Retired IAS officer V. Thiruppugazh, who served in Gujarat under the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and also in the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the Prime Minister, has been appointed by the DMK government to lead an advisory panel on mitigation and management of flood risk in the city.
During his career, the 1991 batch IAS officer had served in a key post in the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority and later had been Additional Secretary (Policy and Plan) in the NDMA of which the Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairperson.
Incidentally, Mr. Thiruppugazh, while in the NDMA, led a team to visit Chennai and Kancheepuram in June 2017. His team’s findings were part of the report published by the NDMA titled ‘Tamil Nadu Floods - Lessons Learnt & Best Practices.’
Chief Secretary’s sibling
The IAS officer in the Gujarat cadre was considered close to the Prime Minister, as he served as Mr. Modi’s Secretary when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister. Mr. Thiruppugazh also happens to be the sibling of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu. Another sibling had translated Mr. Modi’s book Exam Warriors in Tamil titled Paritchaikku Bhayamen in 2018.
A G.O. issued on October 22 regarding the formation of the committee noted that Chennai was prone to natural disasters and cyclones. Chennai’s terrain was flat with most of the area at an average elevation of 2 m above Mean Sea Level and certain areas were even below the sea level.
Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur — the districts around Chennai had over 2,500 tanks and all the waters were discharged through Adyar, Cooum, Kovalam and Kosasthalaiyar rivers, it pointed out and contended: “The combined hydrological effect of all these factors makes it difficult to manage inundation and de-watering during monsoon.”
The Governor had in his address to the Assembly announced that a Chennai Metro Flood Management Committee, comprising experts in environment, urban planning and disaster management would be established to devise flood control methods and design storm water drains to reduce the detrimental impact of floods.
The other members of the panel are: Chief Planner of Town and Country Planning Organisation in Delhi, Nambi Appadurai; Director of Climate Resilience Practice World Resource Institute, Janakiraman of Madras Institute of Development Studies; Kapil Gupta of Department of Civil Engineering in IIT Bombay; Pradeep Moses, Director of Centre for Human Settlement in Anna University, a representative from National Remote Sensing Department in Hyderabad; Thirumalaivasan of Institute of Remote Sensing in Anna University; Balaji Narasimhan, head of the department of Civil Engineering, IIT; Chief Planner of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Chief Engineer of Storm Water Drain Department of Greater Chennai Corporation, Chief Engineer-WRD of Public Works Department, Chief Engineer of Highways Department and Director of Environment.
