Chennai: Tamil Nadu capital Chennai has seen light to moderate showers whereas the coastal areas have witnessed heavy rains over the last two days. The Met department has said that Northeast monsoon is set to become severe, and that rains will continue for the next three months.
North Chennai is already inundated and a few low-lying areas, including Anna Nagar, are water-logged. The water level has risen by 1.5 feet at Chembarambakkam Lake. An excessive discharge of water from this lake had led to floods in 2015.
Meanwhile, a wall collapsed in Cuddalore district due to heavy rains leaving one dead.
The AIADMK-led government said that it had taken all the measures and "98% of the problem had been solved already". The government also asserted that it was prepared better than the United States and the United Kingdom.
SP Velumani, minister for municipal administration and rural development, said: "We have taken better steps than US or UK to control floods. Recently, heavy rains lashed London and America, but I assure we’ve done more work compared to these developed nations."
Activists, however, differ with the view of government, saying that nothing had been done to handle the flood-like situation since the December 2015 deluge.
Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said: "We have taken necessary measures that were taken by our Amma. Maybe in one or two places, the condition is like what media have indicated. We are having capacities which foreign countries have."
Arrapor Iyakkam, a non-government organisation, has been raising the issue and has held multiple discussions with officials and the PWD department.
Reacting to Ministers' claims, Arappor Iyakkam convenor Jayaram Venkatesan said: "It is only laughable. The government hasn't learned anything from 2015. They haven't released how much funds were allocated, list of waterbodies distilled or list of stormwater drains distilled. They have not addressed the major problems of encroachment, garbage dumping into waterbodies, sewage mixing in waterbodies or distilling of them. Let them first release the list of work done and money spent on flood preparedness."
Dr. S. Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said: "In the last 24 hours, 21 places of Tamil Nadu have received heavy rains and 16 places received very heavy rains. According to the next 24-hour forecast, heavy rains are expected in coastal areas of Tamil Nadu."
Comments
0 comment