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Friday, May 20, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Briefly

Two workers run over

TIRUNELVELI: Two teenagers were run over near Koodankulam today.

Police said R. Hanish Manikandan (18) and M. Prabhakaran (18), contract workers of Koodankulam, were sleeping behind a lorry parked near the main gate of the Nuclear Power Project after work was over. Not knowing this, the driver G. Periyasamy (23) of Eswaramurthypalayam near Rasipuram in Namakkal district, moved the lorry backwards when Hanish and Prabhakaran were run over. Periyasamy has been arrested.

In another accident, P. Sankarasubramanian (25) of Karungulam near Seythunganallur in Tuticorin district was knocked down by a bus proceeding to Tirunelveli from Tiruchendur at V.M. Chathram as he tried to cross the road in a two-wheeler. While he died on way to the hospital, his friend Thirumalai Nambi (23), the pillion-rider, was injured. — Staff Reporter

Land dispute leads to murder

TIRUNELVELI: The Radhapuram police are searching for a couple and their son on charges of murdering a farmer in a land dispute last night.

Police said Shanmugam (60), a handicapped farmer of Ramachandra Nagar, had a land dispute with his neighbour Sivan. When Shanmugam settled the dispute with the help of a surveyor in the absence of Sivan, it triggered a fresh quarrel between them.

Sivan, his wife, Arumugam Ammal, and son, Senthil, allegedly attacked Shanmugam and pushed him down. As the farmer reportedly sustained injury on the head, he died on way to the hospital. — Staff Reporter

Farmer commits suicide

TIRUNELVELI: A 70-year-old farmer committed suicide as his sons had abandoned him.

Police said Shanmugam of Sivanaadaanoor under the Paavoorchathram police station limits was deserted by his sons and suffering a lot for food. So, he consumed poison and died. — Staff Reporter

Killed in road accident

Nagercoil: An aged man was killed in a road accident today.

According to police, Thiraviyam (70) of Kumarapuram near Aralvoimozi was going towards Kanyakumari when a car from the opposite direction knocked him down fatally. — Staff Reporter

House burgled

Nagercoil: The police are on the lookout for an unidentified person who burgled the house of a fisherman at Kadiyapattinam today.

According to sources, Sebastian of Kadiyapattinam under Manavalakurichi police limits went to his relative's house along with family members when an unidentified person gained entry into his house, broke open the bureau and decamped with six sovereigns of gold ornaments worth Rs.30,000. — Staff Reporter

Grievance day

Tuticorin: The district administration conducted a grievance day meeting here today.

Senior revenue officials informed farmers about the State Government's decision to set up chilli procurement centres at Kovilpatti, Tuticorin, Pudur and Vilathikulam in the district. The Collector, V.Chandrasekaran, presided. — Staff Reporter

Held with lottery tickets

Tuticorin : Ponraj (42) was arrested at Arumuganeri yesterday on the charge of possessing lottery tickets for sale.

He was remanded to judicial custody. — Staff Reporter

Group houses for poor

ERODE: Group houses would be constructed for those belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the district, under the Indira Memorial Housing scheme, said the Collector, D. Karthikeyan. The Centre and the State provided funds for these houses for victims of natural calamities such as cyclone, rain. The victims could approach respective Panchayat Union Commissioners of the District Panchayat, Council Chairman or the Collector. - Staff Reporter

Ganja seized

ERODE: As much as 1.1 kg of ganja was seized by the Erode North Police at a raid in Veerappanchatram area on Thursday.

It was seized from Kadirvelu of Veerappanchatram.

The Erode Railway Police on Thurday seized four kg of ganja on information from a ganja seller, Periyasamy, arrested earlier.

The police earlier arrested a head constable, Palanisamy of Erode Railway Police, a ganja seller, Periyasamy and his wife Chinnammal and seized 37 kilograms of ganja from them. The police are on the look out for two more railway constables Prabhu and Saravanan.

These two along with Palanisamy lifted the ganja bags found abandoned on a Madurai-bound express train some days back and sold the same to Chinnammal and her husband Periyasamy.

Draft electoral rolls

Thanjavur: Draft electoral rolls have been displayed in various offices in Thiruvonam, Thanjavur and Thiruvaiyaru Assembly segments in Thanjavur Revenue Division.

The rolls, which have been displayed at the offices of the Village Administrative Officer, Panchayat president, polling booths, taluk and Municpal offices, could be viewed by the electorates till May 30.

During this time, electorates can apply for inclusion and deletion of names correction, if any, to be made or for transfer of names through the respective forms.

Arrangements have been made for issuance of these forms in the polling booths concerned, post offices, taluk offices, Municipal office and at the Revenue Divisional office, according to an official release. — Staff Reporter

Gram sabha meetings

Staff Reporter

PUDUKOTTAI: Special gram sabha meetings were held in all the 498 panchayats in the district today in connection with the revision of electoral roll.

The Collector, R. Thiagarajan, visited Melur, Sathyamangalam and Kulathur village panchayats and inspected the proceedings of the grama sabha.

Addressing the villagers, he said that those who were 18 years on January 1, 2005 could include their names in the voter list. The Collector asked the panchayat presidents to ensure proper verification of the rolls.

Later, Mr. Thiagarajan held a discussion with the officials on the number of applications received.

Mettur level

Tiruchi: The water level in the Mettur dam stood at 52.51 feet today.

The inflow was 1061 cusecs and the discharge 887 cusecs. — Staff Reporter

Five child labourers rescued in Tuticorin

Tuticorin: Five child labourers were rescued from various industrial units in the district by a team of Revenue and National Child Labour Project (NCLP) officials on Wednesday evening.

Official sources said the team raided 27 industrial units and traced the child workers in two match units.

M. Nallaperumal, project director, NCLP, said Mahalaksmi (11), Manju (10) and Pandiammal (11) were rescued from a match unit at Valluvar Nagar at Kovilpatti. Soundaravalli (11) and Mariammal (10) were found working in another match unit at Shanmuga Nagar at Kovilpatti.

He said stringent action would be taken against the owners of the units from where the children were rescued. - Staff Reporter

Foreign currencies seized at airport

CHENNAI: Officers of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs department at the Anna International Terminal here arrested a Singapore-bound passenger and seized foreign currencies from him on Monday.

According to Nitish Birdi, Joint Commissioner of Customs, Chennai Airport, Amanullah Naina Mohammad, taking the Sri Lankan Airlines' flight via Colombo, concealed foreign currencies in his hand baggage.

An examination of the baggage resulted in the seizure of 5,700 Euros and 3,200 U.S. dollars equivalent to Rs. 4,43,745.

The currencies were hidden in a special cavity inside the pant waistband worn by him.

The passenger has been arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, read with the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

He has been remanded to judicial custody. - Special Correspondent

Widows complain against officials

NAGAPATTINAM: More than a hundred widows and deserted women affected by tsunami in Vedaranyam taluk have complained against officials for non-compliance of Government orders in granting old age and widow pension.

They were participating in a meeting organised by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) in collaboration with `Sneha', a Nagapattinam-based non-governmental organisation at Vedaranyam on Wednesday.

Philomin Raj, an advocate of Madurai and coordinator of Tsunami Legal Aid and NALSA, said on Thursday that many widows and deserted women submitted petitions stating that they were left out in the grant of ex-gratia.

Many widows said the officials collected the ration cards of those getting pension in the area.

They alleged that they were totally ignored by the officials, Mr. Philomin Raj said. - Staff Reporter

IT officials conduct `survey' in jewel shop

CHENNAI: Officials of the Income Tax department on Thursday conducted a "survey" at an established gold jewellery shop at T. Nagar here.

According to official sources, the "survey" was based on a specific intelligence on stocking of unaccounted gold jewellery.

The survey comes close on the heels of the recent Akshaya Tritiya celebrations when there were discounts offered to lure the general public to purchase gold jewellery.

The sources said the officials were yet to assess the extent of the seizures of the unaccounted stock of yellow metal.

So far, Rs. 50 lakh-worth of unaccounted stock of gold jewellery had been seized. Further investigation is on. - Special Correspondent

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