TN govt slams defamation case against TOI, Dinamalar

Chennai: Tamil Nadu dailies Dinamalar (Tamil) and Times of India (English) have been slammed against defamation case by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday for their reportage on the reasons for Chennai floods.

The case was filed by the city public prosecutor ML Jegan on behalf of Jayalalithaa, said Jaya TV. He submitted that the contents of the news item in the Tamil daily on December 12, 2015, captioned "Heavy rains were converted into floods by Tamil Nadu government" was defamatory in nature.

According to the petition, the state government and Jayalalithaa are derogatorily reported in the news published by these two newspapers even after a clarification issued by Chief Secretary K.Gnanadesikan on the process followed while opening the sluice gates of the Chembarambakkam Lake and the reason for Chennai going under water last month.
The newspapers had reported that the opening of lake gates to let out the surplus water was delayed due to bureaucratic red tape.

Contravening the allegations, Gnanadesikan, in a statement on December 13, said that official indecision or mismanagement of release of water from the Chembarambakkam lake into the Adyar River were not the causes of the Chennai flooding but was caused primarily due to the very high rainfall in November, which was followed by more rain in Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts on December 1.(IANS)