Tsunami impact likely to be felt in Tamil Nadu budget

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Chennai: Faced with the worst-ever natural calamity, the Tamil Nadu government is likely to make special provisions for permanent rehabilitation and relief for those who were affected by the tsunami that struck the state on December 26. The government is also likely to announce some special schemes for preventing such calamities in the future by way of relocating people living along the coastal belt.

The finance minister is slated to present the state budget on March 2.

With barely one-and-a-half years to go to polls, the government is also likely to announce a slew of welfare schemes. However, the casualty in this exercise would be the state’s fiscal position which has been deteriorating.

According to sources, the state government has announced various schemes to permanently rehabilitate the tsunami victims, which would cost it a huge amount. “It will have to make some provision for this in the forthcoming budget. This becomes an imperative as the Centre has not sanctioned the amount sought by the chief minister for the purpose,” they say.

The state government, on February 24, said it was going ahead with the permanent rehabilitation of tsunami victims without waiting for assistance from the Centre. Against its request for Rs 4,000 crore non-repayable aid, the Centre has sanctioned only Rs 357 crore so far. With the latest announcement, the state has to shell out Rs 550.27 crore for rehabilitating fisherfolk alone, who lost their lifetime savings in the calamity.

“Reconstruction, rehabilitation and creation of new means of livelihood to the direct and indirect victims of tsunami would be the priority areas of the new budget. Though the attention of the government is on the fisherfolk, there are several other segments, like the marine and aquaculture-related small and tiny industries that need revamp and reconstruction with fresh infusion of liberal funds and fiscal incentives,” sources added.

The state government has been claiming that it has put state finances back on rails through prudent fiscal management. Governor Surjit Singh Barnala, while addressing the Assembly session, said “this government has not only restored the fiscal health of the state but also the credibility of the entire development process”, and claimed that the state was “back on the high road of accelerated development and growth, overcoming the fiscal development crisis”.