Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for the floods in the state to be declared a national calamity. She also proposed measures that could help alleviate people’s suffering, PTI reported. Among the steps she suggested were granting soft loans, expediting the settlement of insurance claims and directing banks to implement a moratorium on collecting EMIs. In addition, she proposed that banks impose an excise duty exemption till March 31, 2016, on domestic electrical appliances and kitchen equipment to be sold in flood-ravaged areas.

Following a two-day break from incessant downpour, Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu were hit by heavy rainfall again on Wednesday. The Meteorological Department has predicted that the region is likely to get more rainfall in the next 24 hours. "Rain or thundershowers will occur in many places in interior Tamil Nadu and in a few coastal places and Puducherry," a MeT Department official told PTI.

In Cuddalore, one of the worst-hit regions, over one lakh people continue to stay in relief camps. Thousands of sanitation workers continued to remove heaps of stinking garbage littered on the streets to prevent the outbreak of epidemics. The production of milk and milk powder has been stepped up in the state, according to the report.