Though the Union government had not allocated sufficient funds over the damage that the State incurred due to the floods last year, the Tamil Nadu government had distributed a relief of ₹6,000 to each of the affected families, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said in the Assembly on Tuesday.
He was responding to AIADMK legislator R.B. Udhayakumar, who had asked why the DMK and its allies, with 38 members elected from the State in the Lok Sabha, were unable to get the Centre to sanction funds for the flood-induced damage in Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts.
Mr. Thennarasu said that the DMK government “did not remain quiet by giving the excuse that the Union government had not granted funds”. Instead, it granted a relief of ₹6,000 each to the affected people on Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s direction. Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami, too, joined the discussion and recalled that the previous AIADMK regime had granted compensation to the affected people in the aftermath of ‘Gaja’ cyclone.
