Raining freebies, AIADMK promises Rs 10,000 pm, hike in fisheris ban assistacne to Rs 12k, Rs 1k with pongal package

It’s raining freebies from AIADMK with the party on Tuesday promising Rs 10,000 per month for every family to ease their burden to overcome the price rise, hike in assistance for fisherfolks during the annual ban period from Rs 8,000 to Rs 1,2000, Rs 1,000 to all ration card holders as part of pongal package, ammong others in its Part-3 of the manifesto ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Releasing the third phase of the poll promises after paying tributes to charismatic leader J Jayalalithaa on the occasion of her 78th birth anniversary at the party office, AIADMK General Secretary and Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami rolled out more freebies if the AIADMK, heading the NDA, was voted to power.

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Among other promises were Rs 2,000 per month for unmployed graduates and Rs 1,000 per mon for those who have studied upto Plus-2 and have registered in employment office, hike in free power to handloom weavers from 300 units to 450 units and for powerloom weavers from 1,000 units to 1,400 units and waiver of loans for those who had put in shops inmpavements in cities.

In its earlier two parts of manifesto, the AIADMK desperate to counter the ruling DMK’s alliance arithmetic and its pre-election splurge of developmental programmes across the districts and enhancing welfare schemes, went on a freebie spree of poll promises which included complete waiver of educational loans among other things.
In the second tranche of election manifesto, Mr Palaniswami had said “the AIADMK, if voted to power will waive education loans taken from banks with the government assuming the burden.” This was to protect and relieve families from mounting financial pressure, he explained adding “Education must empower, not enslave our youth in debt. Our students deserve opportunity, not lifelong financial anxiety.”

Another key announcement is enhanced Social Security Pension (SSP) of Rs 2000 for six categories of persons. It is Rs 800 more than the existing SSP. The beneficiaries are: senior citizens, destitute widows, unmarried poor women, deserted women, differently-abled persons and Transgender individuals. Justifying this, EPS said “No elderly person in Tamil Nadu should struggle for survival. No widow or differently-abled individual should be forced to live in indignity. We will restore respect through real financial support.”
As a direct livelihood support, the party announced that ration card holders will be provided with three LPG cylinders free of cost every year. “Rising costs have crushed household budgets. We will ensure that essential needs like cooking gas do not become a luxury,” he explained.

Recognising ‘Jallikattu’, the ancient bull taming sport, not only as the proud traditional sport of the Tamils but as an identity of the Tamils, the AIADMK has announced Rs 10 lakh compensation for bull tamers who lose their life in the event and Rs 2 lakh medical assistance those seriously injured. Further, Rs 5 lakh government subsidy will be extended to hold authorised Jallikattu events and the earlier manual procedure would be restored by cancelling the present online system.

In an attempt at minority outreach and to offset the image of being in tandem with the BJP, the AIADMK has promised to provide interest free loans to women from the Muslim, Christian minority communities as well as differently abled women to become entrepreneurs through self-employment. Additionally, the party would waive loans availed by these women from Co-operative Banks. “Welfare with dignity and security with responsibility,” is the new slogan EPS has coined.

In the first phase of poll promises, he had announced Rs 2000 for women household heads, while the present one under the Stalin government is giving Rs 1000under its flagship Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam–which the DMK has promised to hike it to Rs 2000 if it returned to power for a second successive term.

Besides Rs 25,000 subsidy for women purchasing two-wheelers, free bus travel for men in city buses, the AIADMK had announced free concrete housing for all homeless in the rural areas and apartments in the urban areas.
AIADMK is heading the NDA and Mr Palaniswami is the CM face of the front, which comprises BJP, the PMK faction led by Anbumani, AMMK of TTV Dhinakaran, TMC of former union Minister G K Vasan and other fringe parties.

Both Mr Palaniswami and BJP State President and Legislature Party Leader Nainar Nagendran had been asserting that more parties would join the NDA to strengthen it and take on the formidable ruling DMK-led Front that included Congress, the two Left Parties, MDMK, VCK, MNM of actor-politician Kamal Haasan, DMDK of late actor-politician Vijayakanth, which had joined the alliance for the first time, IUML, and few other minor parties including the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK).

Actor Vijay’s TVK, which had vowed to defeat the DMK, and Naam Tamilar Katchi of another actor-director Seeman are the other two parties in fray in the electoral battle, in which the Vijay’s party would be testing its fortunes for the first time after forming the party in 2023.

The NDA had already taken a lead in kickstarting the poll campaign when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a massive election meerting at Madurantakam near Chennai and would be addressing similar rallies in Madurai,Vellore, Trichy and Thanjavur in the first week of next month.

The DMK too had taken a lead in commencing the process of the rather belated seat sharing talks with its alliance partners after ironing out minor hitches that cropped up following the power sharing demand raised by a section of the Congress leaders after forming a seven-memmer seat sharing panel.