CHENNAI: A man who was trying the cross the Adyar River at Tiruneermalai on Wednesday was washed away in the floods caused by the recent rains and was found dead on Thursday.
The locals have blamed the tragic death on the inordinate delay by the government authorities in renovating a bridge nearby. It is because of this that the victim TCM Samandhamoorthy had to take the mud road across the river despite the floods.
The 48-year-old Samandhamoorthy was working as a watchman at one of the industries in the nearby Thirumudivakkam's industrial estate. He used to walk every day for three kilometres through the same route to reach his workplace. After the recent rains, the highway officials had cut the mud road to allow free flow of the water and motorists were told to take a different route that is said to be about 12 kilometres long.
"For people who have vehicles, they can take the 12-13 kilometre diversion but for people like us who are not well off, we have to walk and this is the only short route we can take," said S Murugan, his 30-year-old son who also works at an industry in Thirumudivakkam.
Samandhamoorthy is survived by his wife, who works as a panchayat sanitary worker, three sons and two daughters. "He made only around Rs 5000 a month which is important for a family like ours but it was not worth risking his life. Still, he never missed a day's work," said Murugan.
As Express has reported earlier, residents of Tiruneermalai have expressed concerns time and again of the mud road being flooded. This was not the first flooding; the road was also flooded during the showers in early September although it was not as severe as now.
"The mud road was laid because of the delay in the completion of the bridge over Adyar in Tiruneermalai. We have constantly asked officials to speed up work and complete the bridge but it was not done," said
Pugalvendhan V, an activist who has been fighting along with local residents for the completion of the bridge as per schedule.
The bridge, to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 2.48 crores, was to be completed at the end of May this year, according to the response to an RTI filed by Pughalvendhan. However, work began only at the end of March this year and is still going on.
When contacted, a senior police official confirmed that Samandhamoorthy had drowned and said that the body was found after local washerfolk alerted them. A case has been registered at the Shankar Nagar station under CrPC section 174 (unnatural death)