For the first time after the Tamil Nadu Governor re-allocated the portfolios of ailing Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to him last week, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam on Wednesday presided over a Cabinet meeting.
Although the government did not release details of the meeting, the Cabinet is understood to have deliberated on the dispute with Karnataka, besides other subjects.
The meeting comes ahead of the scheduled onset of the North-east Monsoon later this month. The rains in December last year had wreaked havoc, flooding Chennai and nearby districts.
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The government released photographs of Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, where Mr. Panneerselvam was seen seated with a picture of Ms. Jayalalithaa placed on his desk.
The nearly hour-long meeting was held in the backdrop of demands by Opposition parties for an all-party meeting on the Cauvery issue.
Farmers’ bodies and political parties had staged a two-day State-wide rail blockade ending Tuesday, urging the Centre to constitute a Cauvery management board.
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The last Cabinet meeting held by Ms. Jayalalithaa was in July to discuss the State budget.
Ms. Jayalalithaa was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals on September 22 for fever and dehydration.
A specialist from London, besides three-member team of doctors from the AIIMS, New Delhi, had examined her.