Pongal cash gift announced with eye on Assembly poll, Oppn slams DMK govt

Chennai, Jan 5 (PTI) Opposition parties slammed the ruling DMK dispensation on Monday for the announcement on the Pongal cash gift and said this was made with an eye on the upcoming Assembly election.

Wondering why Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had not provided Rs 3,000 each to 2.22 crore rice-category ration cardholders for the mid-January Pongal harvest festival in the past, the AIADMK termed the move as a "poll gimmick." On January 4, the Chief Minister announced the cash gift for the harvest festival to rice category ration cardholders and to families residing in the rehabilitation camps for Sri Lankan Tamils.

They would get a gift hamper of one kilo rice, one kg sugar, a sugarcane, cash gift of Rs 3,000, a dhoti and a saree. The hampers would be distributed through the Public Distribution System outlets in the state. The cash gift and festival hamper were aimed at facilitating a grand celebration of the festival, the government had said in a release.

"After sleeping for four years, the chief minister wakes up and enacts a drama every day promising 'Tamil Nadu Assured Pension' scheme for government employees. When in opposition, he (Stain) demanded Rs 5,000 as Pongal cash gift, but now announced only Rs 3,000. And that too, when the term in office is coming to an end," the AIADMK said in a post on the social media platform 'X' on Monday.

"People are not ready to believe all the tricks run by your 'patchwork' DMK government every day," the party said in an apparent reference to the "Dravidian model government." Expressing in a similar vein, actor Vijay-led TVK said the DMK government was "enacting a political drama" under the guise of Pongal gift for the poor.

"The DMK government gave only Rs 1,000 as Pongal gift when it came to power (in 2021) and has now announced a gift of Rs 3,000 not for the welfare of the people but as a blatant election gimmick," the TVK said in a post on 'X.' Though sugarcane is ready to be harvested, the state government has not yet taken proper steps to procure it. The announcement was made without determining the price of sugarcane and this amounted to "cheating the farmers," the party claimed.

"The Rs 3,000 is not for solving the people's problems but is meant to deceive the people in fear of defeat in the upcoming assembly elections," it said. PTI JSP JSP ROH