FREE Bonanza for Tamilnadu Voters

Election season goes crazy in Tamilnadu, this time with lots of FREE schemes coming up. Party leaders of two big parties, Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha, submitted their nominations and their manifestos are out.

Here is the high level comparison of their FREE schemes:

1. Free Laptops
• Karunanidhi: Free laptops for all engineering students
• Jayalalitha: Why from engineering? Will give Free laptops from +2 itself
2. Color TV
• Karunanidhi: Free Color TV for every household
• Jayalalitha: Free cable connection
3. Kitchen & Home Appliances
• Karunanidhi: Grinder or Mixie Free for every household
• Jayalalitha: Grinder, Mixie, Fan.. ALL FREE FOR EVERYONE
4. Pregnancy Costs
• Karunanidhi: INR 10,000 Free for pregnancy costs
• Jayalalitha: INR 12,000 Free for pregnancy costs
5. Maternity Leave
• No competition here in this case. Both declared that they will grant 6 months maternity leave.
6. Rice
• Karunanidhi: Rice for One Rupee per KG. 30 KGs per month for poor.
• Jayalalitha: No need of that one rupee also. It is FREE. 20 KGs per card.
7. School Uniform
• Karunanidhi: 3 pairs of school uniform for poor students
• Jayalalitha: 4 pairs of school uniform for poor students
8. Free Bus Pass
• Another commonality between them. Both announced Free Bus Pass for senior citizens, with age 58 or above, for traveling within the state.

Apart from these, Jayalalitha also announced few other FREE schemes:

• 20 Litre Free mineral water per day for people below poverty line
• Stipend for every student starting from 10th standard, varies from INR 1000 to INR 5000.
• Free Mangalasutram with 5 grams of Gold for poor bride
• 3 Phase electricity for all villages and cities

Don't know where the state is heading to. They are making too many FREE promises for CM seat.

Source for free schemes
Eenadu Telugu Daily - Dated 25th March 2011, Page 3