00:00But as promised, our top story this evening is on Chief Minister Vijay's Madurai visit
00:05and launching what's being referred to as a golden scheme for newborns.
00:10What is it? A gold ring, one gram of gold essentially,
00:14being handed over to the mothers of newborn babies in government hospitals.
00:18The opposition is questioning the government, saying that one,
00:22it's misplaced priorities, second, where's the money coming from?
00:25Tamil Nadu's economy has been dented because of the fact that one political party after another
00:31is focused a great deal on welfarism.
00:34So in such a circumstance, can we really afford to have more schemes that dent the economy further?
00:40We'll talk about that, but first let's get you some of the highlights of the launch
00:44when Chief Minister Vijay interacted with these mothers and their newborn babies,
00:48gifting each of them a gold ring.
01:06It was a key pole promise of TVK.
01:09Now it has been delivered.
01:12Chief Minister Vijay rolled out the TTMT, the maternal uncle gold ring scheme at an event
01:19in Rajaji Government Hospital in Madurai on Monday.
01:22The scheme takes its name from Tamil tradition, the maternal uncle's gift to a newborn.
01:30The Chief Minister arrived in traditional attire and handed over rings to mothers of newborns.
01:37Vijay held the babies, cuddled them, whispered in their ear, and gave the gold rings.
01:41He also clicked selfies with the newborns and their mothers.
01:46Under the scheme, eligible babies born in government hospitals will receive 1-gram, 22-carat gold ring.
01:54Each gold ring will have a unique serial number and will be given in tamper-proof packaging.
02:03The scheme applies to babies born on or after June 22, 2026.
02:10The state government says the scheme is aimed at honouring motherhood,
02:14promoting women's health and encouraging institutional births
02:17by attracting more families to public health care,
02:20but the opposition has dismissed it as publicity.
02:39The purpose of this gold ring scheme for the newborn babies,
02:44the TVK government seems to be confused
02:46because they themselves don't know what the purpose
02:50and what the scheme intend to achieve in the health care system.
02:54Are they going to increase the standards of the government-run hospitals
03:00or are they going to make government-run hospitals the preferred choice of mothers?
03:06The state has prepared 1.28 lakh rings for the first phase
03:11with an annual allocation of over 755 crore rupees.
03:16Bureau Report, India Today.
