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Rain pounds Puducherry

Special Correspondent

Revenue department distributes food packets to 10,000 people

Photos; T. Singaravelou

DELUGE: Residents battling rainwater in a house in Venkateswara Nagar. (At right) Members of a self-help group clean a drainage to prevent intrusion of flood water into residential areas at Rasu Odayar Thottam on Saturday.

Puducherry: Normal life continued to be affected in the Union Territory for the second day on Saturday with the rain pounding the city and its suburban regions. Most areas were inundated. District Collector G. Theva Needhi Dhas said food packets were distributed to 10,000 persons in low-lying areas in the peripheral pockets. An official source said that the Union Territory recorded 10.3 cm rainfall for 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Saturday. A part of the Venkateswara Nagar in Oulgaret Municipality limits was totally marooned. Residents of a house were seen baling out water manually from their house.

A team of workers of the Oulgaret municipality was seen pumping out water from one of the streets. Some inmates of the housing colony said that snakes and small tortoises were seen moving about in the floodwater.

A section of the municipal staff said that shortage of manpower was affecting relief work. Control rooms were operating in the PWD and Local Administration Departments.

All schools and colleges including privately run institutions remained closed for the second day. Volunteers of a self-help group engaged themselves to remove the silt and the debris close to a canal in Rasu Udayar Thottam in Uppalam Assembly constituency. A municipal councillor was seen helping the hut-dwellers in the area.

Rainfall recorded between 6 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. on Saturday was 8.7 cm in Pathukannu block, 4.8 cm in Bahoor and 9.2 cm in Tirubuvanai, an official source said. Traffic movement in most of the important thoroughfares was less than the usual.

A 50-year-old daily wage earner, his wife and his son were injured when the wall of their house collapsed last night in Thavalakuppam near here, according to the District Collector.

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