With certain pockets of Villivakkam remaining inundated since Sunday morning, residents charged that Greater Chennai Corporation has not made enough efforts to drain the water.
Localities that had ankle-deep to knee-deep water included the low-income neighbourhoods of Valliammal Nagar, Amman Kuttai and Balaramapuram. G. Karthikeyan, a resident of Valliammal Nagar, said that none of the officials visited the area and initiated measures to drain water until Tuesday. “We have not been asked to go to any shelters. Water has entered our houses. We are spending the nights by sitting on chairs. Some people are sleeping under the Padi flyover,” he said.
N. Kamatchi, another resident, said public toilets that were used by the locals have been rendered useless because of the inundation. “There is no power in our area for the past three days,” she said.
K.P. Nikhil Dev, a Villivakkam resident and a functionary of Democratic Youth Federation of India, who has been a volunteer for the relief work, said that GCC officials had ensured supply of cooked food in the locality.
No relief measures yet
“We are helping them in the distribution and there is no shortage of food. However, no measures have been taken to bring life back to normalcy. With more rain expected, the situation may worsen further,” he said.
Acknowledging that there was inundation, an official from the Greater Chennai Corporation, said that pumps have been deployed on Tuesday to drain the water. He said that Tangedco officials were working to restore power connection in the area.
