Remember 289 deaths during 2015 floods; people will laugh at you: KN Nehru shoots at EPS

CHENNAI: State municipal administration minister K N Nehru on Monday shot back at Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami for criticising Chief Minister M K Stalin’s northeast monsoon’s preparedness meeting and wondered if the LoP remembers the 289 deaths during the 2015 floods in Chennai.

Nehru also accused EPS of maligning the preventive measures undertaken by the State for political reasons.

Slamming EPS for “maligning the preventive measures of the state government”, Nehru referred to the instructions given by the CM during the September 30 monsoon preparedness meeting and said that the LoP has “woken up from his slumber now and issued a statement without reading media reports about the meeting.”

It was only because of the preventive measures taken then by the government that major damages have been averted in Coimbatore, Madurai, Pudukottai, Salem and Tiruppur districts despite heavy rains there.

Pointing to the meeting held Monday in the wake of a red alert sounded by the met department for Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur, Nehru said, “If the CM had not held the review meeting, he (EPS) would have asked why such a meeting was not held. Is there a history of organising such review meetings on preventive measures during the previous AIADMK regime?”

Reminding EPS of the CAG report attributing the 289 deaths caused by the opening of Chembarambakkam reservoir during the 2015 floods to “human error” during the previous AIADMK regime, Nehru said that the people of Tamilnadu would only laugh at EPS for questioning the review meeting held to prevent 2015 like deaths.

Lampooning EPS for criticising the appointment of Udhayanidhi as deputy CM and the monsoon preparedness review meeting chaired by him in Greater Chennai Corporation recently, the Municipal Administration minister asked why did EPS award deputy CM post to OPS and denied it to SP Velumani. Can EPS who used Deputy CM post as a shield to safeguard his government deserve to talk about publicity? “Looks like someone has woken EPS up from his slumber and advised him to issue a statement daily for the ensuing Assembly poll. Hence, he has been pushed to the extreme of politicising issues on flimsy grounds.”