The DMK government on Monday justified the transformation of the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme into the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Assurance Scheme, listing out various practical difficulties in the implementation of the earlier scheme.
Responding to concerns raised by AIADMK MLA K.A. Pandian (Chidambaram) in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said only 24.5% of those who applied under the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme were actually found eligible to benefit from it when verified with the Tamil Nadu Integrated Poverty Portal Service (TIPPS).
If all the applications received under the scheme were to be accepted and assistance provided, the State exchequer would need a sum of over ₹3,000 crore, he said. Also, many of the applications have been pending for over four years, and the primary objective of extending assistance for weddings would not be achieved if they were extended now.
