Chennai, March 26: The freebie shower continues in Tamil Nadu with the DMK declaring last week that government art and science colleges would be offering undergraduate courses free of cost.

Presenting the budget for 2007-08, finance minister K. Anbazhagan said the decision would be implemented from the coming academic year. The announcement was greeted with thumping applause.

The tuition-fee waiver — the government will bear the cost — is probably the first of its kind in the country. Most states, including Bengal, charge a nominal fee in government colleges.

A shift system is set to be introduced in government colleges to double admissions across the state, Anbazhagan said.

To encourage Tamil medium schools, the DMK has decided to exempt their Class X and Plus-Two students from paying examination fees.

Although education took the lion’s share, the please-all budget had plenty of sops for farmers and housewives.

The interest rate on crop loans given by cooperative banks has been reduced from 7 per cent to 5 per cent; there will be full tax exemption on over 60 items commonly used by housewives, farmers and students; value added tax on several unbranded items like coffee, masala powder and ba-kery products has been sla-shed; the festival advance for government employees has been doubled and their leave travel concession restored.

Anbazhagan said the allocations for existing freebies like colour TVs, gas stove connections and land for the landless would be retained.

The budget is dotted with new central schemes in the pipeline. Among them is a project for four light water nuclear reactors, each of 1,000-mw capacity, in Koodankulam in Tirunelveli district, in addition to the two such units already being built. Delhi has cleared an additional investment of Rs 26,000 crore for it.

The state has also decided to kick off the Metro rail project in Chennai, for which the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has recently submitted a report, Anbazhagan said.

The budget bonanza is being viewed in political circles as the DMK’s bid to keep its allies happy.