AIADMK coordinator, O. Panneerselvam, on Thursday demanded that a sum of ₹ 2,500 be paid in cash to each ration cardholder, in connection with the Pongal festival on the lines of what his party, while in power, did early this year.
Referring to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s announcement on the distribution of Pongal gifts , Mr. Panneerselvam, in a statement, recalled that during the AIADMK regime, an amount of ₹ 1,000 was given to each of the cardholders for the 2020 Pongal festival and ₹ 2,500 for 2021. The allocations made then were ₹ 2,363 crore and ₹ 5,604 crore respectively. But, now, this had been reduced to ₹ 1,088 crore only.
Just as the general situation for people was getting back to normal after the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, the move to stop the payment of cash gifts to the people would amount to letting down those who had voted in the elections, he felt.
‘Conduct semester exams online’
In another statement, party co-coordinator, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, called for the proposed semester examination for students of colleges including engineering institutions to be conducted online instead of the traditional offline system.
In support of his suggestion, he cited several factors: an adequate number of classroom lectures had not been held; syllabus for the current semester not yet provided and lessons for the semester had not been covered fully, he said.
