Tuesday, January 17 2006 17:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today (Jan 17, 2006) rejected an opposition demand for constituting all-party committee to monitor flood relief work in the state.

Intervening in the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the state legislature, she told the assembly that there was no need for it, as the government had already constituted district level, Panchayat level and ward level committees, with elected representatives as members, besides officials and voluntary agencies.

These committees had already met and started work, she told PMK MLA S Arumgam, who made the demand while speaking on the motion.

She said the state had already distributed flood relief material to over 34 lakh beneficiaries.

On Arumugam's demand for more compensation to farmers for crop loss in floods, she said she had requested Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to relax the rules of national disaster management.

Jayalalithaa said that under the present rules, only Rs 1000 per acre could be given to paddy farmers and Rs 5000 per acre for cash crop farmers, she said.

She said the state would announce the compensation to farmers during the current assembly session itself.

She denied DMK MLA J Anbazhagan's charge that there was discrimination in flood relief distribution in constituencies represented by opposition MLAs. Even DMK workers had appreciated flood relief distribution work, she said.