Chennai: Hours after the Kerala Chief Minister’s Office on Thursday said that Tamil Nadu had declined its offer to supply 20 lakh litres of drinking water to help Chennai tide over a major water crisis, Tamil Nadu Local Administration Minister countered the claim.
The Kerala Chief Minister’s Office in a statement posted on its Facebook page said: “Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office contacted the office of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister with this offer.
However, we have been informed that the assistance was not required now. The government of Kerala wanted to send 20 lakh litres of drinking water through train from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai.”
However, Tamil Nadu Local Administration Minister S P Velumani in a statement on Twitter said, the Kerala CM’s Secretary had contacted the Tamil Nadu CM''s Secretary offering to send 20 wagons of water by train.
Since the TN CM Edappadi Palaniswami had at that time gone to the hospital for a medical check up, his Secretary had said the he would get back after consulting the Local Administration Minister and Municipal Administration Department Secretary. He had also thanked Kerala for its offer to help.
Velumani said that since Chennai’s water requirement was 525 Million Litres per Day (MLD), Kerala’s offer of one-time supply of 2 MLD water could be met locally itself.
“It was conveyed to Kerala that it would help if it could send 2 MLD water on a daily basis,” he said adding that Tamil Nadu had not declined to accept Kerala''s offer.
Earlier, DMK president M K Stalin tweeted: “I wholeheartedly thank Chief Minister of Kerala @vijayanpinarayi for his timely offer to provide water to Tamil Nadu. Urge Govt of Tamil Nadu to work with Govt of Kerala to help citizens of our state tide over this unprecedented water crisis.”
