The measures taken by Dravidian Stock DMK government to mitigate the monsoon woes needs to be improved and it has not learnt lessons from the yester year’s havocs.
After the record rain that lashed the city last November resulting in marooning most of the city roads, low lying areas, former Gujarat IAS officer V. Thiruppugazhwas appointed to lead an advisory panel on mitigation and management of flood risk in the city. Considered to be a close aid of Prime Minister Modi, Thiruppugazh had initially served as PM’s secretary when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The committee was to suggest to avoid such further recurrence of November 30 damage.
Chenalpattu, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur, had over 2500 tanks and all the water via these tanks was discharged through Adyar, Koyalam, Kosasthalaiyar and KovalamRiver. They further pointed out that the combined hydrological effects of all these factors made it tough to manage the inundation and de-watering during monsoon. As per his recommendations, Tamil Nadu government started desilting of existing storm water drains, construction of new ones with pre cast cement structures. The work moved at a snail pace but Ministers like K N Nehru, SekarBabu and Greater Chennai Corporation mayor Priya gave varying replies to the reporters saying 70,80,90 percent of work completed. After the first spell, their lies were exposed. Water lagging was seen many parts of the city. Also there have been deaths in open and not barricaded drains where works are going on.
When the North east monsoon set in and as predicted Tamil nadu was witnessing incessant but heavy rains. The worst hit was Mayiladuthurai district. Sirkazhi, Vaitheeswarankoil,Thiruvenkadu and other places water entered into temples. Samba crops raised in thousands of acres have been marooned or destroyed. This year with the Mettur dam was opened in June earlier than the usual opening date, farmers were happy that they would reap rich harvest both short term Kuruvai and Samba crop cultivation. Now the rain shattered their hopes.
CM visited his own assembly constituency on Sunday to review the works. It was and is one of the worst affected area in Chennai. On Monday CM Stalin visited flood hit Cuddalore and Mayiladuthurai districts and announced a compensation of Rs 1,000 for the family cardholders in Sirkazhi and Tharangambadi, which have been heavily affected by the rains.
In Sirkazhi met the people lodged in the relief camp at the government-aided Primary School at Pachaiperumanallur and distributed food items to the people. He also subsequently went to the Umayalpathi colony where several thousand acres of land were submerged and the 15-day-old samba nurseries were damaged.
Coming back to Chennai, it is one week of rain, Chennai city is full of crater, path holes, opening of the patched roads, water logging and slow down of movement of vehicles in the arterial roads that led to traffic congestion and chaos It is unpleasant to see the city roads that got riddled with craters to the three spells of intense and incessant rains. Citizen of greater Chennai complains “craters and pits have sprung up on roads which were laid about a year ago. Mayor said Rs.4, 000 have been spent towards flood mitigation measures. But the ground reality is different. It is a telltale evidence of the shady work done by the contractors in collusion with politicians.
All the government spend crores of rupees every year to relay or to do patch up works after the monsoon spell. It is a recurring expense but the road quality is the same. People want concrete road that should be laid at least flood prone areas. Experts say “concrete or bitumen if laid well, roads would withstand rains for at least ten years”. In other states where concrete are being laid to avoid recurrence of heavy expenses. Chennai city is incapable of withstanding an hour torrential rain or incessant overnight rights. The government have been trying to control the situation by bringing out motor pumps to clear waterlogged areas and sending its relief teams to flood-affected neighbourhoods. Water have entered the houses and slums.
The ruling DMK government should view this rain related issues in a serious manner. The extending of cash compensation, carrying out field out visits to review or see the magnitude of the damage, to assuage the feeling of the people, consoling the affected people would only be a publicity oriented short term measures. It should also keep in the mind the rising of sea levels and intensification of heat waves. Experts want Chennai will need to do a lot more to mitigate the impact of extreme weather conditions in the future and to avoid a repeat of the deadly deluge in 2015.It should use experts in A long term solution with zero corruption measure would make it get a place in the pages of history as well winning the hearts of the people.