Jayalalithaa begins poll promise implementation, signs 5 orders
Updated by admin on
Monday, May 23, 2016 07:55 PM IST
Chennai:
Shortly after being sworn in as chief ministerr of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa got down to business straightaway. She signed five orders, to begin implementation of some poll promises. The Government would waive short-term and long-term crop loans sanctioned by cooperative society to small and micro farmers, provide mangalutra worth eight grams of gold would be given to women towards marriage expenses, reduction of TASMAC retail shops timimgs by two hours, closure of 500 TASMAC shops.
The Government said it would incur an additional expenditure of Rs. 5,780 crore. The previous Government had sanctioned interest-free crop loan to the tune of Rs. 20,786 crore to 46.44 lakh farmers.
On Prohibition, Jayalalithaa had promised phased prohibition during the election campaign while DMK had promised complete ban of liquor if voted to power.
With 46.7 per cent of males reporting that they consume alcohol, the State is sixth on a list of 17 States and Union Territories surveyed for NFHS 2015-2016. 41.5 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s men consume alcohol, against the national average of 32 per cent; the latest round has an average of 39.7 per cent for the 17 States and UTs.
TASMAC has 41 depots in five regions and runs over 6,800 retail outlets across the State. The annual revenue of TASMAC stood at Rs. 26,188 crores in FY 2014-15. According to government data, more than 70 lakh people consume liquor every day through TASMAC outlets. In January 2016, the company sold 48.23 lakh cases of liquor.
Jayalalithaa also announced that 100 units of electricity will be provided to households free of cost. This will benefit everyone; in particular, the 78 lakh domestic users consuming below 100 units will not have to pay any charge,” she had said during the release of AIADMK manifesto. The government will provide a subsidy of Rs. 1607 crore to bear the brunt of the loss towards the execution of this scheme.
The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) is currently reeling under a Rs. 8,000-crore estimated loss. The State has 1.88 crore domestic consumers.
The Government said it would incur an additional expenditure of Rs. 5,780 crore on waiver of crop loans. The previous Government had sanctioned interest-free crop loan to the tune of Rs. 20,786 crore to 46.44 lakh farmers.
