TN Assembly: DMK and AIADML at loggerheads over Chennai Floods

Already the assembly sessions in Tamil Nadu have heated up given that the TN governor didn’t read his speech at the start. On day one, theDMK and AIADMK pointed fingers at each other over Cyclone Michaung and the floods in Chennai in December 2023.

The AIADMK accused the DMK government of not taking necessary steps to prevent the floods in the city and causing distress to the people. AIADMK leader  RB Udhayakumar said, “The AIADMK government always took sufficient preventive steps to avert floods during the monsoon. However, the DMK government was lackadaisical in taking precautionary measures, which put Chennai residents to immense sufferings.” He added that the government failed to take any action though the Indian Meteorological Department had put out a warning.

Interestingly it was HR and CE Minister PK Sekarbabu who replied to this accusation. According to him, the city saw rainfall of 33 cm in just three hours which was unprecedented. “Normality was restored in the city within three days because the we acted in a very efficient manner. But the AIADMK needed 10 days to bring back normalcy when 33 cm rainfall was received in Chennai over seven days.”

There was also a debate about the floodwater canal work. While the DMK has stated that 98% of the floodwater canal work is complete, the AIADMK alleged that this was not true. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaswami stated that their government had constructed 2400 km canal work which Sekarbabu stated as false pointing out the flooding that happened after Michaung.