According to the G.O., the State government had allocated ₹750.83 crore — ₹17,000 each for 4,41,667 deliveries — for procurement of one-gram gold rings. Representational image. File | Photo Credit: PTI Gold custody, armed security, and bullion logistics are not core competencies of a Health Department, a government doctors’ association has pointed out, questioning the administrative burden and cost involved in implementing the Thaimaman Thanga Mothiram Thittam in Tamil Nadu. In a district-level costing of the proposed hub-and-spoke model, the Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association (SDPGA) said the hospital-based arrangement could cost roughly three times the State-wide administrative norm prescribed in the Government Order, factoring in the expenses for dedicated vaults, armed security posts, and armoured transport. The association recommended that the scheme be delivered through a bank channel — either direct disbursal against a PICME (Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and Evaluation)-linked entitlement certificate or bank-run logistics under a Memorandum of Understanding using the infrastructure that banks already operate for their own bullion, currency-chest, and cash-in-transit business. According to the G.O., the State …