[pavlik]

Significant inputs from former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam embellished the AIADMK poll manifesto reflecting the desire of party supremo J Jayalalithaa to deliver a right mix of development and welfare for the overall progress of Tamil Nadu and its people, sources said.
They said Dr Kalam’s close aide Dr V. Ponraj, a DRDO scientist, had acted as the go-between to inject in appropriate dimensions the former’s development proposals spelt out in his ‘Vision-2020’ document authored during his tenure in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Besides, Dr Ponraj held a briefing session before an informal meeting of Jayalalithaa and her ministers at the conference hall of the secretariat on Tuesday, the very next day after the swearing-in.
According to sources, Dr Ponraj explained to the AIADMK ministers in simple terms how to achieve sustainable development in areas like agriculture, water management, infrastructure, education and healthcare, besides e-governance.

He also discussed the different success models from other countries and also elaborated on the core competences available in Tamil Nadu, they said.

Chief minister Jayalalithaa was not only present during the entire session lasting almost three hours; she also anchored the deliberations with her own well-informed inputs to help the cabinet colleagues understand the nuances of governance.

She stressed that the government should strive to step up agriculture growth from two to nine per cent in the next years and also take urgent measures to tackle the electricity crisis.

Even as Dr Ponraj made his powerpoint presentation based on Vision-2020, Jayalalithaa intervened at right junctures to make her own observations—such as acknowledging the importance of Dr Kalam’s pet project PURA, ‘providing urban infrastructure to rural areas.’

-- DC Chennai