Chennai: Inspired by Delhi government-run schools, Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Friday announced that he will soon set up a similar model government school in Chennai. Stalin visited the national capital’s mohalla clinic and a government school accompanied by the Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.
Earlier in the day, Stalin along with the state finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan met with union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and submitted a list of demands for the union government to release pending dues to the state that total ₹20,860 crore. Later he met with union industries minister Piyush Goyal.
Stalin is on a four-day visit to Delhi to meet various ministers and submit a list of demands from Tamil Nadu. On Thursday he sought the union government’s approval for Tamil Nadu to provide essential commodities and life-saving medicines to ethnic Tamils in Sri Lankan amidst the island nation’s worst economic crisis which is leading people to flee and land on the state’s shores. A day ago, Stalin had a string of meetings in Delhi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh.
Stalin told reporters in Delhi on Friday that since he is in the capital he had asked if he would get a chance to visit a government school and the Delhi chief minister assured him that he himself would show him around. “I was informed about how well these government schools are functioning,” Stalin said. “Our (DMK) government in Tamil Nadu gives importance to all departments but we prioritise education and health on a higher scale. Soon we will start a model school like this in Tamil Nadu. Work for that is on-going.”
{{/usCountry}}Stalin told reporters in Delhi on Friday that since he is in the capital he had asked if he would get a chance to visit a government school and the Delhi chief minister assured him that he himself would show him around. “I was informed about how well these government schools are functioning,” Stalin said. “Our (DMK) government in Tamil Nadu gives importance to all departments but we prioritise education and health on a higher scale. Soon we will start a model school like this in Tamil Nadu. Work for that is on-going.”
{{/usCountry}}Stalin added that Kejriwal has been invited for the inauguration of this school in advance. Stalin and officials from Tamil Nadu and Delhi visited a happiness class, a deshbhakti class, and watched students train in the swimming pool. “This country can only progress if we all learn from each other’s good ideas,” Kejriwal tweeted following the visit.
In the memorandum Stalin had submitted to Sitharaman, he requested her to release the pending dues, local body grants and to extend the GST compensation period by at least two years beyond this June. The state says that the dues from the union government amount to ₹20,860.40 crore of which the GST compensation was ₹13,504.74 crore. “The State Government is facing severe financial stress despite easing out of Covid pandemic at present, as the revenues have been badly affected due to pandemic,” Stalin said in his memo. “The pandemic necessitated the State to incur additional expenditure towards upgrading health infrastructure, medical equipment, drugs and also implement welfare schemes for the vulnerable sections of the populace.”
Meanwhile, a day after Stalin complained to Modi and Amit Shah about the Governor’s delay in forwarding the anti-NEET Bill to the President, DMK MP P wilson on Friday moved a Constitution Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha to amend Article 200 and fix a time limit on the Governor to decide on Bills passed by the state assembly. “Some Governors are acting as roadblocks to the working of a democratically elected government,” Wilson said. Stalin had on Thursday told reporters in Delhi that in his individual meetings with Modi and Shah, he stressed on the abolition of NEET. “We passed the anti- NEET bill for the second time in the assembly. But the Governor is delaying in forwarding the Bill to the President. I’ve asked the PM and HM to look into this.”