Chennai: PMK’s chief ministerial candidate Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday said that he would strive to supply 135 litres per capita per day by developing new water bodies to increase storage capacity if his party was voted to power.
Delivering a lecture on the new urban agenda for Chennai Metropolitan area as part of seven cities seminar series on Tamil Nadu’s development, Dr Anbumani said that the lakes in and around the city had a total storage capacity of 30,000 million cubic feet as against the city’s drinking water requirement of 15 tmcft a year. “Over the years, either the lakes were encroached upon or due to lack of maintenance its storage capacities has come down leading to water scarcity,” he said, adding that even though the city receive 1,150 mm of annual rainfall much higher than Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the Chennai city is looks upon Krishna and Cauvery rivers to meet its drinking water requirement.
“Over 80 per cent of the rain water are allowed to drain into the sea and then we set up desalination plant to convert sea water into drinking water,” he said, accusing DMK and AIADMK which were ruling state alternatively since 1967 for the present poor state of affairs. “If voted to power, I will do my best to provide potable drinking water to every household,” he said.
Reiterating that his party’s stand against giving freebies to the people, PMK leader said that instead of giving freebies, his party, if comes to power, would provide free service like free bus service to discourage people from using personal vehicles, free quality education and health services.
During the interactive session with public, Dr Anbumani refused to give any commitment to a Koyambedu trader when he wanted to know if he would give free housing for traders in the market.
