COIMBATORE: Voters across the State should vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party to get MLAs who understood people’s problems and provided solutions, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said here on Monday at the launch of ‘Amutham’, a scheme launched by Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan to distribute free milk to nursing mothers and infants up to two years.
“It is not enough if voters in Coimbatore South constituency or Modakurichi or Kongu region voted for the BJP. It is important for voters across the State vote for the BJP so that they get MLAs understand their problems, even the smallest and then work to provide solution.”
Congratulating Ms. Srinivasan for launching the project, Ms. Sitharaman said she was an MLA who had worked to see what she could do for voters in her constituency beyond the regular issues concerning water supply or bad roads.
It was this going into the details and looking at issues with a mother’s heart that set apart the BJP MLAs from others and made it necessary for people to vote for the party, she said and added that this ‘Amutham’ project would go on to strengthen the Prime Minister’s Poshan Abhiyaan scheme, aimed at providing holistic nutrition to mothers and infants.
Ms. Sitharaman congratulated Rotary G44 for joining hands with Ms. Srinivasan and grocery store owners who came forward to distribute the milk packets to eligible mothers.
Ms. Srinivasan said nursing mothers registered at neighbourhood anganwadi centres would be eligible for a packet of 250ml of cow’s milk a day. Even those women who had not registered at the centres would be eligible and to enrol them at the centres her social outreach arm, the Makkal Sevai Maiam, to take steps.
She said the nursing mothers or infants would get a card that they could show at neighbourhood grocery stores to get a packet. She got this idea from villages in Kongu region where farmers had the habit of leaving ‘kuzhandai paal’ on their farms for nursing mothers in villages.
BJP State president K. Annamalai said Coimbatore South Assembly constituency was BJP’s iron fort and appreciated all those who came forward to make the scheme a success.
