Gnanadesikan said the allegations were not supported by the water release data of the reservoir.
Chief secretary K. Gnanadesikan Sunday dismissed media reports that the flooding of Chennai city was due to official indecision or mismanagement of release of water from the Chembarambakkam lake into the Adyar river.
Chennai: Chief secretary K. Gnanadesikan Sunday dismissed media reports that the flooding of Chennai city was due to official indecision or mismanagement of release of water from the Chembarambakkam lake into the Adyar river. He also clarified that Indian Meteorological department did not issue any advisory about 50 cm rainfall.
In a 13-page statement, Gnanadesikan said the flooding was caused primarily due to the very high rainfall in November, which was followed by more rain in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts on December 1.
“The floods in Chennai on December 1, 2015 was a rarest of rare natural calamity and were not caused by any failure in the management of water releases from reservoirs,” Mr Gnanadesikan said, adding that greater inundation of the city was prevented due to the continuous work of keeping the Adyar river mouth open for free flow helped in the faster discharge of the flood waters.
The chief secretary came out with a point by point rebuttal on the release of water from Chembarambakkam in the wake of Opposition parties seeking a probe into the alleged delay in decision making in the opening of surplus water that led to unprecedented floods in the city.
In his first official response after the deluge, Mr Gnanadesikan dismissed as “malicious” and “canards” the allegations that engineers present at the Chembarambakkam lake were waiting for instructions from the principal secretary of the Public Works Department and the chief secretary and the imputation that the officers were awaiting clearance from Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
He said the allegations were not supported by the water release data of the reservoir. The chief secretary said that in accordance with the rules for flood regulation of the compendium of rules of regulation, the water level in the tank was maintained at 22.05 feet on November 30 as against its full reservoir capacity of 24 ft. He said that as per the rules, the water level should be maintained at two feet below full tank level during the active monsoon period.
Stating that prior intimation of stepping up of discharge was communicated to district collectors of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur and the Commissioner of Police to take precautionary measures, Gnanadesikan said over 47,300 people living in the low lying areas were evacuated.
He said that many tanks were breached due to heavy rains and the water flowed into the Adyar river. “The flow in Adyar river reached its full capacity due to the surplus from Chembarambakkam tank, the inflow from the catchment areas of Adyar within Chennai city and the surplus received from the other tanks,” he said.
“In view of the heavy flow in the Adyar river, the high intensity runoff of local rainfall in Chennai city and adjoining urban areas could not fully drain into the Adyar and hence contributed to the inundation of the city," he said.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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