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As heavy rains continued to pound the Tirunelveli district in southern Tamil Nadu, creating a flood-like situation and throwing life out of gear, the district administration shifted 696 pregnant women to safety as a precautionary measure, officials said.
According to the District Collector, as many as 142 pregnant women were admitted to various hospitals and delivered babies in the last two days. Meanwhile, the Central team also visited Tirunelveli to assess the damage caused by flood and rainfall in the Southern district. The Indian Navy undertook rescue operations in the southern part of the state amid relentless heavy rain causing widespread damage in Tamil Nadu. Indian Navy helicopter flew seven sorties and air-dropped 3.2 tons of relief material in the inaccessible flood-affected areas of Tamil Nadu including Srivaikuntam, on Thursday. Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said that the state government has taken all possible precautions and measures for the welfare of the people in the wake of the situation. "Heavy rainfall was received in Chennai and surrounding districts. In history, we have never seen this much rainfall in the Thoothukudi district. For rescue operations, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed," CM Stalin said. He further said that as many as 12,653 people have been rescued and are staying at the 14 relief camps. "I have advised district collectors and the official to immediately provide food and other needful items to those who were staying in relief camps," he added. The CM further said that he has requested excess money for the southern districts of the state from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "On December 19, I met PM in Delhi, I requested him to provide relief funds to Tamil Nadu and 2000 cr excess money for Southern districts," he said. Heavy rain wreaked havoc in Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, and Kanyakumari in the past days. The state government and the Centre have jointly mobilised a massive rescue and relief operation to help the affected people. On the Thoothukudi flood situation, Tamil Nadu Transport Minister Sivasankar SS said that the state is expecting public transport to be restored within 3 days. "We are recovering the buses that were waterlogged due to floods. Public transport in the district has been affected. Within 2-3 days we are expecting to normalise the situation and public transport will be restored too..." the minister said. (ANI)
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