Chennai, Jan 17: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has written to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to immediately sanction Rs 700 crore from the `National Calamity Emergency Fund` to meet the severe drinking water shortage in the state capital. "This is a calamity of a severe nature, one that has not occurred before in the recorded history of Chennai. It should be treated as one of rare severity and funded totally from the national calamity contingency fund," she said in a letter to the Prime Minister, according to an official press release here today.
"We have absolutely no means of financing this massive operation to rescue Chennai city. It will be extremely difficult for us to undertake on our own, the emergency operations, coming on the heels of the severe drought in the state," Jayalalithaa said. Bureau Report