Edappadi K Palaniswami, the newly appointed Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, has ordered closure of 500 State-run Tasmac liquor shops across the State. This was one of the five announcements he made on his first day in office on Monday.

Speaking to newspersons after signing the orders, Palaniswami said he was following the policies announced by former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa and will ensure that they are fulfilled.

In one of the schemes, every year nearly one lakh women will get 50 per cent subsidy to buy two-wheelers with a maximum ceiling of ₹20,000. The government will yearly spend ₹200 crore on this.

Maternity assistance was increased to ₹18,000 to benefit around six lakh women. This will involve an additional yearly outlay of ₹360 crore.

The State government will also spend nearly ₹85 crore to build around 5,000 houses for fishermen with each house costing ₹1.50 lakh.

The government has also doubled the monthly assistance to unemployed youth.

Palaniswami won an acrimonious floor test on Saturday when opposition members, including MK Stalin, of the DMK were evicted for not allowing the test to be conducted.He won the floor test with 122 votes in favour and 11 votes against.

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