"What Have You Been Doing Since 2015?": High Court Pulls UP Civic Body On Chennai Flooding

Another year and another round of rains have brought the city of Chennai to a standstill. Monsoon has lashed parts of the city and many areas have witnessed waterlogging in the past four days.

The Chennai civic body has been pulled up by the Madras High Court as the city struggled with floods since Saturday. The court has warned that it would take up the matter on its own if the situation does not improve by coming Friday or Saturday.

BCCL

Chennai and several other parts of Tamil Nadu have been receiving heavy rainfall, leading to waterlogging and damage to homes. At least five people have died because of the rain and over 1,400 have been moved to relief camps so far. 263 huts and 70 houses have been damaged.

Madras HC's ruling

On Tuesday, the Madras High Court brought up the flooding in Chennai while hearing a public interest litigation on removing encroachments to ensure that roads in the city are wide enough, The New Indian Express reported.

"What have you been doing since 2015 floods? It is a pity that half the year we long for water and rest of the year we are flooded or die in water," the court observed while hearing a plea for clearing of encroachments.

Agencies

The floods in Chennai in 2015 were the worst the city had experienced in a century. The floods had killed 289 people, submerged 23.25 lakh homes, disrupted power and telecommunication services and caused extensive damage to public and private property.

¡°We are not a backward state,¡± the judge said. ¡°We are the most advanced state on many parameters. This cannot be the state of a leading state in the country.¡± The judge pointed out that in some cases, the state government itself had allegedly encroached upon water bodies.

Politics galore

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has blamed the erstwhile AIADMK government for the waterlogging in the state capital.

TOI

"Earlier government had done nothing, we are working to overcome all. We don't know what they did with the Smart City funds from the Union government. They did not work and just collected commission. We would institute an inquiry commission," he said, adding that the waterlogging in the city has receded to a certain extent.

City's revival underway

As the meteorological department warned about heavy to very heavy rainfall on Tuesday, the Chennai Corporation deployed 41 boats to rescue people in vulnerable low-lying areas.

The civic body has deployed 570 giant pumps and 200 heavy duty pumps and teams are ready at all zones with power saws, earth movers and generator sets.

The Hindu

The state government has appointed five senior bureaucrats as nodal officers to monitor preventive measures and relief in Chennai and Chengalpattu in view of the met department warning.

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