(“kalavai satham”) with ‘masala’ egg to all noon meal centres and Anganwadi centres in the State under the Nutritious Meal Programme.
Launched on a pilot basis in March 2013, the meal along with ‘masala’ egg is now given at Anganwadi centres and noon meal centres attached to three schools in one block of each district, totally benefitting 91,881 children across the State. Totally, there are 54,439 Anganwadi centres and 42,619 noon meal centres, covering about 68.3 lakh children and school students.
After unfurling the national flag from the ramparts of Fort St. George in Chennai for the 14 time, the Chief Minister said the provision of variety meal on an experimental basis had received a favourable response from the beneficiaries. The latest decision would cost Rs. 103.28 crore more to the exchequer every year.
Pension
In her 20-minute-long address, Ms. Jayalalithaa also said freedom fighters’ pension would be increased from Rs. 9,000 to Rs. 10,000. The family pension, given to legal heirs of freedom fighters, would go up from Rs. 4,500 to Rs. 5,000. The move, involving an additional expenditure of about Rs.1.43 crore annually, would benefit 1,955 persons. Besides, special pension, given to descendents of Veerapandia Kattabomman, Marudhu Pandiar brothers and Muthuramalinga Vijaya Ragunatha Sethupathy as also grandson of V.O. Chidambaram, would be increased to Rs. 4,500 a month from Rs. 2,000. As many as 195 persons would be covered and this would result in the increase of the annual expenditure by Rs. 58.5 lakh.
Addressing the gathering that included Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal, judges of the Madras High Court, her Cabinet colleagues and senior government officers, the Chief Minister pointed out that the State’s foodgrains production during 2013-2014 had estimated to be 110.65 lakh tonnes, 34 per cent higher than the maximum achieved during the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam regime.
Reiterating her government’s position on welfare schemes for the poor, Ms. Jayalalithaa gave an account of various schemes and said her government had been implementing those schemes that were beneficial directly to the poor. It was to safeguard the interests of economically weaker sections of society that her government was resolute in opposition to laying natural gas pipelines through farmlands, coal bed methane (CBM) exploration and production project in Thanjavur, field trial of Genetically Modified (GM) crops and foreign direct in retail trade
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