Anger simmers as city stillstuck in stagnant rainwater

CHENNAI: Three days after Cyclone Michaung-induced rainfall threw life out of gear in the capital Chennai, several parts of the city and its suburbs resembled a ghost town on Wednesday, with the residents, marooned in stinking stagnant water, abandoning their residences, and blaming the government machinery for failing to provide timely assistance. Union Minister Rajnath Singh and MoS L Murugan, meanwhile, would take an aerial survey of flood-hit areas and meet Chief Minister MK Stalin to discuss the cyclone relief works on Thursday, highly placed sources said.

According to Municipal Administration and Water Supply Secretary D Karthikeyan, 471 areas have been identified as worst affected by the cyclone and the heavy downpour. Most of the residents complained of non-supply of food and milk and were looking for choppers that were pressed into service to distribute food packets. Pictures of NDRF rescuing families and the public staging road roko and gheraoing ministers and MLAs resonated with the infamous memoirs of the 2015 flash floods in Chennai.

Open terraces turned out to be the only safe area for the residents of marooned areas in Madippakkam, Mudichur, Maduravoyal, West Tambaram, Nolambur, Kundrathur, Velachery, Sholinganallur, Perumbakkam, Navalur and Pallikkaranai. Several wards in north and central Chennai suffered power outages for the fourth day.

“Electricity was cut on Sunday late night and it is the fourth night without power. When the Chennai mayor was asked to restore power, the interaction turned ugly with the public booing the mayor at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in Jamalia,” said S Balan, a resident of north Chennai.

Chennai recorded more than a dozen demonstrations and road roko demanding power supply and milk packets. DMK north Chennai strongman and HR&CE Minister PK Sekar Babu was also not spared. The public gheraoed the minister during his flood relief visit in Tondiarpet.