Over 200 dead in Tamil Nadu as rains abate
Baku, December 8 (AZERTAC). Tamil Nadu counted its losses on Tuesday and life limped back to normal as heavy rains abated after claiming over 200 lives and damaging thousands of homes and roads, as also crops, in the state since late October.
The northeast monsoon, which set over the state in late October, has killed 203 people and over 5,000 livestock and damaged around 8,000 huts and around 320,000 houses.
According to state government estimates, around 1.5 million hectares of crops were damaged due to the rains.
Chennai, which saw continuous rains and waterlogged roads even on Monday, slowly returned to normalcy on Tuesday though schools remained closed.
However, people in low-lying areas like Velachery, Minjur, Pallikarnai, Vyasarpadi and Taramani continued to suffer as their localities were flooded. In some areas, power was switched off as a safety measure.
The Chennai Municipal Corporation has pressed into service more than 100 pumps to drain the stagnant water from low-lying areas and has started holding medical camps to prevent an outbreak of water-borne diseases.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet, which met in Chennai on Tuesday, decided to allot Rs 500 crore towards flood relief activities in nine districts.
The cabinet also decided to seek Rs 1,607 crore from the central government for repair work on damaged roads and water tanks apart from damaged crops.
The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, took stock of the reports submitted by eight senior officials who had surveyed and estimated rain-related damage.
The cabinet also decided to instruct district collectors to distribute Rs 200,000 to the families who had lost their kin.
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