Chennai is submerged in water. What a disaster and it appears it is currently beyond salvaging. Poor city planning and inefficient administration seem to have been the cause. Meanwhile, the city dwellers are continuing to steadily battle the pounding rain, but with little success.

The Tamil Nadu government and state administration was ill-prepared when the downpour began to inundate large parts of the Tamil Nadu. As of date 169 lives have been lost and more than 1 million people and city dwellers were displaced and many are now leaving in temporary camps and shelters without basic amenities, proper healthcare and food.

Major schools in Chennai and along the coastal area remain shut and for how long? Experts say industrial production worth Rs1 billion has been lost thus far and major industries have effectively suspended all works and activities.

According to the meteorological experts, the current rain fall is quite unprecedented and very intense. The Tamil Nadu state government and the state administration must bear the entire blame for the failed infrastructure and there is a serious lack of preparedness for this scale of disaster.

Experts categorically state that Chennai failed to keep abreast with growth. Haphazard development, encroachment into wetlands, indiscriminate reclamation activities, lack of natural drainage and water storage appear now to be an eminent reason why the government and the administration not able to better handle the flood.

Many now ask, insist and demand that the state government must resign with immediate effect and perhaps it is now time to create an interim government looking after the affairs of Tamil Nadu. Irresponsible officials, politicians and administrative officers must be identified and prosecuted for their lack of responsibility and negligence.

Both the state government and its administration has been very complacent ignoring the dire needs of city dwellers in particular. Essentially all stakeholders have failed to discharge their duties and responsibilities and the flooding was never the politician’s agenda. Critical matters often get less priority in Tamil Nadu or more often conveniently ignored by the state government and its administration.

It appears that the National Crisis Management Committee and the National Disaster Management Authority equally failed and did not advocate precautionary measures and there was no coordinated effort with the state government and administration.

Deploying the army now to carry out rescuing activities and saving civilians is a belated effort.

While the heavy rains will definitely and certainly continue to pound Tamil Nadu in the next few weeks to come, what is necessary now is to actively engage in rescue effort.

We therefore urge all Indian Malaysians to generously donate for the Chennai cause so that we could carry out salvage activities and restore conditions in Tamil Nadu. In this connection we invite OMS P Thiagarajan of OMS Foundation to undertake this mammoth task and rescue mission.

R KENGADHARAN is a lawyer and an ex-ISA detainee.