Fulfilling a major election promise, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi Friday launched the distribution of free colour TV sets to the poor at Padappai near Chennai on the 98th birth anniversary of DMK founder C N Annadurai.

Speaking at the function, in which 25,245 colour TV sets worth about Rs 9 crore were given to the residents of Samathuvapuram (a colony of all communities and creeds) at Thundalkazhani village in Padappai in Kanchipuram district, Karunanidhi said Rs 750 crore had already been allocated in the state budget for distributing 25 lakh colour TV sets.

Karunanidhi said the scheme would be implemented in phases as it was not possible to distribute all the 25 lakh sets in a single day. Those who predicted that the scheme would not be possible at all were now asking that why it was not being implemented at one stroke, he said. "Even in marriages, feasts are provided in batches, since it was not possible to feed all the guests at the same time. A person who is invited in the third or fourth batch will wait patiently without complaining. That is how cultured people behave," he said

"Even when climbing the stage, a man should walk step by step. He could not jump from the ground to the stage. If he does it, he cannot be called a man. He will be called something else," he said, asserting that 25 lakh TV sets would be given. "We will create a situation where there will not be a single house in the state without colour TV."

Image:  Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi distributing a colour TV set to a family. Union Communication Minister Dayanidhi Maran (right) and state Local Administration Minister and Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin (left) were also present.

Photograph: V Ramesh