Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took stock of the flood situation in Tamil Nadu and discussed it with his Cabinet colleagues, including the Home, Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Ministers.
“I want to inform the House that today morning the PM met the Home Minister, Finance Minister and me and discussed the flood condition in Tamil Nadu,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in the Lok Sabha.
Modi had on Tuesday spoken to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and assured her all possible support from the Centre, he said. Naidu added that Home Minister Rajnath Singh would chair a high-level meeting to ensure relief to the people of Tamil Nadu.
“The Home Minister is going to hold a high-level meeting... They are trying to coordinate with various agencies on the relief operations. Four hundred passengers are stranded... NDRF team is there,” Naidu said.
Most areas of Chennai have been inundated after heavy rains lashed the state, severely disrupting flights, train and bus services and forcing postponement of half-yearly school exams. The toll in rain-related incidents has touched 188.
“I have alerted the Civil Aviation Ministry to send food for the relief camps. Since the runway is full of water, we have to send food and other basic amenities to the people stranded there,” Naidu said.
He said his daughter and grand daughter have sent to him pictures of Chennai and he is “moved by plight of ordinary people there”. The flood is the worst in 100 years and was unprecedented and unheard of.
“It is time for Parliament to convey to people that be confident. It is not time to criticise the Government. Navy, Army, NDRF have been pressed into action and if there is a need for any further support that too will be sent,” Naidu said.
Meanwhile, members in the Lok Sabha made a plea for all possible help and assistance to Tamil Nadu. They said Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai and adjoining districts, and parts of Andhra Pradesh were witnessing the fury of the northeastern monsoon and needed rescue, relief and rehabilitation works on war-footing.
TG Venkatesh Babu (AIADMK) urged the Centre to immediately release funds to carry out relief works in flood-hit areas of Tamil Nadu. Insisting that the flood situation in Tamil Nadu should be considered as a “national calamity”, he said the Centre should give funds to the state, which has sought over Rs 8,480 crore towards relief works.
He also thanked the PM as well as the central forces for their immediate response towards the relief works.
Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the PM and Home Minister should visit the affected areas in Tamil Nadu and suggested in a lighter vein that fellow parliamentarian Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who is “a good pilot”, should fly them there.
Bhagwant Mann (AAP) called for devising a mechanism so that people are alerted in advance to minimise loss of life and property.
Meanwhile, the National Crisis Management Committee, headed by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, on Wednesday reviewed the situation in rain and flood-ravaged Chennai and assured Tamil Nadu government of all possible help.
Rains will batter TN for one week more, 2 days ‘crucial’: IMD
Rains will continue to batter Tamil Nadu for the next seven days and the next 48 hours are “very crucial”, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday. IMD Director General Laxman Singh Rathore attributed the heavy rains to a “trough of low” over Southwest Bay of Bengal off Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka coast which will continue to bring rains over the next three days. Thereafter, the state will see an anti-cyclone activity which will be associated with "heavy rains" at some places.