The Bharatiya Janata Party MLA representing Coimbatore South constituency, Vanathi Srinivasan, on Friday demanded that the State government present a separate budget for women, clearly spelling out the allocation for women’s welfare and empowerment schemes.
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Speaking on the discussion on Tamil Nadu’s General and Agriculture Budgets for 2023-24, she said such separate budgeting had been initiated in States like Gujarat. Responding to her demand, Minister for Social Welfare and Women Empowerment said the government had initiated work on gender budgeting to be done in all the departments and the same would be implemented fully soon.
Stating she understood the need for ‘Magalir Urimai Thogai’ scheme of ₹1,000 per month for women to be targetted rather than universal, Ms. Srinivasan, however, urged the government to prioritise widows who lost their husbands due to alcoholism for inclusion as beneficiaries in the scheme.
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Taking exception to her implication that the State government was promoting sales of liquor, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise V. Senthilbalaji said Tamil Nadu was wrongly being projected as a State that depended mainly on the revenue from liquor to meet its budgetary demands.
He said the revenue from liquor as a percentage of State’s total revenue was much lesser compared to other States like Uttar Pradesh. The increase in revenue from Tasmac was mainly due to inflation in liquor prices rather than increase in volume of sales.
To Ms. Srinivasan’s demand on making Coimbatore an international airport, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said the State government had made good progress in land acquisition for airport expansion. Pointing out that making the airport international was in the hands of the Union government, he suggested that Ms. Srinivasan, who is part of the BJP, appeal to the Union government to take measures to make not just Coimbatore but also Madurai international airports.