CHENNAI: The northeast monsoon may not have ended, but has caused enough damage to people, property and irrigation systems in the State, making a medium and long-term plan for rehabilitation imperative.

Now that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has met the main Opposition demand for setting up district- and village-level committees, they must begin their work in right earnest. Without allowing politics to get in the way, the committees, led by Collectors and panchayat chiefs, must evolve a micro and macro rehabilitation plan.

The basic commitment must be to remove all encroachments on waterbodies and resettle the flood-affected people in safe areas, thereby restoring the drainage systems. This approach alone can save both the people and agricultural land from calamities.

The moment any plan is identified by the Government, the ruling party or the administration that invariably gets identified with the party, it is likely to face trouble from the Opposition and, ultimately, the people.

Unlike in the past, the Government, its administration at all levels and the elected representatives of the people, both MPs and MLAs, must first agree on an agenda for immediate, medium and long-term action at the panchayat, district and State levels. For this, the initiative must come from the Collectors, who must be seen to be non-political in approach.

A local map will show the affected areas, the clogged drainage and irrigation systems, the mushrooming encroachments on water bodies and adjoining areas, as also the areas that have not been badly damaged in the rain. With that as the base, a blueprint to re-develop the village and district should be drawn up.

Now that a majority of the flood-ravaged families have lost their shelters, the time is ripe to identify areas to resettle them. It needs political consensus and persuasion to shift these families, but there will not be a better opportunity. Simultaneously, Agriculture, Irrigation, Public Works and Revenue Departments must map the old irrigation system, with the link and drainage canals. These must be restored before the next season, at least partly.

Local village leaders, retired engineers and farmers can help in this exercise and need to be involved in it. It calls for considerable planning and investment to make it functional again. It is up to the Government to provide the funding and there is no dearth of sources. It may be a more prudent investment than successive years of flooding, relief and rehabilitation.

All this, officials and politicians confess, calls for understanding, cooperation and commitment to the cause — to put the people first and keep politics out of planning and rehabilitation. That is the question now before the Government, the ruling party and the Opposition. It is not merely a question of funds, but of planning and implementation, taking the people into confidence.

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