Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday held a review meeting to assess the financial situation of the state which she had alleged to have "totally derailed" during the previous DMK regime.
The meeting was attended by Finance Secretary K Shanmugam and Chief Principal Secretary Debendranath Sarangi, an official release said.
The meeting discussed various programmes, including implementation of poll promises made by Jayalalithaa during her election campaign and also on developing the financial stability of the state.
Increasing efficiency of principal departments, second level departments and service level departments were also discussed during the meeting.
"The state's economy has been totally derailed and there has been a lot of regression in the last five years. It is almost as if like having gone back to dark ages," she had said after meeting Governor Surjit Singh Barnala on May 15 to stake her claim to form the government.
Flaying the petrol price hike, Jayalalithaa said it was the "main reason" for the spurt in prices and it would be "condemnable" if oil companies once again raised prices, besides that of diesel and natural gas.
To a query, she said the state government had not yet considered reducing sales tax on petrol to ease the burden on the consumer.
Asked about the claim of Pathmanathan, leader of the now decimated LTTE, which had assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, that the outfit had attempted to assassinate her also, she said, "I have been living with death threats since 1991. This is nothing new."
On Pathmathan's reported remarks that DMK's ideology (of anti-Brahminism) could have influenced LTTE to kill Gandhi, she said, "That has been our basic charge since a long time. We have always said DMK was behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in an indirect way."
Ruling out revival of the Legislative Council, a DMK initiative, she said it was AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran who had first abolished it as Chief Minister and AIADMK was against it.
To a question, she said the Centre had not yet communicated to Tamil Nadu about the arrest of one Mohamaed Niaz in France on May 10 for his alleged Al-Qaeda links.
She also said she would take up with the Centre, the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Jayalalithaa also announced a scheme for Standard XII students, saying they can now register for Employment Exchange online from their schools, after passing out. This will come into effect from this year and was being done to do away with the difficulty faced by students, including travelling long distances.
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