It has created a furore between the Center and the government of Tamil Nadu due to the heavy rains in the state.
The dispute erupted after the Finance Minister of the Union, Nirmala Sitharaman, responded to the affirmation of the Principal Minister, MK Stalin, of a withdrawal by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in the issuance of a meteorological warning.
The finance minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, Thangam Thennarasu, also accused the Center of requisitioning funds to help the districts affected by the rains.
Districts of Tamil Nadu affected by the rains:
The four districts south of Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari were engulfed by an incessant rain on the days of 17 and 18 December, the wettest period in the region since 1871, according to Stalin.
Thoothukudi recorded 95 cm of rainfall in a span of 24 hours, which is more than the annual rainfall of 70 cm for the district, according to IMD.
What did the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, say about the rains in Tamil Nadu?
In a press conference held on Friday, Sitharaman said that 31 people died in rain-related incidents in the four districts in those two days. While the Union minister attacked the state government over its preparations to face the floods, she also depreciated Stalin’s affirmation earlier this week that the IMD had not issued timely warnings about extreme rainfall in the four districts.
The Regional Meteorological Center (RMC) of Chennai had predicted heavy rains in the rainy season well in advance, said Sitharaman. “(RMC) is the latest generation airport center located in Chennai. The forecasts (from this center) are usually made dynamically, that is, every five days in advance. There is a forecast every day but you are advised five days in advance about adverse meteorological conditions. “What precautionary measures did the state government take after these alerts?” she said.
Due to the extreme rains that were produced on December 17, said the Union Minister, the RMC issued an alert on December 12 itself. “Those officials (concerned) did not properly inform the Prime Minister or received the forecast but did not act as a result. But there are data that are recorded that the information about heavy rains was given on the same 12th of December”, he said.
What did the Prime Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin say?
On Tuesday, Stalin said that the IMD had not issued timely warnings about extreme rainfall and added that the agency had issued a red alert two days after the rain began. “It fell several times more than predicted by the Meteorological Centre. “It was something without precedent”, he told the journalists in Delhi.
Central vs Tamil Nadu:
Sitharaman said: “As a Union minister, I do not wish to talk about certain things, but despite that, I would ask, before the NDRF reaches there (in the four districts), was anyone from the Tamil Nadu government there? No.”
He also criticized Stalin for attending the meeting of the opposition bloc INDIA in Delhi on Tuesday instead of visiting the affected districts and taking stock of the situation.
He also said that the state government had not learned the lessons of the devastating floods of 2015. “What are the lessons learned from the 2015 deluge in Chennai and what type of measures did the government take? Even now the industrial zone of Ambattur is reeling under floods”, he said.
Let us tell you that the Center has given 900 million rupees in two quotas to Tamil Nadu in the current financial year, to cope with the losses caused by unprecedented rains and floods.
However, the governing Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) accused the Center of Negotiating Funds of the situation affected by the rains.
The state government had asked the Center to declare the districts affected by the rains as a “grave natural calamity” and disburse Rs 21,000 million as aid to Tamil Nadu, “but the Center refused”, Thennarasu said in a statement.
“After accepting both the demands, the Finance Minister spoke with an arrogant language and insulted the people of the state, thinking that he was insulting the DMK government and the Prime Minister”, he added.
This, Sitharaman, in a publication on how there is much interest in TN, not even the tsunami of December 2004 (UPA with its partner DMK) was declared national. “Disaster.”
In his statement, Thennarasu said that the districts of Chennai, Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu received heavy rains on December 4 and the districts of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari and Tenkasi received very intense rains on December 17 and 18, which caused floods. massive. “A tragedy was avoided only thanks to the precautionary measures adopted by the Tamil Nadu government”, he said.
