Doling out amidst doldrums..

I was amazed at the propensity of Tamil politicians towards doling out generous quantitites of individual benefits to garner votes...Polticians, we tend to believe work in the collective interest and not towards private benefits..But the extent to which people like Jayalalitha,Karunannidhi etc etc promise benefits like 25 kgs of free rice,TVs etc etc made me think whether the people have no better aspirations from these poilityicians ??
When we think of development and implementation in governance we tend to think of good amenities,roads,sanittations,employment etc etc but I was lefgt wondering whetrher Tamil Nadu is so rich as not to demand theze things rather thian 2 kilos of rice or 3 kgs of sugarcane ?