Chennai, August 30: Defending the ‘freebies schemes’, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said such sops, including the distribution of free land and colour TVs, were “absolutely necessary” till the economically weaker sections reached some level of social status.
Responding to reports in a section of media questioning the need for such sops and terming them as “vote bank politics”, he said “till the time there are people dependent on such schemes, we have to provide them.”
“Once the entire society becomes a developed one, we may stop such schemes. But it will take a long time before people reach such levels. Till then, we believe that it is important that such schemes exist,” he said in the party mouthpiece ‘Murasoli’.
“Till the day economically weaker people reach some levels of social status, freebies are absolutely necessary,” he added.
On the “constant criticism” by Congress leader and former Union Minister E V K S Elangovan about the ruling DMK, he said “a few Congress leaders” are involved in such practices, with some DMK activists trying to respond to that.
However, both were “not welcome,” he said.
—Agencies