A sorry picture on CM J Jayalalithaa's home constituency as ministers opt for photo-op

CHENNAI: Ideally, they are expected to be on the field giving directions to official machinery in the times of crisis, but senior ministers of Tamil Nadu were on Sunday busy posing for shutterbugs in Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar, CM J Jayalalithaa's home constituency. For the record, they were to launch a mass cleaning exercise in New Washermenpet.

But in the name of the 'exercise', electricity minister Natham R Viswanathan and his colleague held a shovel to showcase a piece of trash on it to the flashbulbs even as passersby criticised the duo. Amid reports of an outraged local community demanding relief, electricity minister Natham R Viswanathan dropped in at the corporation zonal office on T H Road in the morning joined by his colleague Sellur K Raju half an hour later to take up the 'exercise'.

The street corners in the locality had piles of garbage waiting to be cleared by conservancy staff. However, ruling party functionaries accompanying the ministers were advising them how to pose for a "nice angle".

Minsiter Gokula Indira, who joined her colleagues later in the school, presumably wanted to do her bit, as an opportunity was missed at the earlier location. "I came rushing here," the minister was heard saying. Health minister C Vijaya Baskar soon walked in as mobile health camps had to be launched near the Communicable Diseases Hospital in Tondiarpet. At least 70 doctors are out in Chennai to run medical camps, 40 of which are in R K Nagar alone. Many doctors from Tiruvannamalai Hospital and paramedical students from Stanley Medical College were waiting patiently for the ministers to end their shutterbug moments so they could tend to the residents in dire need of medical assistance. "We have been made to wait here for the ministers," a doctor told TOI.

As the team left after posing for the media, the team left for a relief centre on Seniamman Koil Street, where officials were waiting to distribute mattresses, blankets, nightwear, toothpastes and toothbrushes to 500 people. While the ministers walked off, after a token gesture of giving away the relief material to five beneficiaries, there were a lot of murmurs from a section.

"The relief is meant for the affected, but they are being cornered by those in need of assistance. Will the ministers listen to our grievances," said one resident. But the ministers and their convoy rolled onto MLA office near Ilaya Mudali Street, where they held an hour-long meeting with the ruling party councillors, area secretaries and district secretary, when the local heads of electricity board, police and taluk stood guard outside, giving a break to their relief work. Later, Viswanathan rebutted the allegations of a 'photo-op', terming them political vendetta by rivals.

"There is excellent coordination among officials in flood relief work; rivals are resorting to political vendetta and making such remarks," was all he had to say.