The Social Welfare Minister to the Tamil Nadu Government, Dr.Poongothai has submitted her resignation to Dr.Karunanidhi and is awaiting the outcome of it anxiously. She was forced to take this decision on charges of misusing her office to help a relative who was indicted in corruption charges.
According to observers this otherwise efficient and well educated Minister had to pay the price for her political inexperience. She is the daughter of late Aladi Aruna who was himself a Minister during the DMK’s rule in 1996-2001. She is a renowned gynecologist and a member of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist. She was practising successfully in U.K. prior to her return to Tamil Nadu. Her husband is a famous cardio vascular surgeon attached to the Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.
The above facts clearly prove that she did not do anything to further her own interests. Besides, as a Minister, she was known to be performing and quick to act on media reports and take corrective measures. Her noteworthy achievement was getting an official status for transsexuals and she was instrumental in the formation of a welfare board for them. She stood apart in articulating her views and perhaps her educational background and knowledge in her field made her an apt person for the post;but, unfortunately her political inexperience has come in her way in keeping up the post.
Let us wish that she gets a reprieve.
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