The Governor, Ravindra Narayan Ravi has unexpectedly canceled the Christmas celebration planned for tomorrow. Thoothukudi, Tirunelvi, Tenkasi, and Kanyakumari districts have been mostly affected by heavy rains over the past two days. This has caused many lakes and ponds to overflow, leading to flooding in the cities. The fire department, disaster recovery teams, police, and government officials all are working together on rescue and relief efforts.
In this time, Chief Minister Stalin went to Delhi yesterday, to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence. He requested immediate funds for the damages made in Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kanchipuram, and Thiruvallur districts due to the heavy rains of Cyclone Mikjam. He also intimated the issues caused by the heavy rains in the southern districts.
After meeting the Prime Minister in Delhi, Chief Minister Stalin originally planned to go straight to Thoothukudi and Nellai to visit the flood damage. However, there has been a change in his travel plan. Chief Minister Stalin will fly back to Chennai this morning from Delhi and then have a meeting with officials about the floods and rescue operations in the southern district. Then, he will plan to fly to Madurai and tomorrow he will plan to travel to Nellai by road to see the flood damage.
Yesterday, the Tamil Nadu Governor, RN Ravi, talked with central government officials about helping the South District recover from storms and floods. The state government was invited to join the meeting through the chief secretary, but no one showed up. The Governor’s House mentioned that some central government agencies couldn’t send their employees to the affected areas due to coordination issues. As a result, the Governor’s House decided to cancel the Christmas celebration in the southern district because of the floods. So the state Raj Bhavan cancelled the celebration.
In his official statement on X, “In view of the serious situation prevailing in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu due to heavy rains and severe flood, Raj Bhavan, Tamil Nadu, has decided to cancel the “Celebration of Advent Christmas” scheduled to be held on 21.12.2023 (Thursday).”