The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Anbazhagan defends free TV scheme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 31, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Anbazhagan defends free TV scheme

Special Correspondent

VILLUPURAM: Television is a powerful medium to foster democracy. The State government has launched the free TV sets distribution scheme as it firmly believed in democracy, Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan said.

Defending the scheme at a function organised to distribute TV sets and land patta at Rajah Desing Government School, Ginjee, near here on Sunday, Mr. Anbazhagan said the television sets would keep people informed of the happenings in the State and disseminate information about the performance of the government.

When All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa was Chief Minister, she told the Assembly that 56 lakh acres of barren land was available in the State.

It prompted him [Mr. Anbazhagan] and K. Ponmudy [Higher Education Minister] to ask her why not the government distribute the land to the poor and the downtrodden. Ms. Jayalalithaa had replied that the poor would not have the wherewithal to develop the land and begin cultivation.

If the lands were given to industrialists, they would raise jatropha for fuel generation, she had said.

Mr. Anbazhagan said after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam came to power, it learnt that the actual extent of barren land available was hardly one-tenth of the figure quoted by Ms. Jayalalithaa. However, the party wanted the poor to share whatever was available.

Mr. Ponmudy said a welfare State should fulfil the requirements of the people. Therefore, he doubted whether the distribution of free TV sets could be dubbed a populist scheme.

The TV sets were given away in 355 of the 1,104 villages in Villupuram district and the remaining villages would get be covered by March 2008, he said.

The Ministers disbursed relief measures to the tune of Rs. 2.39 crore to 2,731 beneficiaries. Union Minister of State for Law K. Venkatapathi and Collector Brajendra Navnit participated.

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