Chennai: Continuing her tirade against the print media, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today (Nov 5) charged the media with publishing reports that confused the people.

Intervening during a debate on a special call attention tabled by the Opposition parties on the State Government decision to introduce 'honorary' ration cards, she told the State Assembly today that the people of the State were well aware of the Government's decisions as they came to know of them through the electronic media.

Print media reports confused the people and that was why they had ignored the print media, she claimed while replying to points raised by the Opposition members on the conflicting reports appearing on the Government's decision.

She said the Government had stated that the ration cardholders, who did not want to avail the commodities supplied though Public Distribution System (PDS), could voluntarily declare that they did not want to purchase these items. There was no compulsion on them, she asserted.

She said over 18-lakh ration card holders had voluntarily came forward to declare so.

She said hereafter, only those whose monthly income was less than Rs 5,000 would be eligible to get commodities under PDS. The government was spending Rs 800 crore on food subsidy, she said.

PTI