Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy has asked the Centre to provide additional financial packages to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. During his interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video-conferencing, he said the state fares very well in several parameters in controlling the viral disease.<br />'' <br />''AIR correspondent reports, during his interaction with the Prime Minister, the chief minister demanded the Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness package to be stepped up to 3,000 crore rupees. As the state has exhausted the State Disaster Response and Mitigation Fund, he has requested an ad-hoc grant of 1,000 crore rupees from the National Disaster Relief Fund to fight the pandemic.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">In addition, he has also pressed for releasing the pending Custom Milled Rice subsidy of 1,321 crore rupees to facilitate paddy procurement. Mr Palaniswamy has put the demand to the Centre to share 50 percent of the cost of Covid-19 tests, saying every day about 6.8 crore rupees is being spent, as about 85-thousand tests are being carried a day nowadays, using the RT-PCR kits. </span><br />