Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Monsoon rains fear on Rock City residents City pulse

— Photo: R.M. Rajarathinam

Excess flow: Surplus water being released into Kudamuritti river.

TIRUCHI: Come monsoon, most city residents are gripped by a fear psychosis. Right through the rainy days, the collective consciousness of the city is focussed towards monitoring the rainfall level and water flow in the rivers.

For, the scars left behind by a series of floods over the last decade have not been wiped away yet. Each monsoon season brings a flood of memories of the trauma undergone. And along with them, come fears of a repeat situation.

The peculiar topography of the city makes it a flood bowl. The city is often caught in a vortex when rivers all around — the Cauvery, the Coleroon, the Koraiyar, the Ariyar, the Kudamuritti and the Uyyakondan — are in spate. The local rain and the surplus discharges from distant rivers only worsen the situation. Encroachments on water courses have only compounded the problem. Most parts of the city are now vulnerable though low lying areas off the Vayalur Road, the Kuzhumani Road, the Dindigul Road and the Madurai Road usually take the brunt.

Despite the public outcry and a continuing struggle by residents welfare associations since 1999, not much has been done to find a permanent solution to protect the city from recurrent floods. Grandiose schemes, with multi-crore outlays, have been announced by successive governments. None of them have failed to take off as yet.

The proposals have undergone several mutations. The Rs.50-crore flood prevention scheme, announced in 1999, ran aground as the Government could not persuade the NABARD to fund it. Subsequently, a massive Rs.270-crore project was envisaged. The project is still awaiting clearance from the NABARD for financial assistance.

Though Mr. Stalin has recently announced that the Government has sanctioned Rs.31 crores for implementing one of the components of the project, to put in place flood prevention measures in Koraiyar and Kudumuratti rivers, Government orders are still awaited.

“Announcements are made almost every year. We are told crores of rupees are to be spent. Yet nothing has come out of them, except for a couple of minor works such as strengthening the bunds of the Koraiyar and Kudamuritti,” says C. Balasurbamanian, Secretary, Karumandapam Exnora Flood Prevention Committee.

The anticipated good monsoon and the scare caused already this year by the surplus discharge from the Mettur reservoir have provoked a flurry of activity among the residents’ welfare organisations. Members of the Federation of Service Organisations, an umbrella organisation which spearheaded an agitation in 2005, have sent telegrams to the Chief Justice of the High Court seeking an early hearing on a petition filed by Vayalur Road residents demanding implementation of the flood prevention scheme for the city.

The Tiruchi District Consumers Council and a few other welfare organisations have already staged a demonstration. A group of civic activists are planning a situation-assessment tour of the Cauvery, Kudamuritti and Uyyakandon rivers later this week.

Residents have been demanding immediate measures such removal of encroachments, construction of additional vents at the Puthur weir, from where the Kudamuritti river branches off, and at the Keezh Pokki near Karumandapam.

Residents’ associations complain that they are in the dark about flood prevention plans. “The proposal should be put before the stakeholders for discussion so that the affected people can come up with suggestions. The project should be implemented in a transparent manner and should not stop with announcements,” says N. Ramakrishnan of MGR Makkal Narpani Mandram.

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