CHENNAI: Several parts of Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been ravaged by heavy rains resulting in the death of at least 71 people.
“The death toll due to heavy rains and flooding in Tamil Nadu has risen to 71. From Karnataka to Puducherry, the rain fury continued to hit other parts of southern India as well” Indian channel CNN-IBN reported Monday evening.
Popular places across Chennai, like the Marina Beach, remained flooded after the incessant rainfall.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa faced the rain fury on Monday when her convoy was stuck in the jam when she was visiting her constituency Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar.
With her government facing opposition flak over the handling of the rain fury, Jayalalithaa said normalcy will return soon as the government machinery is working day and night to provide relief to the people.
Jayalalithaa told people that while the north-east monsoon stretches for a three-month period from October to December, a significant part of it had been realised in “a few days.” She added that her government had put in all adequate preventive measures.
“When rains that should have been realised in three months lash within a few days, any number of preventive measures will not suffice as stagnation and resulting damage are unavoidable,” she said.
However, as soon as it was known that people were suffering due to the monsoon fury, the government machinery was in full swing, with ministers and officials including those from police and Fire and Rescue Services working “relentlessly day and night” to restore normalcy while relief measures had been taken up on “war-footing,” she said.
“People need not worry. I am there in support of you; so is the government. Normalcy will return soon and the government machinery is working day and night to ensure that,” she said.
And this is not the end of woes for Chennai residents as the Met department predicted more rains in the Tamil Nadu capital and other coastal areas.
While schools and colleges remain shut, suburban train services have been disrupted as well.
The state government has evacuated people living in low lying areas. Met officials had earlier said that a low pressure trough had formed in the south east Bay of Bengal and it could intensify into a depression.
The situation is equally grim in other parts of the state. For instance in Vellore, a group of villagers are living in fear that the rains may wash away their homes as a nearby lake is not maintained well.
