Plea against freebies admitted

CHENN: A writ plea has been made in the Madras High Court to declare the free distribution of grinder, mixie, fan, laptop, four gram gold for thali, 20 kg rice, cattle and sheep and free green housing to certain sections of the people in the State by the AIADMK government as ultra vires of the Constitution.
The second bench comprising Justices E Dharma Rao and M Venugopal, before which the public interest writ petition from advocate S Subramaniam Balaji of Mylapore came up for hearing today, admitted it and ordered notice to the authorities concerned, returnable in two weeks.Petitioner contended that spending more than Rs 50,000 crores of rupees from the tax payers money on free distribution of these articles was illegal, when the basic needs of public health,education, sanitation, proper potable water in villages, primary health care were not met with. The promises made in this connection before the general elections was violative of the Representation of the People Act.