REFUGEE

The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday finalised 17 suppliers for sourcing four million 14-inch colour television for its free TV scheme at Rs.2,061 per set, totalling around Rs.8.24 billion.

The all party legislator committee under the chairmanship of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi opened the price bids of the 17 bidders at the State Secretariat Tuesday to finalise the suppliers for the fifth phase of the free colour TV distribution.

After discussions with the two lowest bidders - Clear Vision Industries and B.G. Industries - a price of Rs.2,061 per piece was finalised and the four million sets will be supplied by the 17 companies who have agreed to the price.

However, B.G. Industries will be supplying the highest number of sets at 800,000 TVs followed by East India Technologies, Genus Electrotech and Dixon Technologies (400,000 units each).

Till date, the government has distributed over 9.1 million TV sets fre of cost to the poor people of the state.

The state government started distributing free colour TV sets in 2006 and gave away 30,000 sets in the first phase.

In the second and third phases, 2.5 million and 3.75 million sets respectively were distributed.

For the fourth phase, the government has already ordered around 4.16 million sets. The total TV sets for distribution under this phase will be around five million.