The first year of the AIADMK government led by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was marked by massive initiatives for women, children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers, transgenders and the elderly. Many more initiatives have been announced for the current financial year.
On March 24, the CM announced a slew of measures for the welfare of the differently-abled persons in the State and allocated `9.53 crore for implementing them.
The announcements include waiver of interest of the loans availed by the differently-abled persons for starting their business establishments, setting up of training centres for visually-impaired persons in 20 more districts, retrofitment of scooters, distribution of hearing aids each worth `10,000 to 1,000 students, setting up of vocational training centres in 20 districts with the help of NGOs and renovation of leprosy rehabilitation centres in three places.
In a first of its kind initiative on May 2, the AIADMK government introduced a bill to amend the laws relating to the municipal corporations and the municipalities in the State. It aims at exempting all differently-abled persons from paying profession tax.
On May 10, the CM announced that a State Resource Centre (SRC) would be set up in Chennai to help the differently-abled children, whose parents can get all information regarding the welfare of such children.
This will be the first of its kind initiative in the country. To encourage reading habits among these children, in the first phase, a separate section would be started in the Coimbatore Central Library. Later, it would be extended to other parts of the State.
On August 26, 2011, the CM extended a helping hand to Sai Krishna, a visually-challenged student to enable him to participate in the world junior chess championship for the visually impaired to be held in Greece from August 28 to September 4.
The CM presented a cheque for Rs 1.50 lakh to Krishna following a representation made by the 15-year-old chess player seeking financial assistance.
On May 14, the CM announced that 5,000 anganwadi centres in the State would get smokeless kitchens with gas connections and pressure cookers during the current financial year, at an expenditure of Rs 3.20 crore. Of the 54,439 anganwadi centres in the State, smokeless kitchens have been set up in 16,645 centres.