Chennai, Mar 18 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P.T.R. Palanivel Thiagarajan on Friday said that the driving force for the DMK government under M.K. Stalin will be Dravidian ethos and philosophies.

He was addressing the Tamil Nadu Assembly while presenting the state budget for the financial year 2022-23. The minister said that the state would incur Rs 20,000 crore losses.

Opposition AIADMK boycotted the budget speech.

He said that the government would be firm to achieve social justice on all fronts and added that a powerful leader who is caring for the people is the Chief Minister of the state.

Thiagarajan said that the budget has been prepared keeping in mind the current macroeconomic environment and added that the Russia- Ukraine crisis is likely to cause demand shock and global supply disruptions to the country and to the state's economy.

Priorities, he said, would be based on infrastructure which will be socially inclusive. Attracting investments, creating more jobs, and improvement in the lives of downtrodden people will be ensured.

Coming down heavily on the central government, the minister said that while Tamil Nadu was contributing 10 per cent towards the growth of the nation, the union government was not allocating sufficient funds to the state.

Thiagarajan said that the state government wishes to spread the pride of Tamil language and culture and was allocating Rs 2 crore for some initiatives in this regard.

The teachings and literature of Periyar would be translated in various languages and that he had allocated Rs 5 crore for this.

New museums and onsite museums will be established at Villupuram and Ramanathapuram, he said, ading that a special wing would be set up to monitor social media.

The government has decided to distribute free textbooks for school children from Classes 1 to 10 in government schools, the minister said.