CHENNAI: Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani on Tuesday claimed the Tamil Nadu government has made better arrangements than the United States and the United Kingdom in flood management in the State.
“Recently, Bengaluru faced heavy rain. Sometime ago, there were reports about floods in London and in the United States and that everything was floating there. But, in the State and in Chennai, we have made better arrangements for managing floods than the US and London (UK). Steps that have not been taken by even developed countries have been taken by the Tamil Nadu government. Late chief minister J Jayalalithaa had procured all modern equipment required for flood management and we have been praised for our works too,” the minister said while responding to media queries here after inspecting rain-affected areas.
Velumani said steps were being taken on a warfooting in all rural and urban local bodies. “Special attention is being paid to districts affected by heavy rain. IAS officers have been appointed to all 32 districts to monitor Northeast monsoon works. In Chennai alone, 17 IAS officers are monitoring rain-related works,” he said.
The minister fielded a volley of questions from mediapersons on rain-related incidents, particularly about water stagnation. Referring to the charges levelled by Leader of Opposition M K Stalin on problems faced by people in many areas due to heavy rain, he said, “making accusations are okay for the Opposition leader.” But it would be inappropriate for him to say that no preparatory work had been done to face the monsoon.
The situation was the worst during the DMK rule. In one particular year during the DMK rule, more than 1,400 places had water stagnation. At that point in time, water could not be drained for two weeks. “Now, that is not the situation, we have taken enough steps to remove stagnated water and move people affected in certain areas to safer places and provided them with basic needs,” he said.