KOCHI/Chennai, June 6 -- The unabated increase in the population of slums and failure in the programmes launched to eradicate slum areas are the reasons behind Chennai being the epicenter of coronavirus pandemic in Tamil Nadu, according to Edappadi Palaniswamy, Chief Minister. "Chennai has about 87 lakh people living in narrow streets and there are several houses with 6 to 7 people staying in them," Palaniswamy told reporters last Tuesday after presiding over a meeting of senior IAS officers and medical professionals.
The metropolis has one of the highest densities of population among south Indian cities, according to Prof C Murukadas, Tamil Nadu' lead economist who headed the Department of Economics, University of Madras for more than two...