Restoration at snail’s pace in suburbs

Though the civic administration says it has been working on a war footing, the ground situation in a majority of the suburbs still remains worse. “There is no water even for daily needs, leave alone getting water for drinking. Not a single official or party member bothered to enquire and redress our grievances,” says Vaijayanthi of Madipakkam. 

With no power supply, banks and ATMs have been hit. “On Thursday morning, a middle-aged man was hopping from one bank to another to draw cash for the funeral expenses of a relative. When he came to one of the branches in Nanganallur, he was advised not to waste time and go to the city branches beyond Guindy,” said Narayanan, a resident of Nanganallur. “It appears that the government machinery had only plans to tackle issues of flooding, inundation and related problems. They have completely forgotten about a gale like the present one,” says Jaganathan, a retired PWD official. Further, series of meetings were held nearly three months before the monsoon. 

“All of them now look as if they just went through the conditions,” he says, adding, “they should move to the next level in planning strategies considering the change in intensity of natural calamities. It is not the same good old days of storing adequate number of sand bags, medicines and keeping marriage halls and schools ready.” 

The government should have invoked TESMA at times of emergencies bringing all the earthmovers, lorries and trucks for relief and restoration, besides boats and life jackets. The earthmovers and lorries should be despatched to the affected areas together. They should be deputed to clear the green garbage. Then after 3 or 4 hours later, the electricity board technicians should be drafted to the areas that are marked as cleared to restore power supply. Similarly, the Metro Water officials can also be deployed during the same time to check if the supply lines are alright, suggests Jaganathan. Echoing similar views, Bhima Rao, former CPM MLA of Maduravoyal, said that the civic body has not made proper use of the manpower and the machinery. 

A proof of this is the city that has not become fully normal even after 96 hours of relief and restoration work. “The entire electricity network, including transformers, should be made underground. This will prevent unnecessary disruptions whether it is monsoon or the normal days,” says Bhima Rao adding, “they also have to find a well-protected method to ensure water supply is not disturbed due to any reason. All the more water and power are essentials for the daily life in the entire city.” To drive home his point, the former MLA said that when the government was able to carry out mass scale exercises like enrolment of Aadhaar and voter card distribution, these two essential services for city like Chennai should be easily possible for them.