budget session in Tamil Nadu, beginning on August 4. The budget, however, is expected to be a soft one, considering it is the first from the AIADMK government after its resounding victory in May.

The opposition DMK, which was flattened in the assembly polls, will still have ammunition left to fight in the assembly. On top of the DMK's agenda will be ongoing arrests of its members in alleged land-grabbing cases, which the party argues is pure “political vendetta”.

The DMDK happens to be the main opposition party, but it will be the AIADMK and the DMK who will battle it out in the budget session, debating issues, including the universal education system (Samacheer Kalvi), the Sri Lankan Tamils' issue and the 2G spectrum episode, among others.

Political circles would keenly observe the stance of AIADMK allies CPM and CPI and actor Vijayakanth-led MDMK. The allies have not been openly critical of the government so far, but the Left parties have voiced their support for implementing the universal education system.

However, Chief Minister Jayalatithaa is still buying time to implement the unified education system introduced by the DMK government, and is fighting the case in the Supreme Court.

The state budget, which will be presented on the opening day by Finance Minister O Panneerselvam, is expected to be packed with sops and concessions, given the fact that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has set herself a deadline of 18 months for implementing all her election promises.

Ahead of the budget, the state government had sought to mobilise over Rs 5,000 crore of additional revenue by hiking prices of liquor sold through state-owned Tasmac shops besides raising VAT rates, registration fees and stamp duties.

The budget session will last over a month. The government will also complete 100 days in power during the session. In the run up to that landmark, Jayalalithaa has been busy holding review meetings with officials of various departments.