Chennai: In a major disappointment to the Tamil Nadu Government, an inter-ministerial team from the Union Government that visited the state to assess the drought situation has recommended a meager Rs 2,096 crore as financial assistance as against the demand for allocation of nearly Rs 40,000 crore.

The report submitted by the nine-member team led by Vasudha Mishra, joint secretary with the Union ministry of agriculture, will be discussed thread bare at the meeting of the high level committee (HLC) scheduled on Thursday that will be attended by Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh among others.

“A final decision on the exact amount of funds to be released will be taken by the HLC on Thursday. The HLC will also take into account the recent protest by farmers from TN in New Delhi,” a senior govt official said.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu Government said the recommendations of the team do not meet even the remotest expectation of the affected people. “The inter-ministerial team has recommended just 5 per cent of the funds sought by the Tamil Nadu Government. The Centre should consider the situation and allot more funds,” the source said.

The high-level committee comprising of senior officials from different ministries had visited several parts of Tamil Nadu, including Cauvery Delta region that is worst affected due to drought following failure of North East Monsoon,
from January 22 to January 25.

In its report, the committee has recommended financial assistance of Rs 2,096.80 crore for tackling drought situation in Tamil Nadu, while the sub-committee of national executive committee has recommended only Rs1,748 crore.

The Tamil Nadu Government, then headed by O. Panneerselvam, had demanded Rs39,565 crore from the Union Government to tackle the worst-ever drought situation in the state and to mitigate farmers from the crisis after having declared all 32 districts as “drought-hit.” The demand was reiterated by his successor Edappadi K. Palanisami during his visit to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 27.