Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, countered the comments by Stalin and said the RMC in Chennai has ‘modern’ equipment and is a ‘state-of-the-art’ facility and it had forecast ‘heavy rains’ in southern states well in advance.
The RMC Chennai, in a statement, on Sunday said there were media reports that the centre did not have any modern equipment and was lacking in advanced tools.
“There are several equipment — high speed computers, ISRO’s satellite support facilities, RADAR which are world-class”, the statement said.
Elaborating, the RMC said, to forecast Chennai and neighbouring districts, it has two Doppler Radars and for Tamil Nadu, it has three Doppler Radars.
“These are X-band type radars built in association with ISRO technology. The World Meteorological Organisation also commended the infrastructure at the Centre as world-class,” it said. It was due to these facilities that a lot of lives were saved during the impact of various cyclones including Vardah, Gajah, Nivar and Michaung, the centre said. “Making such criticism hurt the sentiments of the dedicated employees of the centre and it is an insult to Indian technology. It is appealed not to make such comments,” the statement said.
As many as 31 people lost their lives in rain-related incidents in Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari districts due to the ‘historic’ rainfall that occurred on December 17 and 18 leading to severe flooding in several areas.
