"Her press briefing is like mocking people when they are suffering the most," state Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said.
FM Nirmala Sitharaman.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has insulted the people of Tamil Nadu, who were in the grip of a calamity, by “discourteously declining” to provide funds as requested by Chief Minister MK Stalin, state Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said on Friday, 22 December.
She has responded “in an angry language, as if waging a war on an enemy country,” Thennarasu said, referring to Sitharaman’s press briefing in the national capital on faulting the state administration’s handling of the flood situation on Friday.
The state government had urged the Union government to declare the rain that affected several districts as a “calamity of severe nature” and disburse ₹21,000 crore as relief to Tamil Nadu. “But the Centre declined. This is what Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in an egoistic tone, the language she knows,” Thennarasu said in a hard-hitting statement in Chennai.
“You all know that Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, and Chengalpattu districts received heavy rains on 4 December, and Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, and Tenkasi districts received very heavy rain on 17 and 18 December, resulting massive floods,” he said.
“Her press briefing is like mocking people when they are suffering the most,” Thennarasu said and accused her of using the media to create a false impression on the Tamil Nadu government by uttering “lies and making false allegations”.
He expressed disappointment that Sitharaman had not called for the briefing to announce the disbursal of funds for Tamil Nadu. “Why give an interview to say ‘no funds’?” he asked.
A tragedy was averted only because of the precautionary measures taken by the Tamil Nadu government. Every area was now gradually recovering due to post-rain relief measures being taken, he said.
The state government announced a relief amount of ₹6,000 and started disbursing it to the affected. “Rescue and relief work continues in some places in Thoothukudi district. I don’t need to elaborate further as the people in the flood-affected areas and also those in other parts of the country are aware of this through media reports,” Thennarasu said in the statement.
During the 20-minute meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 19 December, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister explained about the adverse impact of the rains and submitted a memorandum.
“Accepting the memorandum, the Prime Minister had said ‘I will fulfill all your requests. Nothing matters more than this,’ the Prime Minister had assured the Chief Minister,” Thennarasu claimed.
Stalin demanded an interim relief of ₹7,033 crore and ₹12,659 crore as permanent relief for relief and rehabilitation works in Chennai and its suburbs. As for the four southern districts of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, and Tenkasi, he sought the prime minister to provide ₹2,000 crore as interim relief.
Also, the Tamil Nadu government urged the Union government to declare a calamity of severe nature in the affected districts.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the rains cannot be declared a national calamity. Her stance was criticised by DMK which insisted that she failed to take into account the impact of the calamity, concerns and sufferings of the affected people.
Discrediting the claims of the state government, Sitharaman said the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai has ultra-modern equipment including three dopplers and had forecast on 12 December itself that there would be heavy rainfall in the four districts — Tenkasi, Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, and Thoothukudi on 16 and 17 December.
She further added that the Union government always issued the forecast five days in advance, besides providing nowcasts three hours in advance.
The minister further said the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai is a state-of-the-art facility and it had forecast heavy rains in the southern state well in advance.
She said this in response to the charge by Chief Minister MK Stalin that India Meteorological Department (IMD) had failed to issue timely warnings about the extreme rainfall that battered Tuticorin, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, and Tenkasi districts.
Attacking the DMK government, Sitharaman sought to know what kind of measures it took when the weather office predicted heavy rainfall.
When such a massive disaster was taking place in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister MK Stalin was in Delhi with the INDIA bloc, she said.
Addressing reporters on the measures taken by the Centre in the wake of heavy rainfall in south Tamil Nadu, Sitharaman said the RMC in Chennai has three dopplers that keeps issuing updates on weather conditions every three hours.
“It is the state-of-the-art meteorological centre located in Chennai. Forecasts (by this center) are normally done on a dynamic way, that is every five days in advance. Every day there is a forecast but it warns you five days in advance about adverse weather conditions,” she said.
For the extreme rainfall that occurred on 17 December, she said, an alert was issued by the RMC on 12 December itself.
“Either the officials (concerned) have not briefed the chief minister properly or they have received the forecast but did not act on it. But there is data that is recorded that the information on heavy rainfall was given on 12 December itself,” she said.
Elaborating, the minister said the IMD had predicted heavy to very heavy rains in the four southern districts and this forecast was made again on 13 and 14 December.
“It was further upgraded to Orange alert, which denotes that there will be heavy rainfall,” she said.
Referring to cyclone ‘Michaung’ which created havoc in Chennai and neighbouring districts during the first week of this month, Sitharaman said industry representatives have informed her that the majority of micro, small, and medium enterprises were submerged due to the heavy rainfall and alleged that the state government did not take any measures to prevent such incidents.
“What are the lessons learnt from the 2015 deluge in Chennai and what kind of measures did the government take? Even now Ambattur industrial area is reeling under floods,” she remarked.
Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that as many as 31 people lost their lives in the four districts, but added that the rains and its aftermath cannot be declared as a national calamity.
The Union government has already released ₹900 crore to the state disaster fund in two equal instalments to be used in this financial year, she told reporters. She said the second instalment was provided on 12 December, before the rains pummelled the four districts. The state’s opening balance in the current financial year was ₹813.15 crore, she said,
The finance minister, in a post on X, also said there was no practice of announcing any disaster as a National Disaster.
She added that even the 2004 Tsunami was not declared as a natural disaster.
There is no practice of announcing any disaster, in any state, at any time, by any government (of India) as National Disaster. Since there is a lot of interest in TN, even Tsunami of December 2004 (UPA with partner DMK) was not declared as Natl. Disaster. 1/3
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) December 22, 2023
(With PTI inputs)
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