CHENNAI: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sanction an assistance of Rs.1,120 crores for flood relief measures. She also requested him to immediately depute a Central team to assess the situation in the State and grant assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF).

In a demi-official letter, Ms. Jayalalithaa said she had enclosed a memorandum giving a detailed account of the relief operations undertaken by the State Government and the support needed from the NCCF.

"Apart from causing heavy damage to the dwelling units of the poor people, the rain and floods have resulted in extensive damage to roads and bridges, tanks and irrigation systems and other infrastructure, as also to standing crop," she said.

Funds exhausted

Though the State Government had sanctioned Rs.130 crores for immediate relief and restoration works, substantial support from the Centre was necessary to continue these works as the State's Calamity Relief Fund had been exhausted. Unless substantial allocation was made from the NCCF, it would be difficult to tackle the situation, she said. The State Government had made an assessment of the damage and worked out the cost of undertaking the relief and restoration works, Ms. Jayalalithaa said.

Recalling the torrential rain experienced by the State last month resulting in inundation and floods in several districts, she said the Mettur Dam received a huge and unprecedented inflow of 2.24 lakh cusecs on October 24. "After 1961, this is the first occasion that the Mettur Dam witnessed such a massive inflow." The entire surplus water was discharged into the Cauvery system, as the reservoir was already full. This resulted in inundation and flooding in the delta districts, which were receiving heavy rainfall at the same time. "This is clearly a calamity of rare severity."

While this was happening in the districts, Chennai experienced an unprecedented downpour on October 26 and 27, causing enormous flooding in the city.

Referring to the relief measures taken up on a war footing in all affected districts, she said lakhs of people were evacuated from low-lying and inundated areas to relief centres and provided food and drinking water.

She personally visited the affected areas in Chennai on October 27, besides deputing Ministers and I.A.S. officers to coordinate the relief work, she recalled.

Even as the State was still recovering from the devastation caused by the tsunami, the heavy rain and floods experienced by the State hit the people very badly, Ms. Jayalalithaa said.

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