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Special trains for Pongal

CHENNAI: Southern Railway will operate special trains on the Chennai Egmore-Nagercoil sector to clear rush of passengers in connection with Pongal festival.

Train no. 0613 will leave Egmore at 7 p.m. on January 12 and 14 and reach Nagercoil at 8.15 a.m. the next day. In the return direction, train no. 0614 will leave Nagercoil at 7.30 p.m. on January 13 and 16 and arrive Egmore at 9 a.m. the next day. Reservation for the special trains begins on Friday.

Train no. 2659/2660 Chennai Central - Visakhapatnam - Chennai Central Expresses will be extended to Bhubaneswar. The service will commence from Bhubaneswar from January 13 and with from January 19 from Chennai Central. Consequently, the trains will be renumbered as 2830/2829, says a railway release. — Special Correspondent

AIDWA demand

CHENNAI: The All-India Democratic Women's Association has demanded that the State Government appoint a new chairperson for the State Women's Commission.

A meeting of the State council, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, pointed out that the post of chairperson remained vacant for months.

Registration under the farmers' security scheme should be done not just under the name of the family head but also individual members. Educational assistance, given to the poor, should not be linked with this scheme.

The prices of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders and kerosene should not be hiked. The subsidy for cooking gas should continue. Resolutions on the issues were adopted at the meeting, says an association release. — Special Correspondent

Man dies as fire engulfs firecracker unit

SIVAKASI: An employee of a firecracker unit died and another suffered burns in a fire accident at the unit at Naranapurampuduron near here on Thursday.

The police said I. Selvam of Sengkamalapatti and V. Selvam (32) of Lingapuram colony were cutting `cap rolls' when fire caused by a spark engulfed the shed. While the former died of injuries on way to hospital, the latter was admitted to the Government hospital here with more than 50 per cent burns.

In a similar incident at a fireworks unit near here last week, P. Ramesh (28), who was injured, died at the Government Rajaji hospital in Madurai. — Staff Reporter

Appeal to appoint Farmers Commission

THANJAVUR: The Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam affiliated to the CPI-M has appealed to the State Government to appoint a Farmers Commission involving agriculture scientists and representatives of farmers associations to suggest measures to protect their interests and improve agriculture in the State.

A resolution to this effect was adopted at the 26th State conference of the sangam here on Thursday.

A lot of changes had occurred in agriculture in the last 10 years. Four years of drought and unprecedented floods this year had pushed the farmers and farm labourers into severe crisis. Productivity had come down and agriculture research institutions functioned only for namesake. Government seed farms were closed and credit facility was also shrinking. The conference also demanded payment of Rs. 10,000 as compensation per acre of paddy damaged in the floods, Rs. 10,000 per acre for groundnuts, Rs. 40,000 for banana, Rs. 25,000 for turmeric, Rs. 25,000 for sugarcane and Rs. 10,000 as compensation per cattle and Rs. 1, 000 per goat killed in floods.

The conference also appealed to the Centre to release Rs. 13,625 crore demanded by the State Government towards flood relief. — Staff Reporter

Collector inspects development works

PUDUKOTTAI: Collector P. Sonai on Thursday inspected development works in Ponnamaravathi panchayat union. He inspected new cement road laid at a cost of Rs.three lakhs at Moolangudi and asked officials to construct drains on both sides to prevent water stagnation.

Regarding road facility for cremation ground and a minor bridge across the local stream, he assured to take up the works next year. He inspected the Olimangalam-Konnayapatti road laid by spending Rs. 55.72 lakhs and Ulagapatti-Kandianatham road at an outlay of Rs. 22.1 lakhs.

Members of women self-help groups of Kandiyanatham pleaded for loans to purchase milch animals. He asked them to form cooperative society for marketing milk.

Govt. employees

stage dharna

PERAMBALUR : Members of the Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association staged a dharna in front of taluk offices in the district at five centres demanding restoration of pay benefits and other allowance.

In Perambalur, taluk secretary Swaminathan led the dharna.

Widespread rain

in Nagapattinam

NAGAPATTINAM : Several parts of Nagapattinam district experienced widespread rains on Wednesday night and Thursday morning recording an average rainfall of about 25 mm.

Agriculture department officials told The Hindu that the rains were beneficial to the standing samba paddy crop.

Mettur level

Tiruchi: The water level at the Mettur dam stood at 116.55 feet today. The inflow was 4073 cusecs and the outflow, 9241 cusecs .

Three arrested for waylaying old man

Tuticorin: Three persons were arrested on Wednesday on a charge of threatening a 60-year-old man, Jeevanantham. Chinnadurai (27), Chandanaraj (25) and Sasi (29) waylaid the complainant and demanded Rs. 5,000 from him.When he refused, the accused had threatened him.

Three held for assault

Tuticorin: The police on Wednesday arrested three persons on a charge of assaulting a youth, Kannan (17) here on Monday. Owing to enmity, Marimuthu, Prabhu and Chandanaraj assaulted Kannan, while he was standing near an Old Age Home on Ettayapuram road.

Meeting on sanitation

Tuticorin: A meeting of officials from revenue, rural development, forests and panchayat administration, convened by the Collector, V. Chandrasekaran, discussed projects to be implemented during `Total Sanitation Week' to be observed from January 12 to 20. Later speaking to The Hindu , A. Natarajan, Project Officer, District Rural Development Agency, said entire streets in 408 village panchayats would be cleaned and houses painted.

Saplings of neem and pungam would be planted along roads.

Awareness campaign on sanitation and hygiene will be held and villagers motivated to keep their areas clean.

— Staff Reporter

Youth arrested for smashing windscreen

VIRUDHUNAGAR: A youth, K. Kumar, was arrested by the Sattur Taluk police after he smashed the windscreen of a State-run bus in an inebriated condition on Thursday.

The police said the accused, who was part of a funeral procession, hit the windscreen when the bus was passing along the procession, near Mettupatti.

Women demand

flood relief

DINDIGUL: About 80 women from Iyankulam picketed Aarthi Theatre Road here demanding flood relief on Thursday.

They charged that officials did not distribute flood relief properly and damage assessment was also done properly.

Police convinced the agitators that a team oaf revenue department officials would be sent to assess the damage in their village, following which they withdrew the agitation.

Water level

MADURAI: The level in the Periyar dam on Thursday stood at 133.4 feet with an inflow of 347 cusecs and a discharge of 600 cusecs. The level in the Vaigai dam was 68.21 feet with an inflow of 508 cusecs and a discharge of 1,441 cusecs. The combined Periyar credit stood at 8126 mcft. — Staff Reporter

Hartal

ERODE: More than 100 shopkeepers, owners of automobile workshops and small industries observed a hartal on Thursday to protest against the municipal administration's move to install iron polls to check overloaded lorries.

The municipal water pumping station is located on the banks of the Cauvery river at Vairapalayam. Huge pipelines are erected on the main road from Vairapalayam to Municipal VOC Park. Due to the operation of overloaded lorries and other vehicles, the pipelines were damaged. So the administration decided to erect iron bars for a height of 12 or 13 feet. Lorry owners and other industrialists and traders of the area opposed to this and observed the hartal.

Encroachments removed

ERODE: The Erode Municipal Town Planning officials, with the police escort, removed a number of temporary shops and other encroachments on Mettur and Cauvery roads on Thursday. They have cleared 150 shops. The officials said that all the encroachments on the municipal roads would be removed.

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