The Madras High Court on Tuesday reprimanded the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) over frequent flooding in Tamil Nadu‘s capital city. A bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu warned of suo moto proceedings if the municipal body failed to address the problem, which came to fore once again after rains flooded several residential and commercial neighbourhoods in Chennai. “Half the year, we are longing for water, and for the rest of the year, we are dying in water in Chennai,” the court said while hearing a public interest litigation.

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The court asked the GCC what it had been doing since the 2015 floods, when Chennai recorded 24.6 cm rainfall in 24 hours, surpassing the previous record of 14.2 cm from November 2005. The city and its suburbs had received 21.5 cm and 11.3 cm rains respectively by 8:30 am on November 7. Four people were killed in rain-related incidents in Chennai, Theni and Madurai districts ‘in the past 24 hours, the state government said on Monday.

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In Chennai, 48 relief camps have been set up to shelter 1,107 people and in total 3,58,500 food packets have been provided. Most roads and bylanes in the city were inundated with water rising upto two feet in low lying localities. Power supply has also been disconnected for several neighbourhoods due to safety concerns.

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Following the 2015 floods, the GCC had allocated Rs 415 crore to improve the city’s drain network.

Since the start of northeast monsoon, Tamil Nadu has recorded 34.61 cm rainfall, about 43% rainfall above the usual average of 24.12 cm.

The Meteorological department has issued an ‘alert’ for Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Dindigul, Theni, Tenkasi and Tirunelveli districts

as cyclonic circulation persists over south east Bay of Bengal and adjoining South Andaman sea, extending up to 5.8 kilometres above the mean sea level.

( With PTI inputs)