Madurai-based Tamilnadu Chamber of Commerce has linked the Chennai floods to the neglect of southern districts. “Concentration of manufacturing industries and information technology units necessitated construction of many residential colonies in and around Chennai unmindful of the waterways. Had the industrial development been spread over the entire State, this monumental tragedy would not have happened,” the Chamber said in a statement issued on Sunday.

‘Wake up at least now’ Calling upon the Centre and State governments to “wake up at least now,” the Chamber’s President S Rethinavelu stressed in the statement that industrial infrastructures, to attract investments, “ought to have been put up in the southern region of our State, which is seismically safe and not prone to hurricane and heavy floods.”

Rethinavelu said while cyclones, tsunamis and earthquakes could be termed “natural calamities” but rains could not be described so. Observing that “abundant rain is always for the welfare of the people,” Rethinavelu blamed the disaster on wrong planning and administrative lapses for turning the “blessing into devastation.”

He said those who encroached upon natural waterways or the authorities who let that happen “is not worthwhile now.” He wanted the task of preventing such illegal construction to “be entrusted with the general public.”

BARC’s suggestion Meanwhile, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has called for “scientifically reconstructing” water resources and water courses, so as to protect them against “biological and chemical pollution.” “Expertise of BARC could be tapped,” said J Daniel Chellappa, Senior Scientist (TCW), BARC, Chennai, in a message.

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