Chennai suburban residents get monsoon ready

Chennai: 2015 floods and 2016 cyclone – Pallavaram, Chrompet, Anakaputhur and other suburbs have been through it all.

To make sure that the locality does not suffer once again, the Pallavaram Municipality held a ‘monsoon preparedness’ meeting that was chaired by Amudha, IAS, Kanchipuram Collector, Chandramohan IAS (Commercial Tax Secretary) and was attended by the Municipal Engineer, PWD, Town Panchayat and TNEB authorities.

Instructions were given to de-silt the stormwater drains by 15 October and acquire safety equipment in case of any sudden breakout.

Sources from Pallavaram Municipality said,”We have already began clearing up the drains and scaling the efforts. In addition to which, 25 motors with varying horse power capacities are in place to pump out water during monsoon, 25 power saws to remove fallen trees, 1000 sand bags and power generators have been arranged. Officials in the Municipality are also allotted various duties.”

“I have given a petition detailing the damages caused by the previous disasters in Thirumalai Nagar, water channels in Keelkattalai, Thiruneermalai, Thangal, Pammal, Balaji Nagar etc., and requested to fix these at the earliest before the monsoon sets in,” said E Karunanidhi, MLA of Pallavaram constituency.

The meeting also gave an opportunity to the president of Federation of Civic and Welfare Association of Pallavapuram (FCWAP), Santhanam V, to represent the residents of the area and discuss key problems.

“The disposed garbage along the Nemilicherry lake which was not removed by the Public Works’ Department (PWD), would lead to severe repercussions if not cleared before the rains. All the measures taken by residents to reclaim the waterbody too would be futile. A complaint requesting the same was handed over to the Collector and other heads,” said Santhanam.

However, several residents voiced out their angst against the Municipality’s inaction.

“The drains that run in Bashyam Nagar and Purushottam Nagar in Chrompet lie choked with plastic wrappers. What used to be 32 feet wide is just 1.5 feet. When I had a word with the officials, I was told that they are falling in short of employees,” said a resident of BBR Nagar.