PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Wednesday asked the State Government to give ₹10,000 for every family as flood relief and take steps to drain the water from the streets as many areas have been flooded since three days.
He also charged that the Corporation and Revenue officials were focussing on clearing flood waters and fallen trees in localities where Ministers and senior officials were living. “Tamil Nadu government has failed to reduce the suffering from cyclone despite information about Cyclone Michaung being made public 10 days ago. It has rained for two days in Chennai. Having started to rain intermittently on afternoon of December 3, it rained continuously from December 3 night until the night of December 4. Some areas in Chennai had recorded 29 centimetres of rain in first 24 hours and 49 centimetres in 48 hours. While this is significant amount of rain, it is not something that could not have been handled,” he said.
Dr. Ramadoss said that State government could have reduce the impact of the rain in Chennai but it has failed to plan ahead. “The storm-water drains, which were constructed at a cost of ₹4,000 crore, has not served its purpose. In Chennai, Kodambakkam, Mambalam, Ashok Nagar, Mylapore, velachery, Madippakkam, Ambattur, Avadi are still facing flooding. Relief workers are unable to even reach certain areas. 50% of the areas have not received electricity yet,” he said. The State government must give up creating a perception that relief work was being done, and start providing relief measures to the people.
Milk shortage
PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday said that shortage of milk should be resolved soon in Chennai city and its suburbs. Milk packets originally priced at ₹25 is being sold at four times its value, he charged.
“Milk is a substitute for food when nothing is available to eat. It is sad that the administration did not make arrangements to make milk packets available freely. Though the Chief Secretary has said that milk packets will be given free of cost, milk was not available in many areas.
