Homes aflood and the wave of relief funds
The flood waters (how long ago it all seems now) have receded and much of the damage caused is forgotten. At least by the media. The Man from Madras Musings however remembers, rather in the manner of elephants. There is a neat flood line drawn all around the ground floor of his house. The damage will need some outlay of funds to rectify, and the Rs 6,000 the State Government has offered is not going to help much. And so it is MMM to himself as he is sure is the case with countless others.
How MMM’s suit would ‘go on forever’
There was a time when MMM seriously questioned as to why he should not sue the State Government for damages considering that he is not at fault for a storm water drain laid the wrong way. But then, on calmer consideration MMM realised that much of his life would be spent fighting the matter in courts and the compensation if any would probably go to some lawyer or the other and so he backed off. But in the heat of the moment he did send out a message on social media asking as to why the Corporation Councillors were doing nothing while it was the State cabinet and the bureaucrats who seemed to be all over the place.
MMM did not expect anything to happen thereafter but there he was wrong.
MMM spurs civic body into action
Apparently, someone somewhere did read MMM’s post and it touched a raw nerve. So the next thing MMM knew was a plethora of posts from several of the spin doctors of the party in power. Photographs were shared of councillors in action. One of them was seen neck deep in a drain channel trying to remove a block. MMM could only sympathise with the man, but he could not help wondering as to why this councillor, if he was indeed such a man of duty, had allowed the drain to choke.
Stunts galore by Govt and Oppn
It seemed to be filled with plastic and surely the man must have seen it every day that way without doing anything about it. Now he was jumping in and being a hero when the question to be asked was why good old routine maintenance was not done and why the local populace was not asked to take care of its rubbish. Obviously regular upkeep does not make for photo opportunity while firefighting does. MMM made bold to ask this question and was immediately branded a stooge of the Opposition. Not that he was any closer to becoming the darling of that group. They had not liked his commenting on their right to criticise flood handling when 2015 is still fresh in everyone’s mind.
The shower of action photographs
The Councillors however were the more determined lot for MMM received quite a few pictures thereafter and then, as the flood waters receded, so did the flood of action photographs. He has one consolation – clearly social media has an impact, for if not, these people would have been least bothered, until the next election comes around that is.