Chennai, Mar 16:
Over 49,600 more girl students studying in Tamil medium at aided schools across Tamil Nadu will benefit from the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Assurance Scheme-Pudhumai Penn Scheme, as the State government has expanded its scope.
According to a government order, issued by the Social Welfare Department earlier this week, 49,664 Tamil medium girl students were studying at aided schools, including 23,560 students at minority institutions. The government issued an order to expand the scope of the scheme to cover the Tamil medium students who have studied from Class VI to Class XII at all aided schools.
In his 2024-25 Budget speech, the Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management announced that the scheme would be extended to students studying at aided schools in Tamil medium from the next academic year and ₹370 crore would be allocated for this purpose.
The scheme was launched by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in September 2022 to empower girls, especially those who have studied Classes VI to XII at government schools, by providing an incentive of ₹1,000 a month to each. Over 2.09 lakh girls benefited from the scheme as of last year.
The release said the decision to create the four corporations was based on people’s request. While Pudukkottai corporation will be created by merging 11 village panchayats with Pudukkottai municipality, Tiruvannamalai corporation will be formed by merging 18 panchayats and Adi Annamalai town with Tiruvannamalai municipality.
