Press "Enter" to skip to content

Cyclone Gaja: Madras HC issues notice to TN govt seeking assessment of damages

A week after the deadly devastation by Cyclone Gaja, a severe storm that had brewed for days in the Bay of Bengal, the Madras High Court has issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu State government.

According to one report in the Deccan Chronicle, the orders came on the heels of a Public Interest Litigation filed seeking to assess the damage.

The PIL “sought a direction to the authorities to assess the damages caused to the properties, crops, coconut trees and the livestock of the people in all the villages in the Delta districts due to “Gaja” cyclone and grant suitable compensation to them,” reports the newspaper.

Coastal and delta districts of Tamil Nadu including Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram, Thiruvarur, Thanjavur, Trichy, Pudukkottai, Dindigul and Puducherry too a battering on account of the cyclone.

According to one report in The New Indian Express, Madras High Court Thursday ordered the Tamil Nadu government to submit a status report on the relief and rehabilitation work being undertaken across districts.

The directions came on another PIL, filed by advocate Rajinikanth who sought to declare the natural calamity a ‘Natural Disaster’ under the aegis of the Disaster Management Act 2005.

A bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam reportedly posted a clutch of cyclone-related petitions for further hearing on November 29.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has sought Rs 15,000 crore from the central government towards the permanent rehabilitation of the affected districts.

As per the latest official data, 12 districts have been affected by Gaja and 63 persons have lost their lives in the cyclone. There are 556 relief centres in these districts with 3,78,019 people in it.

Cyclone Gaja made landfall near Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district in the early hours on November 16 with winds blowing at 120 km per hour.

Source: The News Minute