Chennai: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay on Saturday unveiled a set of election promises at the party’s Women’s Day event in Chennai, including ₹2,500 monthly cash assistance for women heads of families, gold and a silk saree for marriage, a gold ring for newborn girls, six free LPG cylinders a year, and free travel for women in all govt buses in Tamil Nadu.Vijay said his party would provide ₹2,500 every month to women heads of families below 60 years, excluding families of state and central govt employees. He announced the “Annan Seer” scheme, offering eight grams of gold and a silk saree for marriages, and the “Thaai Maaman” scheme, providing baby girls with a gold ring and welcome kit. Under the Kamarajar Education Assurance scheme, Vijay said ₹15,000 a year would be provided as financial assistance to prevent school dropouts from classes 9 to 12. “We promise zero tolerance for crimes against women. Our dream is to create a situation where crimes against women do not occur at all,” he said. Around 500 ‘Rani Velu Nachiyar’ teams with body cameras would be formed for crime prevention, panic buttons would be installed in all public transport, including share autos linked to control centres, CCTV would be expanded to remove dark spots, and ‘Anjali Ammal’ fast-track courts would be set up, he said. Under the Singa Pengal development scheme, women self-help groups would get interest-free loans up to ₹5 lakh to run MSMEs, said Vijay. Free sanitary pads would also be distributed through ration shops and educational institutions. Clarifying how the schemes would be funded despite the state’s rising debt, Vijay said the problem was corruption rather than a lack of money. He described this as “30% Stalin tax”, referring to alleged diversion of public funds. Regarding the controversy around his personal issues, Vijay said: “I see many of you getting hurt. I get hurt when I see that. I will deal with it. Let us together focus only on people’s problems. Don’t feel discouraged, as it is not worth it.”
