New freedom with end of family rule: Jaya

Attacking the previous Karunanidhi regime, Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa today said people have won new freedom with the end of the "tyrannical family rule" in the state.

Attacking the previous Karunanidhi regime, Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa on Monday said people have won new freedom with the end of the "tyrannical family rule" in the state.

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In her first Independence Day address since being swept to power in a landslide victory in the April 13 Assembly elections, she said there was no freedom for the people in any field in the last five years and they lived in fear.

"People started feeling that with AIADMK coming to power, the five years of tyrannical family rule has ended," Jayalalithaa, also party chief, said.

She said once considered a peaceful state, Tamil Nadu has turned into a state of lawlessness during the five years of DMK.

Justifying the various freebies offered by her government, the chief minister said it was the "duty of the welfare state," to safeguard the interests of the poor people by distributing goods free of cost.

"In order to fulfill the essential needs of the people, our government is distributing some items free of cost. Such things distributed at no cost to the public should not be termed as freebies," she said, unfurling the tricolour at Fort St George in Chennai.