Chennai: A war of words has erupted between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government and Tamil Nadu’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government over this month’s floods in the state.
While the Tamil Nadu government led by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has accused the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of not having given the state “adequate funds” for flood relief, the latter demands “accountability” when it comes to disaster relief money.
This comes in a month when several parts of Tamil Nadu have seen severe flooding, first due to Cyclone Michaung and later due to unprecedented rainfall. According to media reports, southern Tamil Nadu has been particularly affected, with Kayalpattinam, a town in Thoothukudi, receiving a whopping 96 cm of rainfall in a 24-hour period that ended Monday.
At a press conference he held Friday, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu accused Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of having “insulted the people of Tamil Nadu while thinking that she is insulting the DMK government and the CM.”
He said this in response to Sitharaman’s press conference earlier in the day, in which she criticised Stalin’s presence in Delhi for the opposition INDIA bloc meeting when the state was still reeling from the flood. She also accused the state government of not using the disaster relief fund from the Centre appropriately.
During his visit to the national capital earlier this week Stalin also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask for Rs 2,000 crore as initial flood relief assistance — something that Thennarasu pointed out.
The DMK minister added: “Did the dignitaries of the Union go to Manipur at least once? Did the finance minister, who came to Mylapore to buy vegetables and take photos, come to Chennai at least once to see the effects of the storm and floods on the 4th? We can ask that too. The honourable chief minister was with the people all the days except for one day when he went to Delhi. All the people of Tamil Nadu know this,” Thennarasu said.
In her remarks to the media earlier in the day, Sitharaman also responded to the state government’s allegation that the central government was not releasing sufficient disaster relief for the state on the back of this month’s flood.
“The Rs 450 crore that PM Modi directed the Union home minister to give to the state on 7 December was only the second instalment of the funds that the Centre had to pay towards the State Disaster Relief Fund,” Stalin had said at a press conference. “In this time of crisis, when the central government is not releasing more funds for the state. But the state government is using its own funds for the relief work.”
Sitharaman also referred to Stalin’s remarks earlier this month that the new stormwater drainage system that his government had built in Chennai and nearby areas at acost of Rs 4,000 crore had helped avert a “catastrophe” after Cyclone Michaung.
“They said they can withstand any amount of rains, and after Cyclone Michaung, Tamil Nadu ministers, who said 92 percent of stormwater drain work is done now, say only 42 percent of the work is done,” she said.
However, DMK spokesperson Saravanan told ThePrint that the minister was “making remarks without learning the complete facts”. The stormwater drain was being done in three phases. The project kick-started in 2022 and is expected to be complete by 2025.”
“The TN minister had said that 92 percent of the first phase is over and 42 percent of the complete project is over so far. Sitharaman, I think, is taking this material from (Tamil Nadu BJP chief) Annamalai and is not checking with the official government data,” he said.
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‘What work has happened?’
Reacting to the chief minister’s allegations Friday, Sitharaman said that the opening balance in Tamil Nadu for this year was Rs 813.15 crore and that of the 900 crore that the central government has to give Tamil Nadu, the first instalment of Rs 450 crore was given earlier and the second instalment was given on 12 December.
This opening balance is for the Tamil Nadu State Disaster Relief Fund. More specifically, it has to do with the central government’s annual contribution to this fund.
Sitharaman said that as for additional funds, the Modi government had deployed an inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) and that more funds would be released based on its recommendation.
Referring to the 2015 floods, she claimed that no lessons had been learnt from the disaster. A heavy downpour and the resultant flooding in several parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in November–December 2015 had killed over 500 people and displaced over 1.8 million.
“In 2015, after the flood, I had gone to Ambattur (Industrial Estate) and had found the blockages in the drain system. Ambattur was flooded in 2015 and is flooded now. What work has happened?” she asked.
But the DMK spokesperson said that flood water was taking time to recede in some parts of Chennai “due to the high tide caused by the cyclone”.
Sitharaman also accused the Stalin government of not accounting for the funds allocated to the state for various development projects.
“The Centre is allocating money to the state for various projects, but they are not giving us the correct figures,” she said. “Had the TN government used the money given to the state promptly and if it is accurately accounted, then it is ok. But I am alleging that the state is not using the money given to them properly,” said Sitharaman.
‘Ill-equipped IMD’
During his visit to Delhi Tuesday, Stalin had alleged that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had failed to give timely warnings, adding that it issued a red alert only after the downpour began.
According to IMD’s warning system, a red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rains of over 20 cm in 24 hours, an orange alert is for very heavy rains from 6 cm to 20 cm of rain, and a yellow alert is heavy rainfall between 6 and 11 cm.
Sitharaman countered Stalin’s claim at her press conference by saying that Chennai had a state-of-the-art Met centre.
“On 12 December, the IMD issued an alert for heavy and very heavy rains for 16 Dec all over South Tamil Nadu,” she said. “A daily statement was shared with the respective stakeholders by the IMD. Alerts were given on 13 and 14 December as well and the warning was further upgraded to orange alert for the period of 16-18 December.”
Saravanan, however, said the finance minister should not speak like a spokesperson of the IMD. He also noted that the Met department had only given an orange alert.
“After the rains started, IMD revised its forecast and said ‘red alert’, which means rainfall of about 20 cm or more. The quantum of rainfall that fell over in Tuticorin (Thoothukudi) and several places in Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari is around 100 cm. Is this how a state-of-the-art unit functions?” he asked.
The IMD, he claimed, was not equipped to accurately predict rainfall.
“A red alert is anything above 20 cm of rainfall and even if it is 25 cm or 100 cm it’s still red. We are asking for a more detailed analysis and also that the alert should not be given on the day when it is raining but much prior,” he told ThePrint.
The state government had also demanded that the Centre announce the southern districts’ unprecedented floods as a national disaster. But Sitharaman dismissed this, saying: “The Centre never announces any event as a national disaster. If the state wants to announce an event as a disaster, then a guideline is already in place”.
In response, Saravanan described the Modi government as “heartless”. “We never thought the Union government would be so heartless, that it would declare the calamity that has happened in Tamil Nadu as a natural disaster,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sitharaman once again reiterated her stand that there was no practice of declaring any calamity a national disaster. Even the Tsunami in 2004 December was not declared a national disaster, she said in a long post on X Friday.
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
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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