Chennai/Mayiladuthurai: It was a deluge of a century which has turned life upside down in Mayiladuthurai district, in the Cauvery delta of Tamil Nadu. The heavy downpour lashed the district within a few days after the sowing season, leaving standing crops in vast tracts of farmlands submerged under water.
The devastation was so enormous that Chief Minister MK Stalin visited the affected areas on Monday. The pilgrim town of Sirkazhi and its surroundings received 44 cm rainfall on a single day, the highest in the last 122 years. Indicating the grave agrarian distress, at Umayalpathy Colony near Sirkazhi, farmers plucked paddy seedlings from under hip-deep water and handed it over to the CM, who was accompanied by a few of his cabinet colleagues.
It was an expanse of a water sheet that he witnessed. Similar was the scene at other places earlier in Cuddalore district, where paddy ready for harvest and other crops have suffered extensive damage. In Mayiladuthurai district, over 15,000 residential localities in 257 villages are under knee-deep flood water.
The district administration has sheltered 32,800 affected people in 58 relief camps and has been providing cooked food at these shelters. However, the electricity department had deployed additional personnel from nearby Trichy, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur district and restored power supply in most of the affected areas.
Addressing the media after distributing relief material and cash assistance of Rs 2000 at a temporary shelter in Pachai Perumal Nallur, Chief Minister MK Stalin said, “Sirkazhi in mayiladuthurai had been devastated in the recent heavy downpour. Immediately, I have deputed a team of three ministers to carry out relief and restoration works. I have come personally to see how the relief measures are being carried out. The damage is being assessed. People have not complained about any laxity on the part of the administration. They are happy, though there are a few lapses.”
Rubbishing the criticism of Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, he said “they are doing politics. We are not concerned about it.” Earlier, a group of peasants submitted a memorandum demanding an enhanced compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre besides a grant of Rs 10000 as is the case in Telangana and Chattisgarh.
Opposition parties as well as the allies of the ruling DMK, have demanded that the government hike the compensation and extend the deadline for crop insurance. “There is no respite from the rains and as such, the flood water will not recede in a few days. The submerged paddly seedlings will rot and the farmers will have to start sowing once again. This has to be taken into consideration,” P Velmurugan, MLA, and president of Tamilar Vazhvurimai Katchi, said in a statement.
In Chennai, Revenue Minister KKSSR Ramachandran announced the financial relief for loss of lives, property and cattle. Since the onset of the monsoon, 35 people have died and the government has announced Rs 4 lakh each as solatium. For each cow and buffalo, the relief is Rs 30000 and Rs 4800 for every house where rain water has entered.
For fully damaged concrete houses, it is Rs 95000 and for damaged huts Rs 4100 besides 10kg free rice for every affected hutment household. “Across the state 99 relief camps have been opened. The government is fully prepared to face the rains expected later this week as per the weather report,” said Ramachandran, also holding the disaster management portfolio.
