TN Govt allocates Rs 50 cr for marriage assistance scheme

Chennai, May 31 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu government today announced that Rs 50 crore will be allocated for providing marriage assistance of Rs 15,000 each to 33,333 girls during the 2006-07 fiscal year.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had already announced that the ''Moovalur Ramamamirthammal Memorial Marriage assistance scheme'' would be implemented from June 3 with an enhanced assistance of Rs 15,000, an official release said here.

The scheme was originally launched by the DMK in 1989 with an initial assistance of Rs 5,000. A total of 88,293 poor girls, who studied upto tenth standard were given a total assistance of Rs 44.14 crore for their marriages.

When the DMK came back to power in 1996, the assistance was hiked to Rs 10,000 and given to 2,52,728 poor girls, amounting to Rs 252.73 crore. However, after the AIADMK came to power, the scheme was scrapped on April 1, 2002.

The scheme is now being revived with an enhanced assistance of Rs 15,000 as promised in the DMK poll manifesto.

UNI WS VD KP1850