Jayalalithaa is greeted by senior leaders O Panneerselvam and Natham Viswanathan during her swearing-in ceremony on Saturday. (Press Trust of India)
On her first day back at work, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today signed a Rs 1800 crore road development project and ordered a Rs 100 crore employment training scheme for families headed by women.
She also launched 201 Amma canteens across the state. Amma canteens are low-cost eateries, a pet project of Ms Jayalalithaa, which was launched in 2013. Fluffy idlis cost just Rs 1 each; sambar rice Rs 5 and curd rice Rs 3.
Ever since Ms Jayalalithaa was forced to stand down as chief minister after being found guilty last September in a corruption case, the opposition in Tamil Nadu has accused O Panneerselvam, who replaced Ms Jayalalithaa as the chief minister, of failing to run the government properly. Not only was there a policy paralysis during his tenure, governance also became a casualty, the Opposition has said.
Mr Panneerselvam postponed the much-awaited global investors' meeting, reportedly waiting for Ms Jayalalithaa; the Chennai Metro, which was cleared during the previous DMK regime, is yet to begin operation.
"The fall began much earlier and the state has gone behind many states in development," DMK leader TKS Elangovan said.
However, K Pandiarajan, a DMDK MLA who now supports AIADMK, said, "I don't think there's policy paralysis. In that case Tamil Nadu wouldn't have grown by 8 per cent in terms of GDP when the national average is 7.4 per cent."
Ms Jayalalithaa, one of the country's most powerful politicians, returned on Saturday as chief minister of Tamil Nadu, less than a fortnight after the Karnataka High Court a court acquitted her in a corruption case.
Jayalalithaa Jayaram, a former film star, was found guilty last September of amassing illegal wealth while in office. The 67-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison and fined Rs. 100 crore in a case that progressed through court for nearly two decades. But earlier this month, the higher court cleared her of corruption charges.