Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday asserted that the Centre and the three services, alongside the Coast Guard, did the heavy lifting and took proactive steps ahead of the Tamil Nadu government in providing assistance to the rain-affected districts of Tenkasi, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, and Tuticorin.

Sitharaman emphasised the Centre’s quick allocation of ₹900 crore in two phases towards the State Disaster Relief Fund for the ongoing fiscal year, with the second installment of ₹450 crore having been released on December 12, intending to support Tamil Nadu’s flood relief initiatives.

The FM lashed out at the State machinery for not immediately responding to the unfolding crisis due to heavy rainfall and rejected the accusation of the State government that there was no prior timely warning from the Met Department about the likely quantum or enormity of the impending heavy downpour.

The Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, has ultra-modern equipment, including three dopplers, and had forecast on December 12 that there would be heavy rainfall in these four districts on December 17. Sitharaman rejected the contention that the meteorological centre was not as advanced as the weather forecasting system in other countries.

“It would not be right to say there was no prior warning from the Regional Met department at Chennai, who followed it up with similar alerts on December 13 and 14 and subsequently even issued orange alerts. Repeated warnings were given by them. They were up-to-date and even gave three hourly warnings,” Sitharaman said in the capital, detailing the Center’s efforts for Tamil Nadu flood relief.

Sitharaman highlighted that the inter-ministerial central team had been deployed to assess the damage on December 19 itself.

“We have been able to save more people because of our immediate action. About 42,290 people have been saved. Officially, 31 have died,” Sitharaman said.

The Finance Minister noted that the Army, Navy, and Air Force were pressed into service immediately for rescue efforts.

“Initially, 10 rescue teams of the NDRF, two columns of the Indian Army, two of the Indian Air Force, one ship, one Navy helicopter, six disaster response teams, and two helicopters of the Indian Coast Guard were mobilised and sent,” she said.

Sitharaman also said that the Tamil Nadu Government must adopt direct benefit transfer (DBT) for extending Rs 6000 assistance to those affected due to rains instead of giving them cash handouts. Also she noted that there was no concept of Centre declaring any natural disaster as a “National disaster”.

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