TN This Week: Govt Presents Budget for FY 2022-23, Students Protest Against Hijab Verdict

The Tamil Nadu finance minister presented the state Budget for the financial year 2022-23 on March 18. 

Claiming that false cases were filed against them, members of the Opposition party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) raised a protest and staged a walkout as soon as the budget session began.

The daily log of COVID-19 cases remained low in the state. Sixty-one new cases were logged on March 18 and 19 out of the 38 districts in Tamil Nadu had no new infections and ten districts reported only one case each. 

The vaccination drive for children between 12 and 15 years began on March 16 in Tamil Nadu. The public health department will vaccinate 21.2 lakh children against COVID-19, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian.

NewsClick brings you a round-up of the happenings in Tamil Nadu this week.

‘LOSS OF REVENUE FROM GST’

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan announced that the revenue deficit of the state, which has been on an upward trend since 2014, will be reversed this year. In the Budget estimates, he said that Tamil Nadu’s fiscal deficit is set to decline to 3.80% from 4.33%. In total, it would amount to around Rs 7,000 crore.

Thiaga Rajan mentioned that following the implementation of GST the state has been facing severe revenue loss. He stressed the demand to extend the GST compensation period by two years, which ends in June 2022.

Due to the heavy setback created by the COVID-19 pandemic, attention was given to education in the Budget. 

A slew of announcements for infrastructural development and industrial expansion was made by the finance minister.

TN PRESS COUNCIL ORDER RECALLED

The first bench of the Madras High Court on March 16 recalled an earlier order directing the Tamil Nadu government to constitute a separate Press Council for the state.

Wondering as to how such a direction had been issued when the subject matter and the prayer were totally different, the bench recalled the order passed in the last week of August 2021.

STUDENTS PROTEST VERDICT ON HIJAB

Reacting to the Karnataka High Court verdict on the wearing of hijabs in schools and colleges of the state, college students in parts of Tamil Nadu held protests.

Protest outside Coimbatore Government College. Image courtesy: SFI, Tamil Nadu

The court on March 16 dismissed petitions challenging Karnataka’s ban on hijabs in a contentious February 5 circular on the subject of uniforms and dress codes. The court ruled that the hijab “is not an essential part of Islam”.

UNIVERSITY TEACHERS HOLD PROTEST

The Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) staged a protest at Madurai on March 17 demanding the proper implementation of the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS). They urged that government order no. 5, with regard to government and state-aided arts and science institutes, should be implemented completely and uniformly.

Due to the poor implementation of government order no. 5, professors who have sufficient service periods and are eligible to be promoted as Associate Professors and Professors remain as Assistant Professors.