Tsunami relief: Is it TN vs Centre?

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday flayed Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's unilateral announcement that the rehabilitation measures for tsunami affected fishermen would be undertaken by the public sector banks.

"The annoucement setting aside and completely ignoring the state governments is a most unfortunate and shocking development," she said in a four page statement.

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"I have today (Sunday) written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his immediate personal intervention to intercede and ensure that the states are empowered to rightfully undertake the rehabilitation works," she said.

She also criticised naming of the package as 'Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Package for Tsunami Affected areas', saying "it is jarring and unnecessarily divides people on political lines. It is indeed a deplorable attempt to make capital out of an unprecedented natural disaster."

The relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken by the state government had earned widespread acclaim. All agencies and people had come together in the relief effort, she said.

The "divisive" situation, which had been created by Chidambaram's statement in the middle of a massive rehabilitation programme, was "most unwarranted."

"It has to be rectified at once as otherwise the whole programme will be jeopardised," she said.