Unveiling five key election promises with a strong focus on welfare, housing, employment, and women’s empowerment, the AIADMK on Saturday, January 17 signalled the formal start of its poll campaign narrative ahead of the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
The announcements were made by the AIADMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami shortly after he paid tribute to party icons on the occasion of the 109th birth anniversary of former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran (MGR).
The first assurance is the Kula Vilakku Scheme, under which all family ration card holders would receive monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,000.
According to the AIADMK, the monthly financial aid would be directly credited to the bank account of the woman head of the family, with the objective of easing household financial pressure and restoring economic balance at the grassroots level.
The second poll promise extends free public transport benefits. The AIADMK announced free bus travel for men in city buses while confirming that the existing free bus travel scheme for women would continue without any changes.
The third poll promise is the Amma Illam Scheme, a programme for providing housing for those without homes. Under this, the state government would purchase land and construct concrete houses for homeless people in rural areas.
In urban regions, apartment-style homes would be built on government-acquired land and provided free of cost to those without houses.
A special provision was also announced for Scheduled Caste families, under which married sons moving out of joint households would be provided individual concrete houses.
The fourth poll promise comes on the tow of the union government’s Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Grameen) (employment guarantee scheme), which replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee act.
The AIADMK promised an increase in the number of working days under the employment guarantee scheme from the existing 100 days to 150 days, going beyond the Union proposal to raise it to 125 days.
The fifth assurance is the expansion of the Amma Two-Wheeler Scheme, under which 5 lakh women would be provided two-wheelers along with a subsidy of Rs 25,000 each.
Together, the five poll promises reflect the AIADMK’s attempt to revive its welfare-centric legacy while setting a clear political agenda for the election season ahead.
The five poll promises were released after Palaniswami garlanded the statues of MGR and former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai and addressed the media.