Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allocate Rs 9,000 crore special grant to combat Covid-19 and its after effects on the State’s economy.
In his address during Modi’s video-conferencing meet with Chief Ministers, Palaniswami reiterated his earlier request for sanction of Rs 3,000 crore fund to enhance available medical equipment.
Stating that the State has received Rs 512.64 crore from the Centre in two tranches under the Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness package out of an envelope of Rs 712.64 crore allotted to the State, he requested Modi to step up this package for Tamilnadu to Rs 3,000 crore as per his earlier request.
Noting that both the Central and State Tax revenue will fall short of the budget estimates, the Chief Miniser said to make up for the shortfall, Tamilnadu should be allocated Rs 9,000 crore special grant to combat Covid-19 and its after effects on the State’s economy.
He also sought early release of the GST compensation for April-June 2020. Highlighting various steps taken by the government to prevent spreading of the Covid-19 which has resulted in declining trend in new positive cases in Chennai, Palaniswami said since the state had already fully exhausted the State Disaster Response and Mitigation Fund, he requested an ad-hoc grant of Rs 1,000 crore from NDRF immediately to fight the pandemic.