Varadharajapuram grapples with severe flooding; residents stranded and desperate for help amidst neck-deep water.
Chennai rains. (X)
Varadharajapuram, a suburb merely 15 km from Tambaram in South Chennai, is currently in the grip of a severe crisis. Floodwaters have left at least 2,000 families stranded for the past two days.
In 2015, the suburb had been inundatied during the floods. Fast forward eight years — despite some improvements like reduced water-logging during rains in neighbouring localities, the suburb finds itself submerged in, literally, neck-deep water.
At least 2,000 families at Varadharajapuram are still stranded, waiting for rescue teams for the past two days. Living in darkness without power, they are so annoyed with the government that they do not want to complain either.
“What’s the point of talking to the media when we know nothing will change?” Indira K, a resident of PTC Colony, Varadharajapuram, told South First.
As water from Chembarambakkam reservoir was released, severe water logging seen at Mudichoor, Varadarajapuram near Tambaram. pic.twitter.com/ETlOgInbyg
— Pramod Madhav (@PramodMadhav6) November 26, 2020
Children are waiting for milk, and rescue teams are unable to reach the locality as the water is neck-deep. With the help of boats, a few families were rescued on Tuesday, 5 November.
Saranya D, 36, who works as a product manager in a home appliances company, bought a home at PTC Quarters, Varadharajapuram, in 2009.
“I regret the decision so much that I am planning to relocate to a rented home after the floods,” he told South First.
The Tamil Nadu government allocated PTC Quarters to government employees. While a lot of them sold their homes and moved to better localities, affordable housing motivated people such as Saranya to purchase homes here.
“They said they have expanded the canals, cleared the drains. All this is heard in the news. But I don’t see any improvement in reality,” a despondent Saranya said.
The experience of previous floods taught Saranya to stock up on power banks to charge mobile phones. However, he could not save his bike from inundation.
“In the past 15 years, I have lost three bikes to rain water,” he lamented.
Visuals of houses submerged in #Miduchur, in Chennai suburbs. The residents have vacated. There’s no entry or exit to these houses as water has completely engulfed this neighbourhood of Varadarajapuram. @xpresstn @NewIndianXpress #chennaifloods2021 pic.twitter.com/jkFA1X4cVO
— Omjasvin M D (@omjasvinTOI) November 12, 2021
Six families from Varadharajapuram told South First that they have not received relief measures from the state government.
“What’s the point in helping the localities with less water-logging? We cannot be reached. We have been cut off from the world for the past two days. Where are the rescue measures?” questioned 51-year-old Leelavathi Sethu, a resident of PTC Quarters.
“We have children without milk and senior citizens with a bare supply of food. However, neither Varadharajapuram Village Panchayat nor Kancheepuram district collectorate are helping us. While they are extending assistance to Mudichur, they are not extending the same support to us,” said Saranya.
Kancheepuram District Collector Kalaiselvi Mohan and MLA of Sriperumbudur constituency K Selvaperunthagai, who visited the main road of the locality, didn’t visit PTC Quarters, Sethu told South First.
“I have a one-year-old baby who relies on milk completely. But, we couldn’t get milk for the past two days. I don’t know what to do as my baby is not eating anything else and is crying of hunger,” said Harish, a resident.
“While a few NGOs are sending relief material to our area, they are not reaching us because we can be reached only by boats,” Harish added.
MLA Selvaperunthagai said that the state government has rescued 450 of the 2,000 stranded families using boats as the locality is inaccessible.
“While a few of them chose to go to their relatives’ homes, few families have been sheltered at a school here,” Selva Perunthagai told South First.
Listing out three reasons that resulted in neck-deep water at Varadharajapuram, the MLA said: “As water from Chembarambakkam lake has been released, the water levels at Varadharajapuram have increased. Orathur lake has been breached. While the project to strengthen the bund had been taken up by the previous AIADMK government, it was left incomplete.”
“The intense rainfall of about 40 cm resulted in inundation,” he said, adding that water from the locality is being now pumped out using motors.
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