Cyclone Fengal: Central team likely to assess flood damage in TN

CHENNAI: A multi-departmental team of the Central government is likely to visit Tamil Nadu on Friday to assess the damages caused by Cyclone Fengal.

It has been reliably learnt that a team of union government officials representing various departments may be in the state for a few days from Friday, during which they will assess the damages in the six cyclone-ravaged districts, including Villupuram, Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, and Kallakurichi.

The Centre will dispatch the team barely a couple of days after Chief Minister MK Stalin appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to depute a damage assessment team when he called the CM to inquire about the extent of the devastation caused by the deluge.

CM Stalin has already sought an interim relief of Rs 2,000 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund.

The ruling DMK has been at loggerheads with the Centre over the ‘grossly inadequate’ Rs 276 crore allotted, against Rs 37,000 crore sought by the state, after a similar assessment by a central team.

The team would be arriving after a situation report of the union Home Ministry ‘underreported’ the extent of devastation in the state.

Meanwhile, the State Water Resources Department has deployed six to seven teams of engineers from Coimbatore, Madurai, and Tiruchy regions, that were not affected by the cyclone, to assess the damages to water bodies and supply chains in Chennai.

The team will make a quick assessment of the extent of the damage to tanks and channels in Krishnagiri, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, and Cuddalore districts – that collectively have 13 reservoirs and more than 2,300 tanks -- so that temporary restoration works can be carried out.