Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin continued with his follow up visits to areas affected badly by the rains in November on Tuesday by checking out the progress of relief operations undertaken in residential localities like Irumpuliyur, Vanniankulam, Mudichur Amudham Nagar, Varadharajapuram PTC colony and Mahalakshmi Nagar in Chengalpattu and Kanchipuram districts.
Stalin had earlier visited most of the areas on November 29 when heavy rains brought about by the North East monsoon was lashing most parts of the State, ordered the officials to speed up the work and also distributed relief material to affected people.
The repeat visit was also aimed at taking steps to prevent future water logging in those low-lying areas and also to interact with the people to find out their problems. So, the Chief Minister supervised the flood-prevention work carried out at Mudichur and the efforts being made to widen the bridge over River Adyar to facilitate excess from Amudham Nagar drain.
He also advised the officials to construct an open channel that would carry the surplus water from Mudichur lake to River Adyar through the Chikana lake, besides overseeing the ongoing work in various localities like Varadharajapuram and Mahalakshmi Nagar.
Visiting the wastewater purifying station at Manutankulam, falling under Tamil Corporation, he told the officials to connect the various localities in the newly formed Corporation to the station and ramp up its operation from 90 per cent to full capacity.
Though the Chief Minister could undertake his visit without any hassles as Chennai and its surroundings have been rain-free for the past few days, 30 districts, particularly Trichy, Tenkasi and Theni have had good rains on Monday with Manappari recording 27.46 cm rainfall.
The monsoon that has been active since October 1 has already brought 68.34 cm rains to the State, which was 77 per cent more than average rainfall in a normal year, and brought copious inflow to the reservoirs, most of which was either full or nearly full.
Of the total 14,138 lakes in the State, 8,690 of them were full and 2,989 were filled up to over 75 percent of their capacity. Water storage in the 90 reservoirs was 94.52 per cent.
Relief camps are still being run by the government, said an official press release, adding that in Chennai alone 257 persons were staying in three camps, while in other districts 2156 persons were put up in 36 camps.
Other relief operations across the State were also being carried out on a war footing. In Theni district the Bodimettu national highway, which was obstructed due to a landslide, was quickly cleared for traffic and in Manapparai in Trichy the banks of Appayarkulam pond that breached were restored.
