Complete flood mitigation work soon: Ex-CM Panneerselvam

Press Trust of India Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Friday appealed to the state government to expedite the flood mitigation work before a series of spells of the northeast monsoon inundate Chennai and its suburbs. Expressing in a similar vein, PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, while urging the government to complete the flood mitigation quickly, demanded a compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre of paddy crop destroyed in the torrential rain. Panneerselvam said, “Chennai and suburbs could not withstand a day’s heavy rain on October 15 when the northeast monsoon commenced. Several parts were inundated and rainwater entered houses. The flooding happened despite the state government claiming that only 30 per cent of the flood mitigation work remained to be completed.” Though the Thiruppugazh Committee on Chennai flood disaster mitigation and management submitted its final report to Chief Minister M K Stalin in March 2023, the state government had not completed the work to avert flooding, he alleged.

“The government’s admission that still 30 per cent of the work remained to be completed only shows that it is not concerned about the people,” Panneerselvam, who heads the AIADMK Workers’ Rights Retrieval Committee, said in a statement here. He said Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remark that “water has not stagnated in Greater Chennai Corporation areas” amounted to “hiding a pumpkin in a plate of rice.” While speaking to reporters after inspecting the work to bail out water, recently, Udhayanidhi told reporters in response to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s demand for a white paper, that “the water has not stagnated in GCC areas. This is the white paper.” Had there been rain on October 16 and 17 as predicted by the India Meteorological Department, the government’s functioning would have been exposed, Panneerselvam said.