Councillor swims to save Mudichur locals

 

Independent councillor M. Selvamani is now a popular figure on social media, as he swam continuously for two days baling out local residents from their flooded homes.

 “Believe me, he is our area councillor, (Selvamani) going for the rescue. He was completely in the water for the whole day by bringing out many families out of danger zone,” Harish Kumar posted on Facebook, sharing the picture of local councillor in action. The post went  viral inviting close to 8,000 likes and 99 comments in his Facebook account last week.

 

“I am the only independent candidate in my town panchayat with 600 plus votes as margin in my last polls. How can I forget them?” Selvamani asked. “Further the encouragement given by district collector R. Gajalakshmi and senior officer P. Amudha made me swim in 10-foot deep water-logged areas,” he added. 

 

“The voice of local residents screaming for help still rings in my ears. It was not easy to convince people wade through the chest deep water as they were hesitant to leave their houses locked,” he recalled. In Tambaram, another worst hit area, the ward level functionaries of ruling AIADMK and Congress hired boats, roped in local youth to rescue residents from Krishna Nagar and CTO colony.

 

“When it comes to politics, we are arch rivals, but we worked together. And  most of the flood victims were calling us by our names for rescue,” said AIADMK ward secretary Star Prabhakar adding that his party leadership had instructed party workers to continue the relief work and help residents get back their lost documents.