Many residents who had waited for the weekend to get application forms for flood relief at local fair price shops were disappointed as they were told that the deadline was over for the same.
Ganesh, a resident of Soolaima Nagar in Thoraipakkam, said that the shopkeeper at his fair price shop told him to go to the Zonal office of the Greater Chennai Corporation. “I was busy this whole week, so I waited for Saturday. When I went to the corporation office, they told me they had no role in distributing application forms,” he said.
A resident of Periyar Nagar, who had moved to Anna Nagar as their home got flooded, had visited their fair price shop and was told that the time for submitting application form was over. “We waited for the weekend to go to the shop. We were affected but won’t be getting any compensation,” said the senior citizen, who did not want to be named.
Consumer activist T. Sadagopan said that many people were waiting for the crowds to ebb but have lost the opportunity to submit application forms. “The entire process has been kept in the dark. People were asked only to collect forms from the shops, they could not give what was printed from social media. The public is being made to run from pillar to post for what is their right. The G.O. did not specify any last date for the forms,” he said.
Sources in the GCC said that the State government was yet to issue the rules regarding the verification process and the criteria for selection. “The scheme is being implemented by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, and funds are released through the Co-operation, Food and Consumer Protection Department via the Public Distribution System (PDS) outlets. Initially, the Co-operation department was told to print applications. The GCC assigned to collect these applications. The data of the applications has been uploaded on the TNeGA (Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency) portal.”
