Final hearing on floods in August

When as many as three pleas including a PIL blaming the release of a huge quantity of excess water from Chembarambakkam, as being responsible for the unprecedented flooding of Chennai city came up for hearing before the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, Advocate General AL Somayaji sought for time to present the Government’s case triggering the adjournment.

The PIL moved by activist Rajiv Rai had contended that the delayed release of water from Chembarambakkam alone was responsible for the massive flooding which took place due to overflowing of the Adyar river to levels never seen before. 

He submitted that while according to the Government the outflow of 39,000 cusecs of Chembarambakkam reservoir was the highest ever recorded, the flood warning was issued only at midnight on December 1, 2015, which failed to serve the purpose, as most of the residents were either unaware of issuance of any such warning or were asleep.