Will focus on healthcare and resettlement issues if voted back: Ma Subramanian

Saidapet sitting MLA and health minister Ma. Subramanian discusses his roadmap for transforming the constituency into a medical and ecological hub, and also ensuring local resettlement for residents that will also help kickstart the Adyar River restoration project. Streamlining Kalaignar Kaappittu Thittam for better coverage, next phase of Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam, including cancer screening, are also on his list of things to do.

Here are the edited excerpts:

Q: You have been the MLA of Saidapet since 2016. What will be the first issues you will address if you come back to power?

I have been associated as an elected representative of Saidapet since 1996, when I was a councillor and Ward Committee chairperson till 2006. Then, till 2011, when I was elected as Mayor, I was still a councillor in Saidapet. From 2016, I served as the MLA as part of the opposition party for five years, and the ruling party for another five; and the Health and Family Welfare Minister. When the next regime begins, initiatives beyond [poll promises] will be taken up. A hospital for children will be inaugurated in 15 months. We are aiming to make Saidapet an international medical hub. This government is setting up an eco park [at 160.86-acre Madras Race Club] in 25 acres of the [total planned] 118 acres for ₹39 crore. An attempt will be made to transform the entire 118 acre into an eco park in the next tenure.

Q: There are still issues related to land pattas in parts of the constituency…

There is some pending work in distributing pattas, as a result of a reclassification of documents. However, we have started work and distributed them to about half the beneficiaries. The work will be completed soon.

We also have to give pattas to those who received the plots as part of the one-time payment scheme of the erstwhile Slum Clearance Board [now the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Board]. The issue is the rate fixed is high. I objected to this in a Cabinet meeting. In the next tenure, there is a possibility of the Chief Minister reducing the amount.

For water body poramboke area, the government is very strict about issuing pattas. Still, after fencing the Adyar River, people on the land beyond that would get patta.

Q: The Adyar River restoration project was one of the major announcements in the 2024 TN Budget. It is still in the DPR stage. When will work begin?

Right now, desilting the Adyar, cleaning, widening, construction embankments, and making it into a tourist attraction is the plan. The issue is, about 9,000 houses in Thideer Nagar, Malligaipoo Nagar, nearby Sathya Nagar, then Aatruma Nagar, Burma Colony, Ambedkar Nagar will have to be vacated. Arrangements have been made to construct 1700 houses for them in Kotturpuram. We will try to resettle them within the same locality and then start the Adyar River restoration work.

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Q: In Saidapet people have been complaining that mosquito menace due to irregular fogging.

As far as mosquito menace is concerned, the breeding is seasonal. There are specific breeding times when fogging and spraying will be done by the local administration. Also, in my jurisdiction, there are about five zones. I conduct meetings and monitor fogging and spraying regularly.

Of course, no one can say mosquitoes are eliminated 100%. These are river-bed constituencies — Adyar and Cooum river run through— so there will be some presence of mosquitoes. With more attention, it can be reduced further.

Q: Can the pace of work on the Teynampet-Saidapet elevated flyover project be speeded up?

The speed at which the flyover work is happening is already at the fastest possible pace. This 3.2 km project costing ₹671 crore is very challenging. There is the underground Metro Rail network and overhead we are attempting to build a bridge. We are using the expertise of German architects and builders. As per schedule, it will be completed by June.

Q: What are the DMK’s prospects this election?

There is no anti-incumbency factor. The DMK will win with a large vote margin.

I have been contesting since 1996 — nearly 30 years in elections. From the experience I have got, in these 30 years, the kind of surge [for DMK voters] that is now in Saidapet has never been there before — even when DMK won by 30,000 votes, or in the parliamentary election when there was a 49,000 vote margin. It is even more than that now.