CHENNAI: Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Thursday rubbished the allegations of the opposition, particularly the DMK, about the release of water from Chembarambakkam lake during the heavy rains in the first week of December.
Speaking at the general council meeting at Tiruvanmiyur, the Chief Minister said everyone knew that only due to heavy rains, there was stagnation of water in some districts and the ground floor of buildings was submerged in flood water in some other places. But the opposition had been unleashing a false propaganda that the delay in the release of water from Chembarambakkam was responsible for flooding.
“Though the Chief Secretary had issued a detailed statement on this issue, the opposition parties have been parroting their lies and also putting forth an illogical argument that the Chief Minister was responsible for this, as she had been issuing orders for opening dams for irrigation. “For irrigation, water is released from dams after getting approval from the Chief Minister. However, during the rainy seasons, concerned engineers alone order release of water from dams after taking into account the safety of the dams. The same practice was in vogue during the previous DMK regime too and Karunanidhi himself had ordered release of water on many occasions,” she observed.
An official release issued on October 1, 2010 said the then CM M Karunanidhi ordered release of water from Vaigai dam following a request from M K Alagiri. On another occasion, Madurai District Collector, on October 23, 2009, told the farmers the file regarding the opening of Vaigai dam was pending before the CM and that he had reminded his secretary about this.
“These examples show clearly that usually, the Chief Minister issues orders for release of water for irrigation. The DMK men are now engaged in false propaganda,” she added. She pointed out that her statement on December 1 mentioned that water was being released from 45 reservoirs under the control of the State PWD.