A total of 2,437 hectares of crop in Tiruvannamalai district were damaged because of rain and flood, Food Minister E.V. Velu said.
After visiting a couple of rain-affected villages in Tiruvannamalai taluk, taking stock of the situation in Sathanur Reservoir and interacting with officials at a special review meeting convened at the Collectorate on Monday, Mr. Velu told reporters that according to statistics 2,084 hectares of paddy, 245 hectares of groundnut, 58 hectares of black gram and 50 hectares of banana were damaged in the district.
The rain had also battered 700 km of Highways and 78 culverts. It damaged 306 houses fully and another 164 partially in the district, Mr. Velu said. “Officials are collecting information on damage to union roads and a picture will emerge in a day. After that, the district administration will send preliminary reports to government,” he said. Earlier, at Sathanur Reservoir, Mr. Velu told reporters that water level in the dam reached the full height of 119 feet and whatever inflow received by the dam was being let out in the Then Pennayar. Out of the discharge, 1,050 cusecs are channelled through 7.5 MW power generation unit in the dam and the generation was in full swing, he said.
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“Out of 610 PWD tanks in the district, 257 got filled to their brim and in another 189, water level has reached 75 per cent capacity,” Mr. Velu said. He has also visited roads in Tiruvannamalai town which were in bad shape and instructed municipal authorities to apply gravel to give temporary relief.
Collector M. Rajendran, MLA K. Pichandi and Tiruvannamalai Municipal Chairman R. Sridharan accompanied Mr. Velu during his inspection in Tiruvannamalai town and Vettavalam, Neivanatham and Anukkumalai villages.