Hours After Taking Oath, MK Stalin Announces Rs 2000 Covid Relief, Free Travel For Women in State-run Buses

Issuing his first set of orders after taking over as CM, Stalin also announced bringing covid treatment in private hospitals under a government insurance scheme, to provide help; to such people.

Chennai: Hours after taking oath, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday announced a covid pandemic time relief of Rs 2,000 for the people of the state, a cut in Aavin milk rate and free travel for women in state-run buses, all promises made by his DMK ahead of the April 6 Assembly elections.

Issuing his first set of orders after taking over as CM, Stalin also announced bringing covid treatment in private hospitals under a government insurance scheme, to provide help; to such people.

It recalled the party’s promise of providing Rs 4,000 for rice ration card holders to aid citizens affected due to the pandemic and help them with their livelihood.

“To implement that, the Chief Minister has signed the order to provide the first instalment of Rs 2,000 in May itself at Rs 4,153.69 crore, covering 2,07,67,000 ration card holders,” a statement from the CMO said.

MK Stalin also signed another order, reducing the price of milk supplied by state-run Aavin by Rs 3 with effect from May 16.

As per the order, women can travel free of cost in all ordinary fare city buses operated by State transport corporation from Saturday onwards and the government has allocated a sum of Rs 1,200 crore as subsidy for this purpose.

Further, he approved constituting an IAS officer- headed department to implement the “Chief Minister in Your Constituency” scheme, to fulfill another assurance of redressing people’s issues within 100 days of taking over, on petitions received by him ahead of the polls as DMK chief.

He had then promised to solve the issues within 100 days of taking over as chief minister of the state if his party was given the mandate.

Earlier in the day, Stalin was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 68-year old Stalin, for whom this would be the first stint as CM, in a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai.

A total of 33 ministers were also sworn in following Stalin, of whom 15 are first-time ministers. All the 34, including Stalin took the oath as per their conscience and in Tamil, in sync with the decades old tradition of the DMK.