There was a recent report on Tamil Nadu turning down the proposal of the Indian Railways to build new rail lines after these have been mooted and analysed for their importance quite some years ago. The reason: unwillingness of the state to contribute 50 per cent of the cost of these lines that would require around Rs.1500 crore. The reason cited: the unviable nature of the projects. But more honestly unwillingness to commit the resources.

One should be surprised over the state’s inability to allot the needed funds. The state budget of around Rs.50,000 crore, if properly spent, can help the state take up many development projects. But successive governments led by the DMK and the AIADMK, have been focusing on freebies and distribution of largesse that have no development focus.

Remember the mid 1980s when the Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS), the elevated train project of the city, was getting stuck for want of funds? Started initially with an outlay of around Rs.45 crore for constructing the 9.5 km Madras Beach to Mylapore section, it could not get the needed funds from Indian railways. When I raised this issue with the then railway minister Madhavrao Scindia, the energetic young minister responded: "the project is of special benefit to the Chennai commuters. It will be appropriate if the state government contributed a portion of the cost." He suggested a third of the cost as the contribution by the state. I brought this to the attention of MGR government through the industry secretary. The government held that railway development was the Centre's responsibility and so the state would not contribute.

Contrast the approach of the then Maharashtra government: it agreed to meet a third of the cost of around Rs.350 crore of the Thane-Belapur rail line. This project was constructed in just around four years and was dedicated to the nation by the then President of India R.Venkataraman in 1991.

The 9.5 km MRTS took over a decade with cost escalating by around Rs.100 crore.

Of course, the extension of MRTS up to Velachery had been funded to the extent of two-thirds of the cost by the Tamil Nadu government; but it took almost another decade suffering similar escalation cost. Had the state government supported the project with greater vigour, by now the extension to St.Thomas Mount could have been completed and perhaps St.Thomas Mount would have been connected with Anna Nagar via Ashok Nagar and Koyambedu. Look at the far less problem of land acquisition and land prices in those years and the massive relief that could have been provided to the city commuters with such wonderful connectivity from Anna Nagar to Mylapore or Chrompet to Chepauk!

Sadly DMK supremo Karunanidhi refuses to have a long-term vision of the state and has been content focusing on the next elections. Look at the tragedy of a state willing to commit over Rs.2000 crore on providing free colour TV sets but not Rs.1500 crore on a permanent railway that could benefit generations! Subsidies and freebies account for close to Rs.20,000 crore in the annual expenditure of the state and most of the expenditure goes for salaries and pensions for a large number of government employees whose numbers get added from time to time leaving little resources for development. The state has not spent even modest amounts on adding to power generation capacity after 1995, plunging Tamil Nadu into power cuts of unprecedented magnitude. The performance of the agriculture sector has been dismal: the manufacturing and the services sector would also get hit by the neglect of power development.

For 40 years now, the state has neglected development with the focus entirely on short-term benefits of distribution of largesse with dubious benefits to the poor and the needy. Even the Re.one/kg rice scheme and subsidised price of essentials are not targeted to the really needy and the weakest sections and are made available to the entire population of Tamil Nadu. The state has only been encouraging leakages and corruption of humungous magnitude.