Tamil Nadu gets Rs940 crore from centre as flood relief

Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday ordered the immediate release of Rs.940 crore towards relief and restoration work in Tamil Nadu, which faced extensive damage to life and property in the northeast monsoon.

Modi, who is in Malaysia to attend the East Asia Summit, was acting on a request for Rs.2,000 crore aid sought by Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on Monday. The state government has pegged the losses at Rs.8,481 crore.

“The requirement of funds for immediate rescue and relief and the temporary and permanent restoration of infrastructure has been worked out at Rs.8,481 crores in all,” the chief minister said in a memorandum seeking assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund and other central funds.

Jayalalithaa had already sanctioned Rs.500 crore towards the relief and rehabilitation of the people affected in the state.

She said the funds required are well beyond the resources available with the state, including the State Disaster Response Fund.

Modi has also agreed to Jayalalithaa’s demand for a central team to be dispatched to the state to assess the damage and release funds for relief.

The state government has confirmed the death of 169 people in the northeast monsoon that began in October. Infrastructure, including roads and bridges, storm water drainage systems, water supply and sewerage systems and electricity supply systems has been battered in many areas.

“More than 4 lakh people were shifted to relief camps and provided food and shelter,” the chief minister noted in the memorandum. “The services of the National Disaster Response Force, Army, Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard were requisitioned wherever the need was felt. I thank you for the promptness in the dispatch of these forces.”

A deep depression of high intensity formed over the Bay of Bengal that hit the Tamil Nadu coast near Marakkanam on 10 November causing heavy rains, particularly in the four northern coastal districts of Cuddalore, Kancheepuram, Chennai and Tiruvallur. Chennai received the second heaviest monthly rainfall recorded in the past more than 100 years in just the first 20 days of November, while Neyveli received 43.7cm of rainfall on 9 November alone.