Reconsider payment of Rs 1,000 cash as part of Pongal gift package: CPI
A day after Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu expressed the government's inability to provide Rs 1,000 cash along with the Pongal gift package due to financial constraints, Mutharasan, in a statement, said there is an expectation among the public that Rs 1,000 cash would be given along with the Pongal gift package like previous years.
CHENNAI: CPI state secretary R Mutharasan on Monday sought Chief Minister MK Stalin to intervene and reconsider the decision of the Finance Minister and provide a cash amount of Rs 1,000 to each family along with the gift package to be given on Pongal.
A day after Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu expressed the government's inability to provide Rs 1,000 cash along with the Pongal gift package due to financial constraints, Mutharasan, in a statement, said there is an expectation among the public that Rs 1,000 cash would be given along with the Pongal gift package like previous years.
The State government has announced that all rice family card holders and families living in Sri Lankan Tamil rehabilitation camps will be given a gift package of 1kg raw rice, 1kg sugar and one whole sugarcane each to celebrate Pongal festival.
"In this situation, the Finance Minister has announced that "since the Union Government has not allocated sufficient funds, the cash amount will not be given with this coming Pongal gift package. The BJP-led union government has been showing partiality in allocating funds since the formation of the new government in 2021 and is deceiving Tamil Nadu," he said, pointing to partial allocation of disaster relief fund of Rs 276 crore when the State sought Rs 82,458 crore since 2021.
Noting that the people would forget that the State government implemented welfare schemes despite the financial burden, he said that the stoppage of payment of Rs 1,000 cash would disappoint the public.