In yet another case of propaganda-peddling by journalists friendly to the ruling establishment in Tamil Nadu, a journalist working with the Times of India had written an article claiming that the Centre is discriminating the state over allocation of National Disaster Response Funds (NDRF).
The article written by one Julie Mariappan claims that Tamil Nadu has been left out from the additional assistance provided by the Centre despite CM MK Stalin writing several memoranda seeking assistance of ₹6230 crores.
She also tried to insinuate the Modi government at the Centre saying that funds are being only given BJP-ruled states.
This agenda-laden article has been amplified by several DMK-friendly journalists and social media influencers claiming
However, the truth is that Central government’s share of ₹816 crores in SDRF was already released to Tamil Nadu as on November 25, 2021.
Apart from this, the Central government has released ₹286.91 crores for 2020-21 and ₹213.51 crores for the financial year 2021-22.
BJP Tamil Nadu chief K. Annamalai pointed out the incorrect facts and called the article by the Times of India journalist as ‘agenda-driven’.
Sincerely expect @timesofindia to do better research on issues before reporting!
This reporter’s perennial bias towards BJP Tamil Nadu over the last many months in various articles, is being manifested again as a half baked & agenda driven article in a esteemed paper like TOI. pic.twitter.com/IWfAQUHQUH
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) January 2, 2022
Responding to Annamalai’s tweet, NDTV journalist Arvind Gunasekar who is popularly known for buttressing the DMK and Congress, tried to justify Julie’s article quoting a release from the Press Information Bureau.
Centre approved additional Central assistance of 3,063.21 crore to six states ( Assam, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and West Bengal) from the NDRF.
Here is the PIB release dated December 30 👇🏻https://t.co/wGzcHSRZek https://t.co/hj4NLP8dcF
— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) January 2, 2022
But the PIB release clearly states that additional central assistance given to the states are for natural disasters between May 2021 and October 2021. Tamil Nadu had received torrential rainfall only November and December of the year.
In light of this, several netizens have been lashing out at the fake news peddled by the ToI journalist and the buttressing given by the NDTV journalist.
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