CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin is set to launch the Tamil Pudhalvan scheme, an extension of the Pudhumai Penn scheme offering Rs 1,000 aid to students joining higher education courses, in Coimbatore on Friday.

Under the scheme, as many as 3.28 lakh male college students who passed out of government and government-aided Tamil medium schools would receive Rs 1,000 monthly aid from the government.

The state government has already made a budgetary allocation of Rs 360 crore for the Tamil Pudhalvan scheme in the current financial year. Reasoning that the scheme would support male students who otherwise quit higher education for want of financial resources, a statement released by the state government said that it would instil confidence in the minds of college students and improve their learning interest in addition to augmenting the resources of their family.

The release said that the scheme would increase the educational progress of the state, improving its position at the national level too. Under the Pudhumai Penn scheme covering female students, the state government spent Rs 100.11 crore and Rs 271.66 crore in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal. After allocating Rs 370 crore for the current fiscal, the state government has so far spent Rs 95.61 crore between April and July 2024 in distributing Rs 1,000 monthly aid to students pursuing higher education.