Taking into account the recent floods and unpredictable weather patterns, the Tamil Nadu government in its Budget allocated Rs 500 crore for flood mitigation in Chennai and Rs 10 crore for establishing an advanced early weather warning system. Financial Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan presented the state’s budget on Friday, March 17.
The advanced early warning system established by the government will be with supercomputers, a system of weather balloons, two weather radars, 100 automatic weather stations, 400 automatic rain gauges and 11 automatic water level instruments, for which an amount of Rs 10 crore has been budgeted. The minister also said that the recent sudden floods in Chennai recently have underscored the need to upgrade Disaster Early Warning Systems to accurately predict the weather.
In January, TNM had reported on the need for upgrading the weather prediction technology at IMD Chennai (Regional Meteorological Centre), following the unexpected floods in Chennai in December. It caught many unawares as almost all weather prediction models failed to forecast it.
For flood management in Chennai, a consultation group was set up and based on their recommendations, it was announced that the first phase of flood prevention works will be carried out at Rs 1,000 crore. As part of this, Rs 500 crore allocated for this year. PTR added that Rs 50 crore has been allotted as special fund for the retrieval and protection of government lands, including water bodies, from encroachments.
A Rs 300-crore-worth botanical garden is to be set up near Chennai in partnership with Kew Gardens of London by the government, for which a detailed project report shall be prepared, said the minister.
Other important announcements with regard to environment and climate change include the setting up of the ‘Tamil Nadu Green Climate Change Fund’, which will mobilise necessary resources from various sources, including development finance institutions and international climate funds; implementation of ‘Project Nilgiri Tahr’ with an initial allocation of Rs 10 crore; and setting up of a Children's Nature Park, which will house birds, butterflies and animals, at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore, by remodelling the Guindy Children’s Park.
Further, in a bid to promote eco-tourism without harming the forests, Sethumadai of Coimbatore district, Manavanur and Thadiyan Kudisai of Dindigul district and Yelagiri of Tirupattur district is to be developed as eco-tourism sites in public-private partnership mode.
He also added, “the government is also to set up a Forest Commission to recommend policy changes needed in forest conservation, expansion of green cover, involvement of tribals in forest management, prevention of man-animal conflict, capacity building and modernization initiatives in the Forest Department”.
A sum of Rs 849.21 crore has been made to the Environment, Climate Change and Forests Department in this budget.
The DMK government presented the Budget for 2022-23 in the Assembly and Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said that for the first time since 2014, the revenue deficit is set to decrease by over Rs 7,000 crore. However, even as the speech began, the opposition party raised a commotion and boycotted the speech by walking out from the assembly.
(With PTI and IANS inputs)