471 places waterlogged in Chennai; 2,537 complaints received: Govt

CHENNAI: As many as 471 places in the city remain waterlogged in the city nearly 36 hours after the torrential rains stopped in the city.

Briefing media persons at the state secretariat in the company of chief secretary Shiv Das Meena, state Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) secretary D Karthikeyan said that about 471 places, including small streets remain waterlogged.

The number of inundated areas was over 1,000 Tuesday, it was reduced to 471 places Thursday, he added. Reasoning that the Otteri Nalla, one of the major flood carriers in the city, was brimming Tuesday, but the water flow has reduced in the channel Wednesday and hence the flood water was receding in the adjoining areas.

Disaster Control centre received 2,537 complaints; 1,694 attended

Chief Secretary Mr Meena said that the State Disaster Control Centre has received 2,537 complaints and about 1,694 complaints were attended and another 843 pending complaints would be attended before Thursday evening.

Adding that they were following the complaints posted through Twitter handles and posting them on groups comprising all monitoring officer, the Chief Secretary said that a team headed by a senior secretary level officer is looking to the complaints.

He also added that earth movers were deployed in the mouth of Adyar River, Cooum River and the Buckingham Canal to ensure easy draining of flood water into the Bay of Bengal.

Reacting to a specific query on continued inundation in areas adjoining the IT corridor, Shiv Das Meena admitted to Perumbakkam, Semmannchery, Madipakkam, Velachery and Pallikaranai still remaining inundated and said that the flood waters have receded well and blocks in Okkiyam Maduvu was being cleared using 'floating' earthmovers to drain the flood water soon.

The government has launched sanitation drives in the areas with 25,000 staff of the Greater Chennai Corporation, including contract staff who are working in a shift basis.

Noting that an estimated 75,000 members from electricity, fire, highways and police departments were engaged in the relief works, the CS said that the government has reached people everywhere.

Choppers used to drop food packs

On food distribution, he said that the government has supplied an estimated 37 lakh food packets, including 2,36,000 food packets on Wednesday. Adding that apart from people in the relief centres, food packets were distributed to people stranded in flooded areas using helicopters.

Helicopters did two sorties on Tuesday in North Chennai areas like Sadayankuppam. Today, choppers did another four sorties covering Sadyankuppam in North Chennai and Perumbakkam, Madipakkam and Ram Nagar in South Chennai.

About 25,000 food packets were dropped on Wednesday using helicopters, he said, adding that assessment of loss and damages was on.

CS cautions against panic buying, hoarding

When reporters drew his attention to acute milk shortage and overpricing in some places, the Chief Secretary appealed to the people not to buy and stock essential commodities beyond requirement in panic.

Conceding that they came across complaints of overpricing by exploiting supply demand mismatch, Shiv Das Meena said that they must not hoard essential commodities and those found selling in excess of the MRP rule would be strictly dealt with.

Denying charges of delay in reaching out to stranded people, he said that two officers were additionally deployed for Sholinganallur and six officers for Madipakkam area to attend to the flooded areas and they were working 24x7.