Reporter's dairy: Stalin’s absence time for officials to chill

CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin, from the day he took office, has been facing tough times starting from Covid second wave to the flood and now, the third wave of Covid.

Officials were made to work round the clock to set right the State economy, which was ravaged by the pandemic.

Once, an official at the Department of Cooperation, said that their department officials had spent sleepless nights for the first 4 months after the government changed to unearth the gold scam in Cooperative societies.

The work pace set by the government had not changed since then, as even on Sundays there were government functions and programmes keeping officials engaged.

Recently, the CM was sick with fever, which made him cancel his official programmes for 3 days, as per doctor’s advice.

The cancellation had become a much-needed break not just for the CM but also for officials to relax a bit.

Some officials said that it was the continuous work that made CM ill.

Even from the reporter’s point of view, the CM was right in taking the break, as State politics is dominated by the internal fissures in AIADMK and the media is busy running behind the two factions with focus shifting to the opposition AIADMK.