Chennai: Actress Shreya's appearance in a skimpy dress at a recent function today created ripples in the Tamil Nadu Assembly with PMK members demanding action to prevent such "public indecency".

T Velmurugan of the PMK said the entertainment industry was contributing to the society's "cultural and social degrading" by showing obscene and vulgar programmes. He said most themes of mega soaps centre on subjects like extra-marital affairs and incest and they also show women in poor light, thus eroding family values. Similarly, most films are so vulgar that they cannot be watched along with family members, he said, while participating in a debate on the motion of thanks to the governor's address.

Referring to Shreya's appearance in the silver jubilee celebration of the Rajnikanth-starrer "Sivaji-The Boss", which was presided over by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, Velmurugan said the government should take action against actors who were "improperly attired". A Hindu organisation had filed a police complaint against the actress following which she tendered an apology.

In his reply, Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy said the government cannot enact a legislation to prescribe a dress code for actors, but can only give advice if they were found obscenely dressed in public. Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy said it was quite natural that the dressing style has changed in keeping with the times. It is to suit their convenience that women have chosen to skip sari and wear other dresses, he said.

Earlier, Velmurugan named various programmes beamed on Tamil satellite channels and said they were showing "scantily dressed women" in the name of cultural programmes just to boost up their TRP ratings.