Chennai, May 16: Having taken on the mantle of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third time this morning, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa drove down to Fort St. George in the evening and began her work in earnest.
She signed on the first files in the glare of the media, as is the norm.
In all, she signed seven files:
1 The first one relates to granting brides from poor families 4 gm of gold for their ‘thali’ in addition to the marriage assistance of Rs 25,000
2 In the case of undergraduates and diploma holders, the brides would be given Rs 50,000 as marriage assistance in place of the Rs 25,000 now in vogue
3 The Chief Minister has raised the pension for old age, destitute women, widows and differently abled from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000
4 As promised in the election manifesto, poor people drawing ration in the general category would be given 20 kg rice free, and those coming under the Antyodhaya scheme would get 35 kg rice free
5 Turning to the issue of fishermen who abstain from fishing for 45 days during the spawning season, Jayalalithaa has raised their assistance from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 for the period
6 Here is another sop for women: In the case of women government employees, maternity leave has been extended from three to six months
7 For implementing all the new programmes of the government, the Chief Minister has initiated the formation of a new department: the Department of Special Programme Implementation and assigned a minister to head it.
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