Chennai: Actor-turned-politician and Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay on Saturday introduced a bundle of girls’s welfare schemes, searching for to outdo the DMK and AIADMK in pre-poll pledges forward of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Meeting elections.
The spotlight of the announcement was a monetary assist of two,500 rupees per thirty days for feminine heads of households, excluding authorities staff, accessible to everybody as much as the age of 60.
Each the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the opposition AIADMK have promised Rs 2,000 per thirty days to ladies. The DMK authorities is at present disbursing Rs 1,000 per thirty days to round 1.31 crore eligible ladies beneath Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam.
Mr. Vijay was talking at an Worldwide Ladies’s Day occasion in Manmalapuram and introduced three different plans. Framed as a present from his “maternal brother”, the seer Tittam of Annan guarantees eight grams of gold and a silk sari to the girl he marries. Thailand’s Maman Thanga Motiram Thittam offers households with newborns with gold rings and ‘welcome child’ kits of meals, diapers and clothes. The Annapurani Tremendous 6 scheme additionally guarantees to offer every family with six free LPG cylinders per yr. It is a direct rebuttal to what Vijay termed the DMK’s “vote-time concessions” on important gadgets, together with the worth of gasoline cylinders.
To examine college dropouts, Kamarajar Kalvi Urthi Thittam has introduced to offer monetary help of Rs 15,000 per yr to moms or guardians.
Relating to ladies’s security, TVK proposed good panic buttons related to central monitoring items on all public transport programs, together with Share Auto, and a “Zero Darkish Spot” program to remove dimly lit areas by means of a city-wide CCTV and surveillance community.
The get together additionally promised free bus journey for girls, free sanitary napkins at ration retailers, colleges and universities, and the creation of a devoted authorities division for girls’s welfare.
“These are usually not simply bulletins, however a agency dedication to empower ladies and guarantee their financial independence, safety and dignity,” mentioned Mr. Vijay.
He additional added, “Ladies’s security is TVK’s precedence and a devoted division for girls’s welfare might be established to streamline ladies’s security and girls’s empowerment efforts.”
The proposal seeks to increase (and in some circumstances overlap) present state provisions.
Whereas the DMK authorities has been providing free bus journey to ladies since 2021 and has already put in AI-enabled panic buttons and CCTV in over 2,330 MTC (Metropolitan Company Bus Chennai) buses, the TVK plan claims to have a wider protection together with Share Auto and city-wide networks.
The DMK authorities final month gave an advance fee of Rs 5,000 to Magalil Ulimai beneficiaries, masking three months’ funds and a “summer time particular bundle” of Rs 2,000, and prolonged one-time help to the aged, widows and the disabled.
Prime Minister MK Stalin has promised to lift the month-to-month allowance to Rs 2,000 if re-elected. The DMK can also be offering Rs 25,000 as marriage help to tenth go brides from low-income households beneath the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Ninaivu scheme.
At an occasion on Saturday, Vijay briefly talked about the controversy surrounding his spouse Sangeeta’s divorce submitting. “I’ve no regrets and I’ll cope with it. It hurts my coronary heart to see my supporters damage whereas defending me on ongoing points. Let’s concentrate on the general public welfare and put these points apart as a result of they aren’t value it.”
Political analysts warned that stronger lobbying can be wanted to show the announcement right into a vote.
Political analyst Professor A. Ramasamy mentioned, “The bulletins ought to attain the goal voters and girls within the state additionally have to be made conscious of those guarantees. The system appears to be missing and so they could be restricted to rallies.”
He added that such welfare schemes for the center class and girls “have been the power of the federal government ever for the reason that DMK and AIADMK got here to energy. As ladies represent over 50 per cent of the voter base (in Tamil Nadu), there’s a must additional promote ladies’s welfare schemes.”
Analysts additionally identified the contradiction with Mr. Vijay’s earlier stand on ‘freebies’, a stand he took publicly on the TVK launch press convention in Vikravandi.
“Freebies are usually not seen as freebies however as welfare schemes and this tradition accelerated after 2006 when senior DMK chief late Okay Karunanidhi introduced free tv, gasoline cylinders and different provisions.Whereas Mr. Vijay had mentioned in his first press convention in Vikravandi that he was towards the freebie tradition, the TN situation is equally favorable. TVK is attempting to alter its place by saying these welfare schemes, most of which exist already in a single type or one other. Nevertheless, TVK could also be including a private attraction to those schemes because of ongoing private controversies,” mentioned Arun Kumar, assistant professor of political science at VIT Chennai.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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