DMK demands municipal admn minister's resignation over water crisis

DMK chief MK Stalin on Saturday demanded the resignation of Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani and CM K Palaniswami over his government's failure as there is an acute shortage of water in Chennai and its suburbs and people are depending on water supplied through tankers from villages in neighbouring districts.

Chennai: The severe water scarcity being faced by Chennai and its suburbs prompted DMK chief M K Stalin Friday to demand the resignation of Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani and to urge Chief Minister K Palaniswami to dismiss him from the cabinet if he did not quit.

Demanding to know why people were made to wait for 15 to 18 days to get water through state-run Metrowater lorries, he said the public was running from pillar to post to get even a pot of water.

Water supplied through Metrowater pipelines had a foul smell in many areas, he alleged.

Chennai and its suburbs are experiencing severe water scarcity, with borewells and lakes going dry, forcing people and commercial establishments to depend on water supplied through tankers from villages in neighbouring districts.

Chennai Metrowater cannot meet the entire demand, prompting people to depend on private water tanker operators.

Not only drinking water, but availability of water for every day use is under severe strain in many neighbourhoods.

Stalin demanded to know why several restaurants were being shut and Information Technology companies were asking their employees to work from home (unable to tackle the water scarcity).

Blaming the Municipal Administration Minister for the situation, he said there was no proper reply from him on the crisis.

He sought to know why two desalination projects announced in 2013 has still not seen the light of day.

"I urge Chief Minister K Palaniswami to take constructive steps to resolve the drinking water crisis faced by the people of Chennai," he said.

"Velumani's failure is behind the drinking water crisis faced by people in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu," he alleged.

He demanded that the minister quit his post, owning up moral responsibility for the crisis.

"If he fails to resign, I urge the Chief Minister to dismiss him from his post. The people of Tamil Nadu too expect only that," he said.

Expressing satisfaction over his party MLAs "distributing drinking water" to the people, he urged them to accelerate their work more to help them.