Saturday, April 15 2006 15:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Union finance minister P Chidambaram today (Apr 15, 2006) described as 'baseless', AIADMK supreme Jayalalithaa's allegations that the Centre or any central minister from the state had not helped Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalithaa, instead of accusing the centre, would do well to extend cooperation to get schemes sanctioned for the state, he said at a press meet here, where he reeled out details of assistance extented to Tamil Nadu by the union government.

He said the May 8 assembly polls was a time for the people to ponder over whether they needed the continuance of an 'undemocratic, anti people, uncooperative AIADMK government', which did not even respect the office of the Prime Minister.

Asserting that the DMK-led front would win the polls, he said it would ensure that the state had a government, which had an amicable relationship with the Centre.

"In a federal set up, there was no question of dominance of any government. Only co-operation between state governments and the Centre would help the people," he said.

He said Jayalalithaa, who opposed the Rs 2,500 crore Sethusamuthram canal project on environmental grounds, had gone ahead with the desalination project for supplying drinking water without looking at this issue.

"If only she had replied to the questions posed by the Centre, the project would have been cleared," he said.

Chidambaram described as far from the truth, the allegation that the Centre had not sanctioned adequate funds for Tsunami and flood relief schemes. As per procedure, the state has to incur the expenditure and reimburse from the Centre.

He said none could deny that the much talked about free bicycles scheme to students and assistance to Women Self Help Groups were from the central funds.

"Chidambaram said he had written to all Chief Ministers about a scheme to restructure primary agricultural co-operatives. While some had agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understandin to implement the scheme, Jayalalithaa had not even acknowledged the receipt of his letter," he said.

Pointing out that the Centre had sanctioned 63 Special Economic Zones in India, he said several state governments were vying with each other to present proposals for setting up these zones in their states, whereas Tamil Nadu had not take any intiative at all.

"In fact, the three zones which had been approved for the state Flextronics, Nokia and Wipro were due to the initiatives of the Union Communciations ministry," he said.

It was due to the liberal grant by the Centre that the state government had a cash reserve of Rs.4,000 crore on March 31, 2006, the last day of the last fiscal. This only showed that the Centre had hiked its grants to the state.