The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday dispatched the third tranche of relief material to crisis-hit Sri Lanka. With this, the total aid from MK Stalin's government has crossed 40,000 tonnes of relief material.

Stalin had earlier moved a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly to send humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka. The first tranche was sent in May and the second in June.

DMK MP Kanimozhi flagged off the third tranche on Saturday, comprising of 16,595 tonnes of the items, through the sea route from the VOC Port in Tuticorin in the presence of state ministers.

An official release in Chennai recalled Stalin earlier moving the Assembly resolution to provide 40,000 tonnes of rice, 500 tonnes of milk powder and 102 tonnes life-saving drugs to Sri Lanka. It said rfforts were made to identify the type of rice consumed by the Lankan people and the same was procured from 85 rice mills in the state.

With Saturday's shipment, the state has sent 40,000 tonnes of rice, 500 tonnes of milk powder and 102 tonnes of life-saving drugs, with the government allocating a total of Rs 196.83 crore towards this exercise, including cost of transportation by ships.

Of this, Rs 8.22 crore was allocated from the contributions received to the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund and the rest was state allocation, it added.

Sri Lanka has been experiencing its worst economic crisis in the country's history. The acute foreign exchange crisis means the country cannot import even essentials, leading to acute shortage of several essentials such as foodstuff, cooking gas, vehicular fuel, medicines, etc. As there is acute shortage of items, prices have also skyrocketed in recent months.

The Union government has so far sent $3.8 billion-worth of relief material to Sri Lanka since the beginning of the current crisis. India has sent fuel shipments, foodstuff, medicines, etc. to Sri Lanka.

(With PTI inputs)