Chennai: Tamil Nadu municipal administration minister S.P. Velumani's official visit to Australia to study the latest flood mitigation techniques to import solutions for the flood-prone Tamil Nadu has come under severe criticism from the opposition.
The DMK on Saturday found fault with the minister and said that ministers should be leading from the front, particularly when the state is reeling under sheets of flood and question the rationale behind the minister's six-day visit when TN is experiencing the northeast monsoon.
According to secretariat sources, the minister is on a six-day visit to north Australia along with the municipal administration and water supply secretary Harmadher Singh to explore the stormwater techniques adopted by Australia and also look into the desalination process practised on the foreign continent.
Sources also said that the official team would visit the developed counties for the first two days and then interact with the mayors and council members of Australia seeking expertise. The visit was also already cancelled twice and now it has been rescheduled, sources confirmed, adding that the official delegation would also explore on foreign investments to execute the flood mitigation projects for TN.
However, chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami came to the rescue of his cabinet colleague Velumani stating that the programme was planned well in advance. The minister has gone on an official visit to participate in events related desalination and flood mitigation and denied that the allegation that Velumani was holidaying.
“This is the second time that the minister is under flak as earlier he stated that the TN was better than UK and US in handling the floods and now he is gone to visit Australia, at a time when Chennai is suffering monsoon woes,” said former Chennai Mayor M. Subramanian. He also recalled that former chief minister M. Karunanidhi refused such official permission for him when he was mayor of Chennai stating that no elected representatives would leave TN during monsoon.
The minister should have postponed the visit or he should have visited Australia prior to the monsoon, he added.
