Watch: Did water release from Sathanur Dam cause flooding? | Cyclone Fengal

On the evening of December 1, after Cyclone Fengal had largely spared Chennai and left behind a trail of destruction in Villupuram and its surroundings, Chief Minister M K Stalin had tweeted a video of some people in Chennai praising his administration for ensuring no flooding in their areas.

In his message, Stalin said: “During the erstwhile AIADMK regime, the people of Chennai had spent sleepless nights due to a sleeping administration and human error. Whereas our Dravida Model regime is the one where after braving a natural calamity, normalcy has been restored overnight.”
Stalin was obviously seeking to score political brownie points by referring to December 1, 2015 floods when many people of Chennai were woken up from sleep after water released from the Chembarambakkam reservoir past midnight entered their homes. However, soon enough, Stalin found himself at the receiving end as opposition parties pounced on his remarks and accused his administration of being in slumber.
Leading the charge against Stalin was AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami. Blaming the DMK government for the heavy flooding in the northern districts, the Leader of Opposition, alleged that people had lost sleep as 1.68 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from the Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai district on Sunday night without notice to residents.
As a consequence of this, hundreds of villages on the banks of Thenpennai River and villages in Villupuram, Cuddalore and Kallakurichi districts were marooned, he charged. Other leaders including PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss and BJP state president K Annamalai too backed this charge.
Can the opening up of the shutters of the Sathanur dam be equated with the release of water from Chembarambakkam in December 2015? What did the report of the Comptroller of Auditor General of India say?
On the evening of December 1, after Cyclone Fengal had largely spared Chennai and left behind a trail of destruction in Villupuram and its surroundings, Chief Minister M K Stalin had tweeted a video of some people in Chennai praising his administration for ensuring no flooding in their areas.
In his message, Stalin said: “During the erstwhile AIADMK regime, the people of Chennai had spent sleepless nights due to a sleeping administration and human error. Whereas our Dravida Model regime is the one where after braving a natural calamity, normalcy has been restored overnight.”
Stalin was obviously seeking to score political brownie points by referring to December 1, 2015 floods when many people of Chennai were woken up from sleep after water released from the Chembarambakkam reservoir past midnight entered their homes. However, soon enough, Stalin found himself at the receiving end as opposition parties pounced on his remarks and accused his administration of being in slumber.
Leading the charge against Stalin was AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami. Blaming the DMK government for the heavy flooding in the northern districts, the Leader of Opposition, alleged that people had lost sleep as 1.68 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from the Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai district on Sunday night without notice to residents.
As a consequence of this, hundreds of villages on the banks of Thenpennai River and villages in Villupuram, Cuddalore and Kallakurichi districts were marooned, he charged. Other leaders including PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss and BJP state president K Annamalai too backed this charge.
Can the opening up of the shutters of the Sathanur dam be equated with the release of water from Chembarambakkam in December 2015? What did the report of the Comptroller of Auditor General of India say?
Credits
Presentation: D. Suresh Kumar
Video: Thamodharan B.
Production: Shikha Kumari A