Tamil Nadu   

Briefly

Two held for graft

Tuticorin: Sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, on Thursday, arrested a clerk and a peon working at Tuticorin municipal office on the charge of taking bribe from a retired municipal employee.

The clerk, Nagoor Hassan, demanded Rs. 500 from Thengaraisamy to release the pension arrears due to him.

On the instruction of DVCA officials, Thengaraisamy handed over a currency note dipped in chemicals to Hassan. Soon after receiving the money, Hassan, with the help of Ramasamy, hid it somewhere in the room.

But the duo denied taking any money from the complainant when the DVAC officials entered the room and questioned them.

Hence the DVAC officials dipped the hands of all present in the room in a chemical solution, which confirmed the involvement of the duo.

21 police personnel injured in accident

THENI: Twenty-one police personnel, including women sub-inspectors and women police constables, were injured when their van proceeding to Dindigul from Theni fell into a roadside ditch near the office of the Theni Deputy Superintendent of Police here on Friday.

The injured were admitted to the Theni Government Medical College Hospital in Andipatti for treatment.

The police were deputed for security duty for the visit of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to Dindigul district.

Man dies after consuming `liquor'

RAMANATHAPURAM: A man died after reportedly consuming a chemical at Rameswaram on Friday. Sources said that some fishermen reportedly found a container on Thursday, which was floating on the sea. The container had methanol. At least 11 fishermen, who consumed the liquid, mistaking it for liquor, fell unconscious and were admitted to hospitals in Rameswaram and Ramanathapuram. One of the fishermen, Ramakrishnan (38) of Natarajapuram, who was referred to the Ramanathapuram Hospital, died on the way to the hospital.

Man's body found

RAMANATHAPURAM: A 40-year-old man was found dead near the bus stand here on Friday.

Sources said that nobody came forward to claim the body. The body is lying at the mortuary in the Government Hospital here.

Water level

MADURAI: The level in the Periyar dam on Friday stood at 120.20 feet (full level 136 feet) with an inflow of 826 cusecs and a discharge of 1,050 cusecs. The level in the Vaigai dam was 51.35 feet (full level 71 feet) with an inflow of 748 cusecs and a discharge of 41cusecs. The combined Periyar credit stood at 4,319 mcft.

Periyar dam and Tekkadi recorded 5 mm of rainfall each followed by Shanmuganadi 1 mm. — Staff Reporter

Regional-level Dak Adalat

ERODE: The second regional-level Dak Adalat will be conducted on October 9 at the Postmaster General Office, R.S. Puram, Coimbatore, the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Erode, said in a press release issued on Friday. Those having grievances relating to postal service may send their complaints to N. Krishnamoorthy, Assistant Postmaster General, R.S. Puram, Coimbatore on or before September 28 with all the details.

The complainant had to mention the date, place and address clearly. They should also indicate clearly the document evidence. Complaints related to postal savings account and PLI should contain the account number and policy number.

The complaints may be sent through ordinary post and the covers should be superscribed `Dak Adalat Case' on the top. - Staff Reporter

Seminar

ERODE: The department of Economics of the Sri Vasavi College, Chitode, will conduct a national-level two-day seminar on `Women Empowerment, Issues and Challenges', with UGC support on September 29 and 30. A total of 135 research articles will be presented in the seminar.

Four technical sessions - Economic Empowerment of Women, Social Empowerment of Women, Political Empowerment of Women and Women Development - will form part of the seminar, a press release said. - Staff Reporter

Nominations filed

ERODE: Being `Amavasai' day, many candidates filed their nominations on Friday. For municipal ward councillors, 16 persons filed nominations in the five municipalities in the district.

For six Grade Three Municipalities, 43 filed their nominations for the ward councillors and for 53 Town Panchayat ward councillors, 137 have filed their nominations.

For the village panchayat president posts, 131 filed nominations, for panchayat ward, 482 filed nominations and for panchayat union ward councillors, 16 persons filed nominations. - Staff Reporter

Cancelled

ERODE: The Collector, D. Karthikeyan, on Friday said that the farmers' grievances day scheduled to be conducted on September 29 has been cancelled due to local body election and would be conducted later. - Staff Reporter

`DMK to contest 60 p.c. of seats'

ERODE: "The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which secured six seats in Erode district in the Assembly elections along with allies partners Congress (two seats) and PMK (one) out of the 11 constituencies of the district, will contest 60 per cent of the seats in the local body election," said the Handloom Minister and Erode district DMK secretary, N.K.K.P. Raja, while addressing party workers here on Friday.

He said the Congress would contest 20 per cent of the seats, PMK- 10 per cent and the CPI and CPM in the remaining. He told the party workers to work hard for the victory of the DMK alliance in the local body elections also.

The Highways and Port Minister, M.P. Saminathan, the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, and others spoke.

Later, Mr. Raja told newsmen that they had formulated a plan for the polls and would emerge victorious. - Staff Reporter

Official ends life

KARUR : An Assistant Project Officer with the District Rural Development Agency here ended his life by setting himself afire on Friday. The official S. Rajamanikkam (57), a native of Pudukottai, who was staying with three other officers at a rented house in Vanchinathan street in Thanthonimalai area.

His body was then removed to the Karur Government Hospital.

Collector T. N. Venkatesh, District Revenue Officer, S. Natarajan, and Project Officer, DRDA, M. Madhavi paid floral tributes to the departed official, before his body was handed over to his family.

Thousands take holy dip

Nagapattinam : Thousands took a holy bath at the sea in Vedaranyam, Kodiakarai and Poompuhar and also in the Cauvery at Mayiladuturai on Friday to mark the `Mahalaya Amavasya.'

Hundreds performed rituals and `tharpanam' on the seashore and on the Cauvery bank.

Elected dargah president

Nagapattinam : Janab S.S. Syed Kamil Sahib (55) has been unanimously elected president of the Nagore Dargah Advisory Board of the famous Nagore Andavar Dargah at its advisory committee meeting held at Nagore two days ago.

He will hold the office for three years.

Mettur level

TIRUCHI: The level at the Mettur dam stood at 104.78 feet against its full level of 120 feet on Friday.

The inflow was 9,035 cusecs and the outflow 22,000 cusecs. — Staff Reporter

Counting postponed

CHENNAI: The counting for the Madurai Central Assembly by-election is postponed to October 17 from October 14.

According to an Election Commission press release, the decision to postpone the date was made after taking note of the schedule for the elections to the local bodies. — Special Correspondent

DMDK candidate files papers

MADURAI: Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate M.R. Panneerselvam filed his nomination from the Madurai Central Assembly constituency here on Friday.

According to official sources, three independent candidates also filed their papers before the Returning Officer, S. Mookiah. — Staff Reporter

Congress to form poll panels

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee is to appoint district-wise committees, consisting of local MPs and MLAs and district presidents, to hold seat-sharing talks with Progressive Democratic Alliance constituents in respective districts.

According to an official release issued by the party president M. Krishnasswamy, the committee will receive applications from partymen who wish to contest the elections. — Special Correspondent

Application fee reduced

CHENNAI: The Government has reduced application fee to Rs. 10 from Rs. 50 for obtaining information under the Right to Information Act.

It also made a change in the duration for inspection of records. Under the Tamil Nadu Right to Information (Fees) Rules, a fee of Rs. 5 was charged hitherto for each 15 minutes for inspection after the free time of one hour. Now, the duration has been extended to every one hour. For providing information in a printed format, the fee is Rs. 2 per page of photocopy for extracts of the publication sought. A government order was issued in this regard on Wednesday. — Special Correspondent

TNLA activist surrenders

CHENNAI: Murugesan of Alapakkam, Cuddalore district, who, the police said, was an active cadre of the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army and a close aide of the slain forest brigand, Veerappan, surrendered before the Judicial Magistrate, Madurantakam, on Friday. The court remanded him to 15 days judicial custody.

The police said Murugesan was arrested in a TADA case relating to the attack on Kullanchavadi police station and later came out on bail on condition that he should sign at the `Q' branch CID office, Cuddalore, every Monday. He abstained from signing from November 2000 and was absconding for the past six years. The Cuddalore district police and the `Q' branch CID formed special teams to nab him and the teams were monitoring his movements. "Due to the pressure put on him by the special teams", he surrendered in the court on Friday, a police press release said. — Special Correspondent

CB CID to investigate into complaints

CHENNAI: Besides 10 cases registered by the local police against Anantharaj for alleged cheating of the public, the State Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department (CB CID) has now taken up for investigation over 50 petitions containing allegations against him. The special unit will investigate allegations including cheating and breach of trust against the person concerned, a senior police official said.

The complaint against Mr. Anantharaj is that he had collected sums in instalments from the public after promising them to build houses for them. The police headquarters had already handed over 10 cases to the CB CID.— Special Correspondent

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