While the city’s residents were happy receiving the summer showers, Rabindranath Tagore Road resident A. Subramani was not. Within minutes of the showers, his wife Muneeswari and he, both visually challenged, were busy flushing the water that had slowly started entering their tile-roofed house.
Muneeswari was cooking then. “I had to abandon it midway to join my husband in preventing the house getting inundated,” she said.
That night they continued the flushing out operation for hours because not only the rain but also the vehicles passing through the area continued to push water. Four families that are in Subramani’s neighbourhood also suffered the inundation.
Tired of flushing out the water, Mr. Subramani, a little after midnight, took a break by standing for a while. “I could not even sit,” he rued.
Despite their best efforts, the couple had lost their battle as rice, grains and incense stick packs came under sheet of water. And they lost their dinner, too. There was only so much we could do.
Mr. Subramani sells incense sticks for a living.
The couple blamed the Corporation for the trouble because it had left unattended a drain construction work in the area.
Mr. Subramani’s neighbour A. Baby said that the civic body dug the stretch of the road in front of their houses around two months ago to construct the drain. But it left the work unattended.
It was because of the unattended work that the rainwater got stagnated in front of and inundated their houses.
Mr. Subramani said, he called up the Ward 41 Councillor C. Natarajan, the North Zone Chairman P. Rajkumar and other officials but none responded for help.
Finally, Mr. Subramani petitioned the officials at the weekly grievance meeting asking for early completion of the work.
Councillor Mr. Natarajan said that he had sent a lorry to the area to drain out the water.
The Corporation would complete the work in two months and until such time it would make some alternative arrangements.
Commissioner G. Latha said that she would ask officials to ensure that the residents did not suffer inundation after next rain.
