Even as the flood-affected Chennai city started limping back to normalcy on Saturday in spite of intermittent rain, the residents found themselves in a major predicament: There is no sufficient drinking water and milk. long queues could be seen in front of the few ATM counters which were operational though most of the ‘Automated Teller Machine’ machines in Chennai remained closed with a board ‘Out of Order’ hanging outside. There were long queues in front of fuel stations in the city and suburbs. All banks in Chenni have been asked to work on Sunday to meet the situation arising out of the floods and breakdown in services.
As the floodwater has started receding, complaints from the local population are going up by the day. Saturday morning saw people in Varadarajaperumal Street at Tambaram alleging that shops are selling milk packets costing Rs30 at the rate of Rs100 while drinking water supply has come to a standstill.
The Egmor railway station was reopened for traffic on Saturday morning. But it will take days for the disrupted train services to run as per the schedule. It was also announced that Chennai Airport would become partially operational by Monday. Emergency air services are being operated through Rajali, the air station of Indian Navy at Arakkonam.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who died in Tamil Nadu floods. Residents in Chennai will get free rides in Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses plying in the city and outskirts for the next four days starting from Saturday. This was announced by J Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister, as a gesture of good will to the people of the city who had to bear the brunt of the Monsoon fury for the last ten days. “Due to the heavy floods many residents had to be evacuated in the city. The displaced people have to travel to safer and secured places and hence the government is offering them free rides in the MTC buses for the next four days,” said a release issued by the government on Saturday. The MTC buses ply in the districts of Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur.
The death toll in the MIOT Hospital due to failure of the Intensive Care Unit and ventilator systems rose to 18 as four more persons were reportedly died in the night between Thursday and Friday. According to sources in the hospital, the MIOT authorities sent the bodies directly to the homes of the victims without informing the Royapettah Government General Hospital.
Chief Secretary Gnanadesikan blamed the MIOT hospital authorities for the mishap . “It was the responsibility of a big hospital like MIOT to have adequate power supply, power generator. The management completely abandoned the patients and the law will take its own course,” the chief secretary told reporters.
The threat of another spell of heavy rain is still staring Chennai as the Indian Meteorological Department has forecast the possibility of rain or thunderstorm for the next three days. Though the clouds were overcast on Saturday, it did not rain much in the city which brought some relief to the residents. “There will be intermittent rains in Chennai for the next two days,” said S R Ramanan, director, IMD.
TANGEDCO officials said that power supply have been restored in areas where flood water receded. But it will take days for the entire city to start getting normal power supply as most of the regions are still submerged in water. Roads, state highways and national highways continue to remain battered and bruised. The National Highway Authority of India has stopped collecting tolls from cars and two wheelers for the next one week. Telecommunication services continue to be silent and dead over most of Chennai and suburbs.