Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday tripled the income ceiling for availing two marriage assistance schemes being implemented by the State government from Rs 24,000 to Rs 72,000 per annum.
At present, the State government is implementing five schemes to help the needy.
Of these, there is no income ceiling for the beneficiaries under the three schemes — Dr Dharmambal Memorial Widow Remarriage Assistance Scheme, Dr Muthulaksmi Reddy Memorial Inter-Caste Marriage Assistance Scheme and Annai Teresa Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme for the orphan girls.
For the other two schemes - Moovalur Ramamirtham Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme and EVR Maniammaiyar Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme for Daughters of Poor Widows, the income ceiling would be hiked from Rs 24,000 to Rs 72,000 per annum, so that more number of girls can be benefited.
Under the MGR Nutritious Meals Scheme, no change was made in the food menu given to the students for around three decades since the inception of the scheme in 1982.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has ordered that new varieties of food items should be included in the menu for the Nutritious Meal Scheme and training has been given to the cooks working with the nutritious meal centres.
With a view to provide prepare the varieties in the new food menu, the Chief Minister has directed to provide kitchen utensils - one ladle made of ever silver and one Kadai made of indalium, worth Rs 561 to each of the 3,963 anganwadis located in 32 key areas in the State at a cost of Rs 22.23 lakh.