Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday said that his government will bear all the expenses of the COVID patients in private hospitals.

The state health insurance cover will bear the expenses of COVID treatment in private hospitals hereon, the Chief Minister said in an order.

Stalin issued another order sanctioning Rs 2,000 each to the rice cardholders in Tamil Nadu. There are around 2.07 crore rice cardholders in the state.

An official statement said, "The Chief Minister had signed an order to extend Rs 2,000 each to 2.07 crore rice cardholders at an expenditure of Rs 4,153.39 crore."

Stalin had also signed an order to reduce the price of the public sector "Aavin" milk brand by Rs 3 per litre.

Besides, an order permitting women to travel in ordinary town buses free of cost was also issued.

The statement said, "The government will bear the additional expenditure of Rs 1,200 crore as subsidy to the transport corporations."

Stalin also issued an order to constitute a new department "Chief Minister in your constituency".

An IAS officer will be posted to run the department on a day-to-day basis.

After taking the oath of office, Stalin visited his mother Dayalu Ammal, his stepmother Rajathi Ammal and paid his respects at the tomb of his father Kalaignar Karunanidhi and DMK founder- leader and former Chief Minister CN Annadurai.

He also paid floral tributes at the memorial of social reformer EV Ramasamy Periyar at "Periyar Thidal" at Vepery.