Cyclone Gaja: Central team holds talks with TN Chief Minister

Senior bureaucrat Daniel E Richard from the Union Home Ministry was briefed about the loss of property and lives. 

A video documentary and the photographs were also shown for the delegation that is now touring

the cyclone-hit pockets of Tamil Nadu.

A battery of senior ministers D Jayakumar, C Ve Shanmugam and RB Udayakumar along with senior officials took turns to narrate how Gaja struck Nagapattinam and Pudhukottai. 

The five-member team will visit Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur and Tiruchy. Damages caused in Dindigul and Kodaikanal were also briefed to the visiting team.

“The officials belong to various departments of Central government ranging from Finance, Power and Agriculture. The team will complete its assessment in the next three days starting with a visit to Pudukkottai and Tiruchy,” an official source said.

Daniel E Richard told reporters that enumeration will be completed in three days and the report will be handed over to the Centre at the earliest. Commissioner of Revenue Administration and Disaster Management K Sathyagopal told reporters before leaving with the team for Pudukkottai that the team will visit all the districts affected by cyclone gaja and will cover worst affected areas.

The team, on its first day of inspection, assessed the damage to standing paddy crops, coconut farms, banana plantations, houses and electricity poles that had collapsed in Pudukottai.

Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, State Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar and Transport Minister MR Vijayabhaskar accompanied the central team during their visit. The team also inspected the restoration of electric poles in the district. On Sunday, the team is likely to visit Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts.

On Monday the team will tour the worst affected Nagapattinam district, official sources said.

Gaja which battered Tamil Nadu on November 16, has claimed 63 lives, with Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Pudukottai being the worst affected districts. The state has demanded a total sum of Rs 14,910 crore towards relief and rehabilitation package under the Centre’s natural calamities corpus.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday announced a solatium of Rs 15 lakh to the families of each of the two workers of state-run power utility, Tangedco who were electrocuted while repairing electricity poles damaged due to cyclone Gaja. 

Condoling the deaths of the two workers, he said one person from each of their families would also be provided employment in a government enterprise. 

The two workers of the electricity monolith Tangedco -Shanmugam and Murgesan- were electrocuted days ago while they were restoring damaged power poles at Nagapattinam and Pudukottai districts respectively. “I have ordered the release of Rs 15 lakh -Rs 13 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund and Rs 2 lakh from the Tangedco funds- to their families,” Palaniswami said in an official release. 

As many as 1,13,566 electricity poles, 1,082 transformers and 194 substations were damaged due to the severe cyclonic storm ‘Gaja.’ The Chief Minister also lauded the untiring efforts of the 24,941 Tangedco workers who are involved in restoring the electricity infrastructure in the Gaja hit districts including Nagapattinam, Pudukkottai and Tiruvarur.