Leader of the Opposition Edapadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday accused Chief Minister M.K. Stalin of trying to stall the Smart City project in Chennai by making corruption charges.
He charged Mr. Stalin with making a “defamatory statement” and said storm-water drainage was given importance under the project executed in many municipal corporations. He visited rain-affected areas in Kolathur, Harbour, Villivakkam and R.K. Nagar, with party colleagues D. Jayakumar and J.C.D. Prabhakar.
Had precautionary measures been taken and coordinating officers posted, people would not have been affected; inundation could have been averted; and relief work could have been undertaken, he said. When the AIADMK was in power, an integrated storm-water drainage project for the Cooum and Adyar was executed at a cost of ₹1,385 crore, covering 406 km, he recalled.
Pointing out that Mr. Stalin had served as Chennai Mayor and Local Administration Minister and Health Minister Ma Subramanian had also held the post of Chennai Mayor during 2006-11, Mr. Palaniswami wanted to know what they had done for mitigating inundation. Work to desilt waterbodies should have been executed well before the monsoon started, he said.
In a statement, AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam called upon the government to provide ₹20,000 in assistance to each rain-affected family; extend the deadline for power bill payments; restore the power supply immediately in areas where the rainwater had receded; and supply vegetables at concessional rates through cooperative societies.
V.K. Sasikala, claiming to be the AIADMK general secretary, said in a statement that several parts of the city were still under water. As done when Jayalalithaa was the Chief Minister, high-capacity pumps should be requisitioned from other districts to drain out water. One of the reasons for the inundation was the construction of flyovers on major roads, for which she held the previous DMK Government responsible.
