That was part of a major reversal of a series of Karunanidhi regime actions, which she could do with aplomb and overwhelmingly endorsed by the new State Assembly at its first session. But at stake was children’s education all over the state as the schools reopened and millions of new text books based on USE had been printed ready for distribution.

No doubt Mr Karunanidhi, whose DMK was delivered a body-blow in the Assembly elections, had much to do with the ‘Samacheer kalvi’ (USE), and he was willing to have any references to him and Dravidian movement in textbooks deleted so that the essence of the scheme was retained and implemented as scheduled. But the AIADMK Government maintained the common syllabus was lacking in several respects, did not provide a good curriculum and neglected appropriate lessons in terms of age and practical training.

Despite its contention that it was only seeking to defer introduction of USE until an expert committee had made a review and recommended improvements, the High Court on July 18 struck down the Jayalalithaa Government’s amending legislation as “unconstitutional” and “arbitrary” as the parent act had already been implemented, though partially. The Government decided to go in appeal to the apex court.

The First Bench including the Chief Justice directed the State to forthwith distribute textbooks printed under the ‘samacheer’ education before July 22 to enable teachers to commence classes which children awaited. The bench rejected a plea on behalf of Government to suspend the operation of its order pending an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Political parties including CPI and CPM, partners in the AIADMK-led electoral alliance, have urged the State Government to accept the High Court’s verdict on USE instead of going in appeal to the Supreme Court. Though it could prolong uncertainties in the state’s educational system, Ms. Jayalalithaa is not easily given to losing a battle.

Interestingly, the High Court had in another instance upheld the Jayalalithaa decision to continue state headquarters and assembly in Fort St. George instead of shifting to the new Rs.1000 crore complex which Mr Karunanidhi got erected and unveiled by the Prime Minister in March last. Ms. Jayalalithaa has instituted an inquiry by a retired High Court judge to go into the “irregularities” in the construction of the edifice situated on the busy Anna Salai, the arterial road of the metropolis.

The new admonition from the Bench will come as a shot in the arm for the DMK, (lying low since its crushing defeat with barely 23 members in the new Assembly), four days before its General Council was to meet to do a post-mortem, settle intra-party rifts including leadership tussle between the two sons of the patriarch – Mr M.K. Stalin and Mr M.K. Alagiri – and reorganise itself for the future. Mr Karunanidhi had been approached by UPA to name substitutes for the two DMK Ministers forced to resign over telecom scandals, Mr. A Raja and Mr. Dayanidhi Maran. He would announce his decision after this meeting.

DMK is also up against the state-wide arrests of scores of its partymen charged with land grabbing with faked documents, frauds and corruption. As complaints of usurpation of lands pile up, Ms. Jayalalithaa ordered the police to take prompt action. Each district would have special police cells exclusively to look into charges of land grabbing during the DMK regime 2006-11.

Two defamation cases filed against her by the DMK regime were allowed to be withdrawn by a sessions court. But legal embarrassments for Ms Jayalalithaa are not over yet as a special court in Bangalore has asked for her presence on July 27 to record her statement in the old case of “disproportionate assets” pending against her and associates.

After the first two months marked by Ms. Jayalalithaa building bridges with the UPA Government at the Centre and finalizing a higher plan outlay for 2011/12, the AIADMK leader felts politically comfortable enough to embark on a massive resource mobilization effort to pay for all her election promises and also improve finances of Tamil Nadu, which has an outstanding debt of over Rs.109,000 crores in March 2011 (BE). She has squarely blamed DMK for fiscal recklessness.

Ahead of the AIADMK Government’s first budget to be presented on August 3, Ms. Jayalalithaa approved a rise in sales tax levies on a range of commodities to raise rs.4200 crores while another rs.1400 crores was expected to result from the hike in excise duty on liquor, the most buoyant source of revenue, which doubles itself every five years with an estimated rs.17,823 crores in 2010/11.

Having put through a few of her promised schemes and gifts, such as 20 kg free rice a month for card-holders and 4 gms of gold and financial aid for marriage of educated girls from poor families and earned a degree of credibility, the AIADMK leader began a desperate search for additional resources to fulfill all other promises including consumer durables for poor families and laptops for higher class students over the next 18 months. Visiting her constituency, the temple town of Srirangam, she thanked the voters and awarded welfare projects worth rs.190 crores.

The budget to be presented by Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam will reflect what further demands the AIADMK Government would make on the people to share the burdens on the exchequer from her electoral pledges. Government is also considering revision of the power tariff, considered the lowest in Tamil Nadu, despite the crippling shortage of the order of 3500-4000 kw that has led to load sheddings affecting industry and agriculture and fixed-hour power cuts every day in all major towns. The state electricity board has an annual deficit of rs.10,000 crores.

Stating her unenviable task is to pull the state out of a dismal situation and restore “a modicum of financial health and stability”, Ms. Jayalalithaa had, in her meeting with the Prime Minister in mid-June, sought startlingly a massive assistance of Rs.2.5 lakhs to help Tamil Nadu tide over the state’s difficulties. Her immediate needs were put at Rs.40,000 crore as a bail-out package for the highly-indebted TN Electricity Board and a special grant of Rs.10,200 crores over five years to provide laptops to students in government-aided schools and colleges. She also sought the Prime Minister’s intervention for allocation of additional power of 1,000 MW till May 2012.

The budget has to provide funding for the enhanced annual plan of Rs. 23,535 crores for 2011-12 finalised at a meeting the Chief Minister had with the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission on July 6. The Commission has welcomed her development priorities and her proposed Vision 2025 document aimed at making Tamil Nadu to No.1 position among Indian states. Over the short to medium-term special emphasis would be on investments in power, ports, shipbuilding etc with equal emphasis on a strategy to eradicate poverty and improve the standard of living of the common man. (IPA Service)