Three persons, including a mother and her 13-year-old daughter were washed away by storm water here after incessant rain lashed the town here on Tuesday night.
Vanitha (46) had picked her daughter Darshini (13) from her dance class and the two were returning home after the rains, when the storm water that was gushing across the mud road to their residential enclave washed them away.
Residents of Annai Nagar said the mother and daughter were struggling to wade through the water when suddenly water gushed from under the bridge and washed them away. Their bodies were recovered past 1 a.m. on Wednesday.
G. Nandakumar (26), a resident of Hosur who was on a visit to the neighbourhood, was drowned in the currents. Annai Nagar, abutting railway land, was being developed by a premier local realtor Sampath Chetty without any approach road. Storm-water drain from under the railway bridge had caused the tragedy.
Solatium
In Chennai, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has announced a solatium of Rs. 4 lakh to the three persons, who were washed away in floods. In a statement, Ms. Jayalalithaa expressed her condolences to their death and said that the solatium would be granted from Disaster Relief Fund. Hosur registered 14 cm of rain on Tuesday night, filling up key lakes of the town.
Rains that lasted two hours led to inundation of another elaborately developed layout here, forcing residents to take refuge on the terrace. Residents of KCC Nagar in Hosur developed by the same realtor were provided with an approach road over an arterial channel that drains for a series of interconnecting lakes. The heavy rain had filled up a main lake, causing it to overflow. However, the channel for the run-off was blocked.
The angry residents, led by all residents associations of Annai Nagar, KCC Nagar, Tirumala Tirupati Nagar, and S.M. Nagar laid siege to Hosur Municipality, demanding action against the builders and also against the Municipal Commissioner for not taking steps to provide basic amenities.
The rains have now exposed the lack of infrastructure and also the attitude of Hosur Municipal administration that had allegedly looked the other way when unapproved constructions cropped up.
Most of these layouts were part of erstwhile panchayats which had now become part of Hosur Municipality.
The residents claimed that they were promised facilities by the realtors, and the houses were paying house tax.
While Hosur Municipality could not intervene in cases where the construction have not received any approval, the muncipality and also the town planning officials had not stepped into curb the continuing constructions within these layouts.
In its wake, the local revenue administration had proposed to file a complaint of cheating against two realty firms.
An official said the administration had proposed to blacklist the two builders to create awareness among the public.
