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Saturday, Jun 19, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Briefly

Suba Ilavarasan chargesheeted

VILLUPURAM June 18. The leader of the banned Tamilar Viduthalai Iyakkam, Suba Ilavarasan, was produced before Gandhi, judicial magistrate-I, at Ulundurpet near here today. The magistrate served on him a 243-page charge sheet pertaining to the electricity-tower blast case.

A forensic report in English was also tagged on to the charge sheet. Suba Ilavarasan appealed to the magistrate to give him a Tamil version of the report. However, the magistrate said only the list of the documents given to him (originally the list was prepared in English) would be given to him in Tamil. The questioning is scheduled for June 29. Later, Suba Ilavarasan was taken to Poonamallee prison.

Bail petition filed

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE June 18. The Karnataka High Court today directed the State Government to file within two weeks a statement of objections to the bail petition filed by V.R. Nedunchezhian.

In his petition filed today, Prof. Nedunchezhian submitted that he had been arrested on July 4, 2003 and was now lodged in the Central Prison here. He had been chargesheeted by the Fraser Town police in Bangalore.

The charge sheet said between 1996 and 2002, Prof. Nedunchezhian entered into a conspiracy to disturb the peace in the State, to create a separate nation and to support the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader, V. Prabakaran. It said Prof. Nedunchezhian started the Karnataka Tamiliar Iyakkam (Karnataka Tamils' Movement).

The petitioner said he was being kept in prison under a mala fide assumption. His bail application had been rejected by a fast track court here on June 10. He said he was a research scholar and was being held under false charges.

Justice Majage adjourned further hearing and directed the state to file objections.

Producers' guild seeks tax relief

CHENNAI JUNE 18. The Film and Television Producers' Guild of South India has appealed to the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidamabaram, to consider giving tax reliefs to commercial establishments which place their advertisement, offer sponsorships and show advertisement expenditure through Doordarshan.

In a press statement, the president, S. Devaraj Gunasekaran, said the government could ``work out tax relief up to five per cent from the taxable income of their annual returns.'' It might even fix an advertisement expenditure target for Doordarshan,'' he added. With the tax concession, Doordarshan could instil confidence in producers who would programmes for it, he said.

Reduction of seats flayed

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI JUNE 18. The Students Federation of India (SFI) has taken exception to the government order reducing the number of seats in the three-year and five-year regular Bachelor of Law courses from 562 to 160.

In a joint press release yesterday, the president, G. Selva, and the secretary, L. Shunmuga Sundaram, said the June 9 GO had allotted only 80 seats each in the two courses as against 241 seats in the three-year stream and 321 in the five-year course. The unilateral abolition of 402 seats would amount to undermining a Supreme Court order based on which the courses were restored in the Madras Law College, they said.

They wanted the government to conduct second and third year classes for students who could not study here owing to the abolition of the courses during the past two academic years. Affected students, now studying in other law colleges, should be given an option to resume their studies in the Madras Law College.

`Form Urdu Academy council'

CHENNAI JUNE 18. The Prince of Arcot, Mohammed Abdul Ali, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Government Urdu Academy, has urged the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, to form its governing council and announce the names of the members at the earliest.

Four months had gone by after he was appointed Vice-Chairman. He requested the Chief Minister to finalise the names of Urdu-loving people from various faiths, who were willing to serve on the council and issue orders so that the academy could commence its activities. Suitable office accommodation should be provided for the academy, he said in a press release.

Schools association plea

CHENNAI JUNE 18. The Tamil Nadu Matriculation Schools Association has urged the government to end the practice of schools issuing and receiving filled-in applications for the Plus-Two and Standard X supplementary examinations. For several years, only the department of Government Examinations was giving and issuing the applications and the government also sanctioned posts for the purpose. But now the officials issued oral instructions that schools should issue the applications and send them throught the District Educational Officers. The government should take action against those who issued such instructions. Also, a "unilateral decision" was taken this year for providing a mixed seating of students of matriculation schools, government and corporation institutions for the Plus-Two examinations. Such a system, which led to confusion, was not in practice in any other State, the association said.

Weekend specials to continue

CHENNAI JUNE 18. Trains 679/680 Chennai Central-Nagercoil-Chennai Central weekend specials will continue to run up to August 31, according to a Southern Railway release.

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