TN Water Crisis: Oppn parties claim on social media don't reflect reality
It seems the state of Tamil Nadu is witnessing a historic drought this year. For the past few years, the state, according to many experts, did not receive enough rainfall. The water table across the state has gone down whereby the regions generally have adequate groundwater too, is facing an unprecedented water shortage.
Though the Tamil Nadu government has reportedly said that it has allocated enough funds to handle the water crisis, in most of the districts, it has not reflected in reality. Hitting out the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the ruling party in the state for its ineffectiveness in managing the water crisis the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin has demanded the resignation of Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani.
While demanding so, he also asked his party cadres and functionaries to reach out water starved areas and provide water. Following his words, the DMK MLAs across the state has taken the initiative of supplying water free of cost.
The photos shared on social media pages-Twitter and Facebook- has made people skeptical about party’s service. In many places, people also complained about the water being supplied in only one or two streets, that too only for a couple of days.
தொலைநோக்குத் திட்டங்கள் எதையும் செயல்படுத்தாத இந்த அரசால் தமிழகமெங்கும் தண்ணீருக்காக மக்கள் அலைமோதுவதை காணமுடிகிறது. என் தொகுதியில்
முன்கூட்டியே திட்டமிட்டபிடி ஆங்காங்கே அமைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள பல போர்வெல்களில், மீனாட்சி குடியிருப்பு பகுதியிலுள்ள புதிய போர்வெலை திறந்து வைத்தேன். pic.twitter.com/XNNMXejQIt— Dr P Thiaga Rajan (PTR) (@ptrmadurai) 17 June 2019
The party MLAs in TN are supplying water through water lorries and setting up water tanks. Dr P Thiaga Rajan, the MLA of Madurai Central, claims in his Twitter account that he acted proactively and set up many borewells of which people are now reaping benefits.
Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), though supplies water through lorries in some parts of the state, it mainly concentrates on desilting the lake and clearing of Prosopis juliflora which are grown in the areas near the pond and other water resources.
Requesting #TNCC @INCIndia to not use content from @EFIVolunteer and claim it as work done by the party cadres. The photographs were picked from our site https://t.co/ByMUYNPIlH and tall claims are made as work towards water conservation in TN. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/MoaNy5bBeq
— Arun Krishnamurthy (@ArunEFI) 17 June 2019
The fan clubs like Rajini Makkal Mandram supplies water in North Chennai, the actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam and TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, however are keeping mum on the issue.
But, Dhinakaran recently questioned the state government’s move of allocating Rs 500 crores for Kudimaramathu projects. He sought the ‘white paper’ on the works carried over in the past with regard to Kudimaramathu. The state Communist parties are also not visible.
Amidst this, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee got a brickbat from Environmental Foundation of India, a Chennai based volunteer group working towards environment, for using its photographs of desilting works and claiming it as the work done by the Congress party cadres.
The state Bharatiya Janata Party, though not visible in the scene, continues to engage in verbal war with the DMK and questioning the latter over the measures taken for mitigating the water crisis in its regime.
