Deputy LoP RB Udhayakumar urges govt to provide relief to summer rain-hit in Tamil Nadu

MADURAI: AIADMK MLA and Deputy Leader of the Opposition RB Udhayakumar has urged the state government to take stock of the situation due to heavy rains and assess damages to provide relief to those affected.

Several parts of the state received summer rains that witnessed a 16 per cent increase until May 22. Rains lashed southern districts, including Madurai, Dindigul, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari and in parts of Thanjavur, Tiruchy, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam of the Delta region. The government also declared that summer rains claimed the lives of 15 in the state.

Talking to reporters in Madurai on Thursday, Udhayakumar appealed to the government to inspect the extent of damage caused by rain to crops at the earliest and provide adequate compensation to the affected farmers.

‘Increase Mullaiperiyar storage level’

With the early onset of the Southwest monsoon, he explored possibilities of increasing storage level of water in the Mullaiperiyar dam, which meets the drinking water and irrigation requirements of five southern districts, including Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram.

Almost 7 lakh farmers and 80 lakh people in these districts have been relying on the dam.

It was during her tenure in Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa, former chief minister and AIADMK supremo won a legal battle in the Supreme Court, which allowed the state to increase the water level from 136 ft to 142 ft and further to an extent of 152 ft after strengthening the Baby dam, in 2014 for the rights of people.

But, the DMK government remains silent even when the Kerala government is progressing to build a new dam across Mullaiperiyar against the interests of Tamil Nadu.