High level team to go into encroachments of waterbodies storm

: An inter-departmental high level official committee would go into encroachments of water bodies and centuries old storm water canals here as these had been mainly responsible for choking flood water and inundation of housing colonies and fields, a top official said here today.
District Collector D Manikandan said that during visits to various rain hit villages and areas, people had brought to his notice encroachments of water bodies and canals.
"We will demolish the structures or any other type of encroachments on the canals after giving time to owners", he said, adding the action to remove encroachments would follow as soon as the report was available in the next few weeks.

He said the torrential rains had brought to the fore several issues, including the fact that plastic material had choked water flow.
The collector urged people to ensure that there was no indiscriminate disposal of material and also garbage.
Stating that Puducherry suffered losses in various sectors to the tune of Rs 400 crore, he said the UT recorded as much as 171.3 cm rainfall in the first week of October and December, which was eight times more than the quantum of rainfall during the north east monsoon.
The two major lakes (Bahoor and Oussudu) had water to their full storage capacity and 77 tanks had almost full storage levels. The floods claimed four lives, including two children. He said officials of Revenue and Disaster Management and also allied wings of the government had swung into immediate action to prevent major disaster.