On the first fday of assuming office, chief minister J Jayalalithaa signed seven files related to the welfare schemes announced in the party’s election manifesto.
As expected, she brought back Fort St George as Tamil Nadu’s secretariat. The previous DMK government spent around Rs 1,100 crore on a new secretariat-cum-assembly, which was inaugurated last year by the Prime Minister.
Addressing the media at her new office in the Fort St George, which has been the office for the state office for around 300-years, after the assuming office on Monday evening, Jayalalithaa signed sevenfiles, including free rice, enhancing wedding assistance for those women with a diploma to Rs 50,000 from Rs 25,000, a four-gram gold coin as a special gift as “Thali”, monthly assistance for senior citizens to Rs 1,000 from Rs 500 and increasing the monthly dole of fishermen during fishing ban from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000.
She said, “We want to fulfil promises made to the people. That’s why a department of Special Programme Implementation and separate minister has been alloted to it”.
