Chennai, June 3
Muthuvel Karunanidhi’s troubles are unending.
After seeing his DMK nearly wiped out in elections and his daughter and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi in prison, Tamil Nadu’s new Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa delivered her foe a bitter birthday present today.

As Karunanidhi, one of the oldest players in Indian politics and the former Chief Minister, turned 88 today, the Tamil Nadu government decided to probe complaints regarding the construction of the new assembly and secretariat buildings.

The government will also scrap the Kalaignar insurance scheme and ‘nationalise’ the cable television business.

The second decision will hit hard cable companies promoted by Kalanithi Maran, a grand nephew of Karunanidhi, and the family of the DMK patriarch’s elder son, MK Alagiri, a Union minister.

The AIADMK government is also scrapping plans to revive the Legislative Council and declare a uniform syllabus for school students.

The new assembly and secretariat building, the insurance scheme for the poor, and the planned revival of the Legislative Council have been the pet schemes of Karunanidhi.

The government’s decisions were made public by Governor Surjit Singh Barnala while addressing the new legislature for the first time after the May 13 election that saw the AIADMK crush the DMK.

Barnala said a retired judge would investigate complaints of bad construction and wasteful expenditure regarding the new assembly and secretariat buildings. — IANS