Transforming conservancy workers into entrepreneurs by training them with modern equipment to clear sewages to end manual scavenging, enhancing the monthly financial assistance for transgender persons to Rs 1,500, and expanding the breakfast scheme to another 433 schools across the state. These are three of the seven schemes that Chief Minister M K Stalin launched on Tuesday, a day before he turns 70.
At a glittering function here, Stalin also launched an ambitious scheme to provide ready-to-use therapeutic food to children between six months and six years of age, handing over house pattas to differently abled persons, prioritizing youth for government jobs, and laid the foundation stone for constructing hospitals in 44 locations at a cost of Rs 1,136.32 crores.
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In his speech, Stalin said the seven schemes launched by him on Tuesday are related to education, health, downtrodden people, children, social development, and social justice, and appealed to government officials from bureaucrats to those on the ground to ensure their delivery without any hiccups.
The Tamil Nadu government has entered into an agreement with the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) to put an end to the practice of manual scavenging, Stalin said, adding that the aim is to eliminate deaths through the usage of modern machines for the purpose of clearing drainages.
“We will give priority to the kin of those who lost their lives while cleaning sewers and those involved in the job now. We will equip them with machines and transform them as entrepreneurs. Besides providing them with vehicles and equipment, we will also train them,” Stalin said. The scheme will be implemented in Chennai to begin with following which it will extend to other parts of the state.
Stalin said ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) will be provided to 1.11 lakh children between the age of six months and six years, while mothers of infants of up to six months will be provided a nutrition kit.
The third scheme is aimed at identifying differently abled from below the poverty line (BPL) families and providing them with house pattas, while the fourth one is enhancing the monthly financial assistance to transgender persons from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500.
The Chief Minister also announced expanding the Chief Minister’s Breakfast scheme to an additional 433 schools in 36 urban local bodies from March 1. The scheme, which was launched on September 15, 2022, will now benefit over 1.6 lakh students in urban areas, from the current 50,306 and is aimed at tackling nutrition deficiency among children and ensuring their attendance in schools.
Talking about his political journey, Stalin said he sets his own goals for the betterment of the people of the state. “No one has set goals for me. I set goals for myself and I work every day to achieve them,” he added.