Toll waiver for relief material in TN till Pongal?

Informed sources disclosed that flood relief materials were still being sent to the affected districts of Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, and Cuddalore. Surface Department sources said they had discussions with officials of the highways department regarding extension of date for toll waiver in New Delhi, recently. 

It may be recalled that soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived on a short trip to the city earlier this month and aerially viewed flood affected areas in Chennai and later announced a Rs.1000 crore relief package.

 Instructions were issued to waive toll till December 8. The date was later extended to December 18. Meanwhile, BJP state vice-president Vanathi Srinivasan said that Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Seetharaman would soon send an appraisal team to Chennai to estimate the loss caused to industrial units in the Guindy industrial hub which suffered the most damage in the recent floods. 

Stating that she had appraised the Commerce Minister of the flood damage as more than 35 per cent of TN’s industrial spare parts exports were from Guindy, the BJP state leader said that it was she who had requested union MSME minister Kalraj Mishra to come to the city to see the damage first-hand so that relief measures to the sector could be expedited. She said that she had contacted Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan too to help flood affected families who had lost their LPG cylinders or LPG passbooks.