Free colour TVs for poor families by December: Karunanidhi

The Tamil Nadu government will provide 1,52,80,000 free colour TVs to poor families by December. 

“We have achieved a target of 1,35,86,000 colour TV sets and expect district collectors to achieve the set target by December,” chief minister M Karunanidhi said at a meeting of all district collectors in Chennai on Friday.

Highlighting DMK’s achievements, he said, “Of the 1,33,60,439 families [whose annual income is below Rs72,000] registered under  the Kalaignar Insurance Scheme, 1,53,273 families have availed medical insurance benefits to the tune or Rs4.5 crore.”

He said that Tamil Nadu had achieved many firsts like providing rice at Re1 per kg through the PDS and providing free colour TVs to poor families.

“Irrespective of criticism, we will continue with our pro-people programme as we believe that serving the people is akin to serving god,” he said.

He also announced more freebies including the construction of 21 lakh concrete houses. “The first phase of construction of three lakh houses under the Kalaignar Housing Scheme is expected to be completed by March 31, 2011, at a cost of Rs2,250 crore,” he said.