Rains add to people’s woes in flood-hit Chennai

A boy stands on a ladder outside his flooded house in Chennai, India, December 5, 2015.

The Enthiran actor had earlier met with Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, to hand over a cheque of Rs 10 crore towards the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for flood victims after the actor and several of his Kollywood counterparts recently came under fire for not coming forward to help. While the rains have subsided and the water logging is slowly receding, the ordeal for Chennaites is far from over.

The meeting noted that Nodal Officers in respect of settlement of insurance claims were appointed last week by LIC and all four public sector general insurance companies and details shared with the government of Tamil Nadu.

The Chennai death toll has gone past 270 as per latest news.

She also said that to bring down the prices of domestic durable goods to an affordable level, for white goods and kitchen equipment to be sold in the flood affected Districts excise duty exemption may be provided till March 31, 2016.

Exceptionally heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu in recent weeks has caused the worst flooding in 100 years, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

Indian Cricket team, as a matter of fact, required a bit more involvement looking at the fact that families of two of the team’s prominent members hailed from Chennai.

Ten columns of the army, about 1,000 soldiers in all, were being flown into the city to add to the nine columns already on the ground, said Atulya Mishra, relief commissioner for Tamil Nadu state.

By Tuesday, most global airlines will start their operations, said the civil aviation ministry.

“It has been a monsoon unlike anything we have seen in history, we need all the help we can get”, he said.

Southern Railway on Saturday announced operation of a special train from Chennai Beach Station to Bengaluru, while the reverse journey will be undertaken on Sunday.

In a statement, he clarified that his remarks were not intended at government, insisting that he had remained apolitical for long.