CHENNAI: Hitting out at the ruling DMK government over imposing several conditions for availing benefits of the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai Scheme, former chief minister O Panneerselvam on Sunday said that the majority of the people would not benefit from the scheme going by the guidelines.
In a statement, Panneerselvam urged the chief minister to take steps to do away with several criteria so that all women ration card holders become eligible to avail benefits of the scheme.
He pointed out that even though only one of the members of the rational card would be eligible to apply for the scheme, the government wanted to consider the income of all the members in the ration card to calculate a family's annual income.
Recalling chief minister MK Stalin's statement in the assembly that about one crore women were expected to benefit from the scheme, Panneerselvam alleged that if the eligibility criteria was considered, not even a few lakh women would benefit from the scheme. He accused the DMK government of deceiving the people in the implementation of the urimai thogai scheme like the gold loan (waiver) scheme. "Considering the promise made in the election manifesto, the DMK government should grant monthly aid to all the women with ration cards. Women in about two crore ration cards should be given the monthly aid if the promises were fulfilled as such, " he said.
Stating that various eligibility criteria mentioned in the guidelines were not acceptable, he said that if all the guidelines were enforced, the majority would not benefit from the scheme.