Tamil Nadu government comes up with 'Amma' pharmacies; sops galore in Budget

CHENNAI: With an eye on upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Tamil Nadu government today announced opening of 100 subsidised 'Amma' pharmacies in budget 2014-15, which estimates a surplus of Rs 289.36 crore sans new taxes.

After opening ' Amma Canteens' and 'Amma mineral water', the government would set up 100 ' Amma Marundagam' (medical stores) which will sell medicines at reasonable prices.

Finance Minister O Pannerselvam, who presented the budget in the Assembly, also enhanced food subsidy allocation to Rs 5,300 crore, up by Rs 400 crore from the previous year.

He also proposed an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for distribution of fans, mixies and grinders to 35 lakh families during the year free of cost.

He earmarked Rs 1,100 crore in budget 2014-15 for the ambitious free laptop scheme for students of Class X11 and polytechnic colleges. The two schemes, in operation since 2011, were launched to fulfill the AIADMK's electoral promise.

The budget announced maintenance allowance of Rs 4,000 to potters to support their livelihood during rainy season, allocating Rs 4.5 crore annually.

The Government also announced a slew of new projects. It also allocated Rs 2,000 crore for 17 projects, involving bridge works, road works and railway-over-bridges with financial assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In its bid to lure investors, particularly to the infrastructure sector, the government will be organising a global investors' meet (GIM) in October this year for which Rs 100 crore has been earmarked.

The state government blamed the Centre for its "failure" to stimulate growth, which it said had an adverse impact on the state's economy and investments for the second successive year.

Continuing its measures to boost generation to overcome the acute power shortage, the budget proposed setting up of Green Energy Corridors for evacuation of wind power. The budget has allotted Rs 1,593 crore, with financial assistance from KfW, the German Funding Agency.

Paneerselvam also proposed allocating Rs 5,400 crore and Rs 2,000 crore to TANGEDCO (power generation and distribution company as tariff subsidy and share capital assistance, respectively.