CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday announced that the rice cardholders in the State will be given Rs.1,000 along with the Pongal Gift Hamper this year.
As per the earlier announcement, the gift hampers contained only raw rice and sugar (one kg each) and a full sugarcane.
He said employees of GOI and State governments, those who pay income tax and those of the Public Sector Undertakings, sugar card holders and white card holders (no commodity holders) are not eligible for Rs.1,000.
In a statement here, the CM also said the Rs.1,000 honorarium for women would be credited to their bank accounts on January 10 ahead of the Pongal festival. Usually, the honorarium is credited on the 15th of every month.
The CM also said the free sarees and dhotis to be given to the needy along with the Pongal Gift Hampers have been dispatched to all districts. This became possible since the production of sarees and dhotis was completed on time.
This comes after various political parties made demands to provide cash assistance to the ration card holders along with the Pongak Gift Hampers.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said Rs1,000 per ration card holder should be given for Pongal.
The AIADMK leaders also asked the CM to provide Rs 5,000 to ration cardholders of eight TN districts affected by heavy rains and the fishermen families affected by the oil spill in Ennore recently.
PMK founder S Ramadoss also made this demand and said the government should hike the procurement price of sugarcane by Rs 50. Meanwhile, BJP state president K Annamalai said Rs 2,000 should be given to ration card holders.