Communist Party of India (Marxist) has urged Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, to reconsider the conditions laid down under Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme through which women heads of families are to be given a monthly assistance of ₹1,000 starting September 15.
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Talking to reporters in Dindigul on Thursday, July 13, 2023, the party’s state secretary K. Balakrishnan said his party was not for the well-to-do people getting the government assistance. “It will only be a wasteful expenditure for the government. At the same time, the poor and the middle-class should not be excluded from the scheme,” he said.
The condition that the women heads of those families that use beyond 300 units of electricity in a month were not eligible to get the monthly assistance was not acceptable to the party, he said.
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Similarly, those people receiving widow pension, old age pension and those do not suffer severe disability are ineligible to get the monthly assistance.
“These people are getting monthly assistance only because they are affected (in someway or other). Denying them ₹1,000 assistance under the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme will make them on a par with others. If the government does not want to give them assistance under Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme, the assistance given under other schemes should be increased,” Mr. Balakrishnan said.
The State should reduce the assistance to the well-off people and increase the benefits to such vulnerable people, he added.