Click to play videoChennai: Revisiting one of the most populists offers, Tamilnadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has announced distribution of rice at one rupee per kilo and the occasion is DMK Founder CN Annadurai's birth centenary.
All ration cardholders will now get rice at one rupee per kilo. This is by halving the price of the staple food from the present Rs 2 per kg.
This scheme was part of DMK's election manifesto during the last assembly election and undoubtly it was a main factor for the DMK's victory.
This time Anna's birth centenary was probably just an opportunity for the DMK government to signal that it is getting into election mode.
Karunanidhi today symbolically launched the scheme by giving away rice packets to a few families.
And according to a conservative estimate the new scheme is expected to cost Rs 400 crore additional burden.
Karunanidhi owes his political popularity largely due to his 64-year-long film career that began in 1944.
He has made several munificent gestures to the industry that has spawned the present political scenario in Tamil Nadu that include the ruling DMK, the main opposition AIADMK and at least three smaller parties led by actors-turned-politicians.
Significantly, his critics have blamed Karunanidhi for spending more time at film functions than attending to needs of the state’s administration, a charge denied at some length by the chief minister.
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