The Chief Secretary of the Tamil Nadu government has released a statement clarifying that “the report filed by the correspondent of Economic Times dated 2.2.2016 is totally baseless and false.” The report, titled “Tamil Nadu response to flood was slow, says central report” had stated that an ‘analysis’ by the Union Ministry of Earth Science had revealed that flooding in Chennai was caused by "poor drainage systems and overflow of dam water, not only because of excessive rains."

The report had also quoted an official saying: “We gather flooding in Chennai was because an overflowing water body had been let open and the drainage system of the city was not equipped to handle the water flow.”

Following the report the TN government sought a clarification from the Ministry of Earth Sciences, which clarified that no such report exists. The letter from the Ministry also states that the it fully disowns the inferences articulated by the reporter of Economic Times.

The ET report had also claimed that the Ministry’s analysis had said that had the TN government’s disaster response been as quick as Odisha and Gujarat then the flood could have been avoided.

The TN government responded by stating that the “Government of Tamil Nadu’s handling of the rescue, relief, restoration and rehabilitation operations in the wake of the unprecedented rains and floods in November and December, 2015 has come in for widespread acclaim and appreciation.”

While the ET report’s headline refers to a ‘report’, the article only refers to an ‘analysis’, evidently because the Ministry had no mandate to submit a report in this matter.