Tamil Nadu   

Briefly

Woman missing case transferred to CBI

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday transferred the investigation of a woman missing case from the Crime Branch-CID to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Filing a habeas corpus petition before the Bench in December 2004, the husband of the missing schoolteacher, J. Meenakshi (35), of Kulithalai in Karur district, had alleged the involvement of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLA, Pappa Sundaram, in the matter. Hence, the Bench, on January 5, 2005, ordered a CB-CID probe. The woman could not be traced for the past 16 months despite "sincere efforts" taken by the agency. — Staff Reporter

FIR against DMDK campaign organiser

VELLORE: A first information report has been filed in the Arcot town police station against the organiser of the meeting of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam on Wednesday, in which film actor and party founder president addressed the people from his van, allegedly beyond 10 p.m., seeking their votes in the May 8 Assembly elections.

Collector S. Gopalakrishnan and Superintendent of Police M. Ashok Kumar said campaigning is not allowed after 10 p.m. as per the Election Commission's model code of conduct. Asked whether Mr. Vijaykant has been prosecuted, Mr. Ashok Kumar said a complaint made in this regard was under investigation. — Special Correspondent

IUML invites nominations

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Indian Union Muslim League has invited nominations for three Assembly constituencies in which the party will contest in the election.

The last date for submission of applications is March 28. Interview with prospective candidates will take place the next day, says a release.

The party, a constituent of the Democratic Progressive Alliance, has been allotted Palayamkottai, Vaniyambadi and Aravakurichi. — Special Correspondent

New lighting system in rail coaches

CHENNAI: The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Perambur here has introduced light emitting diodes (LED) based emergency lighting systems in its newly built coaches replacing the conventional filament based lamps.

These systems are more reliable as they will not either fuse or fail due to impact at the time of accidents. These lights will have long life and low power consumption. The lights will be of immense use to safely evacuate trapped passengers during accidents by providing sufficient light inside the capsized/damaged coaches for about 6 to 8 hours. Totally, four such "stand alone" lighting systems will be provided in every coach, one in each doorway and two in the passage, says an ICF release.

Railway Board Additional Member (Electrical) R.K. Sareen on Friday inspected the coaches provided with the new lighting system along with General Manager P. Raja Goundan and Chief Electrical Engineer L.M. Sahore. — Special Correspondent

Spurious labels seized

CHENNAI: Officials of the Bureau of Indian Standards on Thursday inspected a fire equipment firm premises at Tiruvottiyur here as part of the "Enforcement Drive Day" and seized sizeable number of spurious labels pertaining to different manufacturers as well as those without manufacturers' names. The labels were meant for affixing on different types of fire extinguishers without a valid BIS certification mark licence. This was in violation of section 11 (2) of the BIS Act. Action will be taken against the person responsible for the violation, says a release. — Special Correspondent

Threat to boycott polls

ERODE: The residents of Patel Street, Kangeyam panchayat, threatened to boycott the coming Assembly elections protesting against poor roads in their area. Despite their repeated requests no action has been taken to repair the roads. So they have decided to boycott the poll.

Grievances meeting

ERODE: The Collector, D. Karthikeyan, informed on Friday that the monthly Agriculture Grievances Day would be conducted on March 31 at 10.30 a.m. at DDC Hall in the Collectorate.

Ration rice seized

ERODE: The Kangeyam Tahsildar, Prasanna Venkatesan, and other Revenue officials seized ten bags of PDS rice during the vehicle check in Nathakadaiyur area on Thursday. While

conducting the check they stopped a speeding van. But on seeing the officials the driver sped away.

However, after reaching Kangeyam, the driver escaped abandoning the vehicle. - Staff Reporter

Bomb threat to railway station

Thanjavur: A letter received by the station master of the railway station here that a bomb has been planted in the railway station and that it would go off on Friday evening turned out to be a hoax.

Following the receipt of letter by the station master, the police was alerted. They checked the railway station and track with the aid of sniffer dogs. They also screened the passenger train from Kumbakonam which arrived at 6.30 p.m.

Special radio programmes

TIRUCHI: Tiruchi station of the All India Radio, in its first channel, will broadcast two special phone-in programmes to clarify the academic doubts of candidates sitting for Tamil and English papers of the SSLC public examination to be held next week.

An official press release issued here on Friday said the programme will be on air from 9.45 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday (March 25) for Tamil Paper I and II, and from 11 a.m. to 12 noon on Sunday (March 26) for English Paper I and II.

Candidates interested in getting their doubts clarified can participate in the programmes by dialling 0431 - 2416888, the release added.

Mettur level

Tiruchi: The water level at the Mettur dam stood at 113.73 feet on Friday. The inflow was 1,163 cusecs and the outflow, 2000 cusecs.

— Staff Reporter

Youth murdered, hunt for nine persons

Tuticorin: A 22-year-old youth was murdered here in the wee hours of Friday.

The police said R. Selvam and Arumugam (23) were walking along a street when a group of nine persons attacked them with sickles owing to previous enmity.

While Selvam died on the spot, Arumugam was admitted to the Government Hospital here.

The police are on the look out for Ramesh and eight others in this connection.

Lawyers stage demonstration

Tuticorin: Members of Tuticorin Bar Association staged a demonstration here on Friday demanding transfer of Assistant Superintendent of Police (town sub-division) who had foisted cases against lawyers recently.

About 125 lawyers took part in the agitation.

Plea to set up parks

Nagercoil: Conservation of Nature Trust has urged the Government to set up parks in a host of newly created neighbourhoods here, its Chairman R.S.Lal Mohan.

Though three plots at various places had been assigned to set up parks in Nesomony Nagar and though the municipality had allotted fund for creation of parks and gave nod for water facilities and construction of a protective wall, no work has been executed so far.

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