The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Centre has provided Rs. 2,347.19 cr. for tsunami package: Chidambaram

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 10, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Centre has provided Rs. 2,347.19 cr. for tsunami package: Chidambaram

Special Correspondent

Chidambaram responds to Jayalalithaa's charge

CHENNAI: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said that the Centre has provided an outlay of Rs. 2,347.19 crore to Tamil Nadu under the Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Package for Tsunami Affected Areas. It has arranged for external assistance from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. "The total outlay for tsunami relief and rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu is Rs. 4,025.56 crore," he said in a release from New Delhi.

Mr. Chidambaram's statement comes in the wake of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's charge last Sunday that the Centre had released only Rs. 679.61 crore for tsunami relief.

Giving a detailed break-up of the package and the list of orders passed in this regard, the Finance Minister's statement noted that among heads, a relief and contingency fund allocation of Rs. 617.20 crore, fishermen's subsidy of Rs. 441.08 crore, bank loans for Rs. 566.47 crore and a housing package of Rs. 650 crore had been provided by the Centre.

In external assistance a sum of Rs. 1,909.68 crore had been provided by the World Bank and a sum of Rs. 637.29 crore by the Asian Development Bank including a grant of Rs. 388.51 crore. The total value of Rs. 2,678.37 crore in external assistance had been provided for, the statement noted. "All these facts were within the knowledge of the Government of Tamil Nadu for many months. It is a matter of deep regret that an unnecessary controversy should be raised at this stage," the Finance Minister's statement said.

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