TN Assembly: 3 free cylinders from Pongal, Vettri Payanam from October 2

CHENNAI: Continuing his party’s and government’s focus on women, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Monday announced two new schemes, Annapoorni Super Six and Vettri Payanam, both of which were part of the poll promises that the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam had given ahead of the Assembly election.

Implementing the two women-centric schemes would cost the exchequer Rs 10,000 crore annually.

Making these announcements in the Assembly under Rule 110, which bars any discussions, Vijay said under the Annapoorni Super Six Scheme, beneficiaries would receive the cost of three LPG cylinders every year under a reimbursement model.

Chief Minister Vijay said that owing to the Gulf war, there had been a severe shortage of gas cylinders over the past four months. "Due to this, people are suffering from steep increases in gas cylinder prices. To avoid this hardship, the government is going to implement the Annapoorni Super Six Scheme," he said.

During the election campaign, Vijay had announced the Annapoorni Super Six Scheme, under which every family was to receive six LPG cylinders free of cost every year. However, the TVK-led government has now announced the tweaked version of scheme with an income criterion and half the number of cylinders.

In the present form, around 1.30 crore families with an annual income of not more than Rs 2.5 lakh will benefit from the scheme. “The new scheme will be implemented from the Pongal festival in January 2026. The government will allocate Rs 4,000 crore for this scheme," the chief minister said.

Another major announcement for women and transgender persons was the extension of free bus travel, a scheme originally initiated by the previous DMK government. Now rechristened as Vettri Payanam, the enhanced scheme will offer free travel to women on Express, Limited Stop Service (LSS), and Deluxe buses, in addition to ordinary buses, from October 2, which marks the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

"Under the extended scheme, women can travel on ordinary-fare mofussil buses operating between districts and in hill areas. Women can travel without income ceiling or any other restrictions. The scheme will cost the government Rs 6,000 crore annually," the chief minister said.

He added that the scheme would be extended to other services in the future.

According to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, State-run oil marketing firms – IOCL, BPCL, and HPCL – supply LPG cylinders to 2.39 crore connections across Tamil Nadu.