Tamil Nadu, Centre in war of words on floods

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticised CM Stalin for not being present with the people of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi during the floods, instead attending the meeting of I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners in New Delhi.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu and Union Governments were on Friday engaged in an acrimonious verbal duel over the devastating floods in the Southern part of the state and on the efficacy of rain forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who addressed a press conference in New Delhi, sought to punch holes in the DMK dispensation blaming the IMD for not predicting extremely heavy rains till December 17 and accused it of trying to blame the MeT department to “hide” its own failures in not putting in place precautionary measures.

Chief Minister M K Stalin and his cabinet colleague Mano Thangaraj had pointed to the “shorter gap” between the issuance of the Red Alert and the actual flooding in the districts. They had also said the amount of rainfall received was much more than what the IMD predicted, while calling for better prediction models.

Efficacy of IMD forecast

The IMD, which has a state-of the-art centre in Chennai with doppler equipment, had issued the first alert for southern districts on December 12 and followed it up with regular updates on December 13 and 14, Nirmala said, adding that an Orange alert was issued on December 15 for heavy rainfall to extremely heavy rainfall.

However, the IMD alerts issued on December 13 and 14, accessed by DH, don't mention about heavy rains to southern Tamil Nadu, while the Orange alert was indeed issued on December 15. The state government’s complaint was the “gap” in the timely alerts issued between December 15 and 17 – the Orange alert was converted into Red alert (more than 20 cm) when the districts were already swamped with over 40 cm of rainfall.

“The IMD continued to give regular alerts from December 16-18. What precautionary measures did the state government take after these alerts? Where were their ministers and elected representatives? When did they come to southern districts? NDRF was the first to reach these districts, and what were you doing?” Sitharaman asked.

In a strong response, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said Sitharaman’s language at the press conference resembled the one used by “enemy nation in war" and “insulted” the people of the state who are reeling under unprecedented floods.

‘Sitharaman insulted Tamil Nadu’

Thennarasu said the state government sought Rs 21,692 crore from the Union Government for the relief and rehabilitation work, besides demanding that it should be declared as a calamity of severe nature.

“By rejecting both the demands, the Finance Minister has spoken in an arrogant language and insulted the people of the state by thinking that she was insulting the DMK government and the Chief Minister,” he said, while asserting that the state government appreciated the role of armed forces and NDRF in the relief operations and never “hid” the fact.

Sports Minister and Chief Minister M K Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi too joined the issue and told Sitharaman that the DMK government was ready to “accord enough respect” to the Centre and that all it needs now is the rightful share of the people of Tamil Nadu in times of need.

Sitharaman had asked Udhayanidhi to be “more respectful” in his language in response to the Sports Minister’s comment that the DMK was not seeking the “father’s money” of a Union Minister who said the Centre was “not the ATM of states” to give money whenever they ask for.

“I respectfully submit that I did not seek the money of ‘respected’ father of Sitharaman. We only sought money from the Union Government for handling the floods which is a rightful demand from the taxpayers,” he added.

‘Relief operations over’

While Sitharaman put the death toll due to heavy rains and subsequent floods in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts at 31, the state government said it was 35.

Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena said the relief operations in the two worst-hit districts have come to an end on Friday and that efforts are being taken to restore normalcy. He said several loads of essentials including milk have been dispatched to Thoothukudi besides ensuring that people get drinking water.

‘Why did Stalin come to Delhi?’

The Union Minister also attacked Stalin for not being with the people of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi when they were reeling under the floods and attending the meeting of I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners in New Delhi. “He came to attend the I.N.D.I.A. meeting and not to meet the Prime Minister exclusively. This is not acceptable,” she said.

Taking a dig at Sitharaman for her criticism of Stalin’s Delhi visit, Thennarasu sought to know how many Union Ministers visited Chennai and southern TN after it was hit by floods. He also said Sitharaman should know that the Prime Minister rescheduled the appointment given to Stalin and that the Chief Minister was in Delhi not just to attend the I.N.D.I.A. meeting but also to meet Modi.

“They get irritated on hearing the word INDIA…You came to Mylapore (Chennai) to buy vegetables from a market and took photos. Did you come and visit any flood affected areas? How many ministers came from Delhi?” Thennarasu asked.

To a question on Stalin’s demand that the floods should be declared as a national disaster, Sitharaman said there was no system to make such announcements.

The minister also tore into the DMK dispensation for not “learning lessons” from the 2015 floods and speaking in “two voices” on the funds spent on building storm water drains in Chennai before the monsoon season.

“A state minister, before the rains, said there will be no flooding in Chennai as 92 per cent of work on storm water drains were completed. But the same minister after the rains said only 42 per cent works were completed. Don’t you know the difference between 92 and 42? Tell us what you did before blaming us,” Nirmala asked.

The Union Finance Minister further said the Union Government rushed helicopters and sent Army personnel immediately after coming to know of the magnitude of the flooding in Tamil Nadu.