As many as 31 individuals have misplaced their lives in rain-related incidents in 4 districts.
Chennai:
The blame recreation between the Centre and Tamil Nadu over the devastating floods within the state’s southern districts escalated on Friday, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claiming that the climate workplace had issued a warning properly prematurely and questioning the steps taken by the DMK authorities. This prompted a robust response from the DMK, which accused her of “getting data from Whatsapp College”.
As many as 31 individuals have misplaced their lives in rain-related incidents within the Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, and Tenkasi districts, in line with Ms Sitharaman.
The primary volley was fired on Thursday, when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief MK Stalin mentioned that an alert for terribly heavy rainfall was issued by the Met Division solely on December 17, the day the districts started to get flooded.
“Solely on December 17 did the Met Division alert ‘extraordinarily heavy rainfall’ for the 17th and 18th,” Mr Stalin mentioned throughout a go to to the flood-affected districts.
Responding to Mr Stalin’s claims, Ms Sitharaman mentioned on Friday that the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, has superior gear and had forecast rainfall within the 4 districts on December 17 a minimum of 5 days forward of time.
“The knowledge was given as early as December 11 and 12. They issued an alert that extraordinarily heavy rainfall would happen round December 14-17 in these districts. They gave a cycle of warnings each 5 days. So, anybody who claims that they didn’t get advance warnings should be aware of this,” the finance minister mentioned.
The DMK then hit again with the ‘Whatsapp College’ jibe, which is usually utilized by detractors of the BJP to recommend that the social gathering’s IT cell and its ecosystem unfold misinformation on social media.
DMK spokesperson A Saravanan mentioned, “If Nirmala spoke as a BJP politician, she has taken data from their ‘WhatsApp College’. If she spoke as a minister, she has no grip on information.”
NDTV’s evaluation of alerts from the climate workplace finds no point out of extraordinarily heavy rainfall or very heavy rain both on December 11 or 12. Alerts on very heavy rainfall started getting issued on December 14 and, solely on the afternoon of December 17 – after torrential rains started pounding the southern districts – was a particularly heavy rainfall alert issued.
Mr Saravanan added, “Solely on December 18 did the Met division tweet a crimson alert. It was an orange alert until the 17th.”
Deployment
Whereas Ms Sitharaman mentioned the Centre had deployed helicopters, the Nationwide Catastrophe Response Power and the Military for rescue and aid, the DMK shot again saying the federal government is duty-bound to do that and might’t undertaking it as a favour as whether it is being performed in another country.
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu mentioned, “Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has humiliated the individuals of Tamil Nadu. Her language is like in the direction of an enemy nation in struggle”.
Chief Minister Stalin has demanded declaring the 2 successive floods within the state as a nationwide catastrophe. He has additionally sought a flood aid package deal of Rs 12,000 crore for Chennai and the adjoining districts that had been flooded after Cyclone Michaung, and Rs 2,000 crore interim aid for southern districts.
The Centre has launched Rs 450 crore as a part of the Rs 900-crore annual dues below the state catastrophe response fund, however no further funds for the injury from the current floods but.
Ms Sitharaman mentioned, “There may be nothing known as a nationwide catastrophe. Even the Uttarakhand catastrophe wasn’t known as a nationwide catastrophe”.
The finance minister additionally took potshots at Mr Stalin for attending the assembly of the INDIA bloc in New Delhi when southern Tamil Nadu was reeling below the results of the torrential rain. “Once we deployed NDRF, he was in Delhi,” she mentioned. The DMK has mentioned Mr Stalin additionally met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to launch aid funds.