Erode, Tamil Nadu,Sept 16: Agriculture Minister K A Sengottiyan today distributed mixie, grinders, fans, cows and goats and laptops, an initiative of the AIADMK government at no cost. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had launched the scheme at Tiruvallur yesterday.
The minister distributed cows and goats to 37 poor women at Aandipatty near Nambiyur, 55 laptops to students of Savakkattupalayam Government HSS and fans, grinders and mixi in Sikkaripalayam to 226 persons.
Similarly at Kavundichipalayam Public Works Minister K V Ramalingam inaugurated the scheme.
Fulfilling three of her election promises, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa had on Thursday kicked off free distribution of laptops, cows / goats, mixies, grinders and fans, on which the government would spend Rs 2,353 crore this year. She inaugurated the flagship schemes at a function held at Thiruvallur near Chennai as part of the 103rd birth anniversary celebrations of Dravidian leader and former chief minister C N Annadurai.
“These schemes were launched with an aim to help the poor stand on their own legs and become economically independent. Hence no one should demean such schemes”, Jayalalithaa said.
The free schemes would cover 1.85 crore families who draw rice from the Public Distribution System. Jayalalithaa has set up a Special Programme Implementation department to monitor these schemes.
In the first year of its implementation, the government would provide mixies-grinders-fans for housewives at a cost of Rs 1,250 crore covering 2.5 million families. Under the free laptop scheme, 912,000 laptops would be distributed at a cost of Rs 912 crore.
The allocations for the distribution of milch cows, goats and sheep were Rs 56 crore and Rs 135 crore respectively. The milch cows would be distributed to 12,000 families and goats/sheeps to 100,000 families. The government would provide 60,000 milch cows in 21 milk-deficit districts and 700,000 goats/sheep over a period of five years.
