A review meeting of a committee of MLAs, chaired by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, decided to procure additional sets, following requests from various district collectors, the state government said in a statement.
Since 2006, when the DMK came to power, more than 1.62 crore CTVs had been procured and distributed to 1.52 crore families in the state in five phases, the government said.
Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin, Congress MLA D Yashoda, IT Minister Poongothai among others who attended today''s meeting, the statement said.
The free CTV scheme and the one kg rice at Rs two (later revised to Re one) were perceived to have helped the DMK in coming back to power in 2006, unseating the J Jayalalithaa-headed AIADMK.
However, Jayalalithaa has been criticising the programmes, saying the DMK government instead of spending on such freebies should focus on employment generation to enable people to buy CTVs and construct houses.
She had charged the government with spending loan amounts borrowed from various sources on "non-value creating commodities such as the CTVs."
Senior Congress leader E V K S Elangovan, who has been critical of the DMK Government, had also suggested instead of free TV sets and rice at Rs one a kg, the government should provide employment to three lakh unemployed people by filling vacancies in government services.
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