TN: Michaung took a political turn

Chennai: Two days after Cyclone Michaung crossed the coast leaving behind a trail of devastation and the State machinery struggling to provide succour to the people, politics took centre stage with leaders of various parties firing salvos at the State government or demanding more assistance for relief operations from the Union Government.

Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami and many other political leaders asked the State government what happened to the scheme undertaken for Rs 4000 crore to lay stormwater drainage systems in Chennai and alleged that work was not completed by the government.

Palaniswami said that the stormwater drainage scheme was introduced by his earlier AIADMK government but the DMK government did not implement it properly which was the cause of the present chaos that had gripped the capital city for the past three days, throwing life out of gear.

He accused the authorities of not meeting the essential needs of the people lodged in the relief camps by not providing them with food and medical facilities and added that in the AIADMK regime people taking shelter in the relief camps were taken care of properly.

Alleging that the disconnection of electricity to people after the cyclone was to black out the real picture of the devastation, he urged the government to undertake relief operations on a war footing and restore power supply.

Stressing the need to clear water stagnation immediately, he said that the people could not wait till the government brought giant motor pumps from Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) in Neyveli, charging the government with failure to take appropriate preventive action when the Meteorological Department had issued warning about the impending rains.

PMK founder S Ramadoss demanded a solatium of Rs 10,000 for every family in Chennai and its surroundings that had suffered material and livelihood loss due to the rains. In a statement on Wednesday, he blamed the government for not taking preventive steps despite being warned by the weather department about the impending disaster well in advance.

Blaming the government for not being fully involved in relief operations and the various departments lacking in coordination, he urged the authorities to take up work seriously in providing succor to the affected people.

The kind of flooding in the city and adjoining areas had proved that the Rs 4000 crore spent on laying storm water drainage systems had not served the purpose and the areas where the drainage work was going on in the last two years had faced more inundation, he said.

Though the rainfall recorded – 29 cm in 24 hours in some places and 49 cm in 48 hours – was unprecedented it was not on a scale that was unmanageable and the weather department had issued advanced warning too, he said.

BJP leaders Narayanan Tirupati and Vanathi Srinivasan, MLA, too, wondered what happened to the Rs 4000 crore dumped in laying the drainage system. Narayanan also wanted the government to come clean on what the committee on flood mitigation set up under the chairmanship of former Gujarat cadre IAS officer V Thiruppugazh had recommended and how many times the panel had met.