Jaya scraps Karuna's TV freebie scheme

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday scrapped the flagship free colour TV distribution scheme of the M Karunanidhi regime she toppled in the assembly polls. More than Rs 3,600 crore of taxpayers' money was spent in the last five years on the DMK scheme. HT reports.

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday scrapped the flagship free colour TV distribution scheme of the M Karunanidhi regime she toppled in the assembly polls. More than Rs 3,600 crore of taxpayers' money was spent in the last five years on the DMK scheme.

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Jayalalithaa told the assembly for the nearly 16 million television sets, people paid Rs 4,000 crore annually for cable connection, a business controlled by (DMK chief Karunanidhi's grandnephews) Kalanidhi and Dayanidhi Maran (who own Sumangali Cable Vision) and (Karunanidhi's grandson) Durai Dayanithi. The CM has already announced cable services in the state will be nationalised.

She said the AIADMK was not against social welfare schemes, but a line had to be drawn when it came to schemes and freebies aimed at garnering votes.

After coming back to power, Jayalalithaa has reversed several programmes of the Karunanidhi government, including free housing and medical insurance.

With agency inputs