Chennai: Tamil Nadu budget, presented by state finance minister O Panneerselvam has no bad news for the common man on first glance. There are no new taxes that can place more burden on the man on the street already groaning under stiff price hike in essentials and caught up in the grip of general inflation.

To that extent it is a relief that the Jayalalithaa led AIADMK government has not increased any revenue generation activities through upward tax revision. But on the contrary, has clearly demonstrated that it means business when it comes to fulfilling election promises. Every promise made by Jayalalithaa during the election campaign are mentioned in the budget speech with a specific amount allocated for their implementation in the current financial year.

But on the prohibition, which was conjured up as a last minute poll magic wand by Jayalalithaa stumping her opponents, did not find a mention in the budget speech that dealt with a wide array of subjects.

But for the record, populist schemes and promises like laptops for students, gold for unmarried girls from poor sections of the society and the like got adequate money allocated for them.

And so did other welfare schemes aimed at benefitting large sections of the society.

Panneerselvam said the government will give 12,000 milch cows to poor women and 400,000 goats/sheep to one lakh poor families this fiscal. The government has decided to provide 5.35 lakh students with laptops during the current year at an outlay of Rs.890 crore.

Then there are allocations for the gold scheme for poor girls getting married and a host of other promises, for which concrete amounts have been allocated.

Panneerselvam outlined the different programmes and schmes the government will be pursing.

The various poverty reduction programmes and schemes have received a sum of Rs 355.81 crore while urban livelihood programmes were allotted a sum of Rs 350 crore and urban livelihood programmes an equal amount. ‘Tamil Nadu Rural Transformation Project’ will be funded through a World Bank loan of Rs 900 crore.It is also promised to 200,000 youth for skill development , in this current fiscal alone, at a cost of Rs 150 crore.

Panneerselvam said a sum of Rs.2,000 crore has been allocated in the budget for Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Fund.

But all this welfare activity and subsidies cost money, adding to the state’s public debt. According to the finance minister, the public debt at the end of the current fiscal would be Rs 2.52 lakh crore.

The finance minister also highlighted the govenrment’s economic development growth plan for which it has formed five state missions with eleven special focus areas.

The five missions –mission for water resource management and revival of Kudimaramath; mission for housing to achieve hut free villages and slum free cities; mission for poverty reduction and economic empowerment of the poor: mission for a clean Tamil Nadu and mission for skill development – that the government has set up have very ambitious targets. These, he said, would be achieved through a multi-disciplinary and multi-departmental coordination.