Responding to the notice served on him by the Election Commission (EC), DMK leader A Raja Wednesday said he never made any derogatory or defamatory statement against Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami and the AIADMK as well as the BJP are falsely propagating that he had insulted the CM. “I deny that I made any derogatory or defamatory speeches against the Hon’ble Chief Minister and I made any speech which would demean or defame women or motherhood,” Raja wrote in his response to the notice served by EC.
READ | ‘Never insulted Palaniswami…AIADMK, BJP propagating false facts’: A Raja responds to EC notice
Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail over isolated pockets in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the next five days, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said Wednesday. As per the forecast, since the dry land breeze from north-west is moving towards Tamil Nadu, the temperature may increase 3-5 degree Celsius between March 31 – April 4. The rise in temperature will be felt in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Thiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Kallakurichi, Namakkal, Karur, Tiruchirapalli, Perambalur, Ariyalur, Mayiladuthurai, Puducherry and Karaikal.
READ | Heat wave conditions likely at isolated pockets in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry for 5 days: IMD
For assistance on COVID-19-related queries and mental health support in Chennai, citizens can contact the Greater Chennai Corporation's (GCC) COVID-19 helpline 044 46122300 | Citizens can find the nearest GCC-facilitated COVID-19 fever clinic here | For lodging rain-related complaints and assistance during the monsoon, citizens can contact the GCC's monsoon helplines 044 25384530 or 044 25384540 or the control room 1913 (available 24x7)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and his wife Bharati got the first dose of Covaxin administered in Guntur city on Thursday, marking the launch of the new phase of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.
The Chief Minister said all persons above the age of 45 years would be administered the coronavirus vaccine in this phase in the next 90 days. The state has targeted one crore people for vaccination in this phase.
"Coexistence with COVID-19 is inevitable, so vaccination is the only way to prevent the infection," Jagan Mohan Reddy said on the occasion.
He said the village and ward volunteers and Asha workers would undertake a door-to-door survey to ensure that all people above 45 years of age got inoculated. "This programme will be carried out as a yagna," Jagan Mohan Reddy added.
The Chief Minister was kept under observation for a while after taking the vaccine. He then interacted with the doctors, medical staff and ward volunteers. (PTI)
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has announced that 7,47,051 people have been vaccinated in Chennai till Wednesday, with 21,652 people having been inoculated on Wednesday alone.
Terming his remarks against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palanisamy “obscene” and akin to “lowering the dignity of women”, the Election Commission of India (ECI) Thursday reprimanded senior DMK leader A Raja and barred him from campaigning for 48 hours. The EC also delisted his name from the list of star campaigners ahead of the assembly elections scheduled on April 6.
“The commission also advises you to be watchful and not to make intemperate, indecent, derogatory, obscene remarks and lower the dignity of women in future during the election campaign,” reads the ECI order dated April 1 and addressed to Raja. Following a complaint by the AIADMK over his remarks against Palanisamy, the EC had sent a notice to Raja on March 30.
It was last week during campaigning at Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituency of Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin that Raja targeted CM Palaniswami. “While Stalin was born out of a legitimate relationship and a normal delivery, Palaniswami was a premature delivery, born out of an illicit relationship,” he had said.
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Going to polls on April 17, byelection to Telangana’s Nagarjuna Sagar assembly constituency is essentially a fight between a 7-time Congress legislator and son of the TRS leader who defeated the former in 2018. The BJP’s performance, which claims to be the main challenger to the ruling dispensation in the next general elections in 2023, will be keenly watched.
The election was necessitated due to the sudden demise of sitting MLA Nomula Narsimhaiah on December 1 last year. While the Congress party was quick to name K Jana Reddy (74) as its candidate on the day the Election Commission of India issued the poll notification, the TRS and BJP chose to name their candidates Nomula Bagath Kumar (37) and Dr. Panugothu Ravi Kumar Naik (36), respectively, only a day before the last date for filing nominations
Bagath Kumar, son of Nomula Narasimhaiah, is an engineer-turned-MBA who is currently practicing as an advocate at the Telangana High Court. Dr. Ravi Kumar Naik, hailing from the ST community, has worked as a government civil surgeon before joining the BJP recently.
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Telangana recorded 887 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, the highest single day spike so far this year, pushing the tally to over 3.08 lakh , while the death toll rose to 1,701 with four more fatalities, the state government said on Thursday.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 201, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (79) and Nirmal (78), it said in a bulletin.
The total number of cases stood at 3,08,776 while with 337patients being cured, the total recoveries were at 3,01,564. The state has 5,511 active cases and 59,297 samples were tested on Wednesday. Cumulatively, over 1.02 crore samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was over 2.74 lakh, the bulletin said.
The case fatality rate in the state was 0.55 per cent while the recovery rate in Telangana was 97.66 per cent. (PTI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday hit out at the DMK for its leader A Raja’s alleged vulgar remarks against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami’s mother, saying it showed the party had no regard for women.
The ‘mothers and sisters’ of the state should teach a ‘lesson’ to the DMK in the April 6 Assembly polls, he said.
Addressing an election rally here, Shah charged the DMK with aiming to romp home in the hustings by ‘hook or crook.’ Referring to Raja’s alleged offensive remarks targeted at Palaniswami, leader of the BJP’s ally AIADMK, Shah also slammed the Congress and DMK for corruption and dynasty politics.
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With Tamil Nadu polls around the corner, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has been taking steps to ensure the spread of Covid-19 in the city is minimal even as the state has witnessed a surge in the number of cases over the past two weeks.
The GCC had intensified testing and vaccination across the city well ahead of the polls. Masks and social distancing have been mandatory, with fines even imposed in T Nagar for violating government Covid-19 rules.
Containment zones were reintroduced last month now across Chennai’s 15 zones. A total of nine streets and six apartment complexes have been sealed till Wednesday as per data provided by the Greater Chennai Corporation.
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Petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged across the country for the second consecutive day on Thursday, April 1, 2021. The auto fuel prices were last changed on March 30, when petrol fell by 22 paise per litre and diesel slipped by 23 paise in the national capital.
In Chennai, the price of petrol is Rs. 92.58 per litre and that of diesel is Rs. 85.88 per litre.
The price of petrol in Hyderabad is Rs. 94.16 per litre and that of diesel is Rs. 88.20 per litre.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed the Madras High Court on Wednesday that no Aadhaar data, more particularly the cell phone numbers of voters in Puducherry, has been furnished to the BJP for campaigning for the April 6 elections.
When a PIL petition from Anand, president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) came up Wednesday, UIDAI counsel told Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy that no compromise was made on this issue.
The court said India should be able to proudly tell the world that the nation is a successful democracy despite issues like poverty, adding, its image takes a beating whenever malpractices happen in elections.
The counsel representing the Puducherry unit of the BJP told the judges that the party did not steal any mobile phone data. It was collected by its Karyakartas (partymen) over a long period. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had used innovative methods of sending SMS to voters with a link to join booth level WhatsApp groups.
However, the bench felt that such an innovative method should also have been used after obtaining the permission of the Election Commission, as per the model code of conduct, which is in force. It also said that a level playing field should be created, so that the elections are held freely and fairly.
"We must be able to hold our heads high and tell the world that we are a successful democracy despite many problems such as poverty. The image of our country takes a beating whenever malpractices happen in elections." "We are surrounded by instances such as military junta and dictatorship. We should be proud to be a democracy, despite having been under colonial rule for 200 years and facing several problems even now," the judges added and adjourned the matter by a day. (PTI)
As many as 186 illegal brick kilns located close to elephant corridors in the Western Ghats have been shut down, the Madras High Court was told on Wednesday. The government counsel informed this when a PIL petition from animal activist Muralidharan came up before the First Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy.
According to the petitioner, the illegal mining operation in the Thadagam region in Coimbatore was the sole reason behind the rising number of man-animal conflicts. "The brick kilns and the mining of the red sand for bricks have destroyed important corridors used by the elephants to migrate to contiguous forest areas. This is resulting in elephants moving into human settlements and damaging crops and lives," he said.
Earlier, the Bench had directed the State to take immediate measures to ensure that the brick kilns functioned within the prescribed parameters after obtaining licence from the appropriate authority.
When the matter came up again Wednesday, the counsel representing the Chief Secretary, submitted that a detailed audit was conducted across Somayampalayam, Nanjundapuram and Pannimadai villages in Coimbatore north taluk where it was found that several erring units were in operation.
Recording the submission, the Bench directed the State to file a detailed report and adjourned the matter till April 6. (PTI)
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) conducted 241 fever clinics in Chennai on Wednesday. A total of 18,585 people attended the clinics, with swabs collected from 132 people who were identified with ILI symptoms, while others were provided with medication for minor ailments.
The most number of camps were held in Tondiarpet (Zone 4) where 38 camps had been set up, while Manali (Zone 2) had the least with four camps.
The University of Hyderabad (UoH) is offering an online diploma course in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI and ML). The course will be delivered through the Center for Distance and Virtual Learning (CDVL) with the help of the faculty of the School of Computer and Information Sciences (SCIS) and AAIC Technologies Pvt Ltd. This is a one-year online diploma course and the virtual inaugural ceremony of the first batch of the course was held on March 27.
The main aim of the diploma course is to offer a skill-based tailor-made course that can enhance the industry-ready abilities among graduates and working professionals, said the varsity.
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The Congress on Wednesday levelled corruption charges against the ruling AIADMK and assured a fair probe if the alliance led by the DMK in Tamil Nadu, in which it is also a constituent, emerged victorious in the April 6 Assembly polls.
Party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the AIADMK government was a puppet of the Centre.
“After five years of a puppet AIADMK government, which has become a Modi toolkit, nothing more and nothing less, it is a puppet Modi toolkit playing in the hands of Shri Narendra Modi,” he alleged and accused the AIADMK government of surrendering before the Centre.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate actor Rajinikanth on winning the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke award today.
"Popular across generations, a body of work few can boast of, diverse roles and an endearing personality...that’s Shri @rajinikanth Ji for you" (sic), he tweeted.
Actor Rajinikanth has been honoured with the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke award. Confirming the news, Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar wrote, “Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2020 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji. His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic.”
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The Tamil Nadu government has extended the COVID-19-enforced lockdown till April 30 with existing relaxations and restrictions, and will effectively implement the test-track-treat protocol to contain the spread of the virus, according to an order issued by Chief Secretary Rajeev Ranjan.
According to the order, there was a need to ensure that the RT-PCR tests conducted were uniformly distributed across all districts with adequate testing to be done in districts reporting high number of infections.
On tracking new cases, Ranjan said the new infections detected due to intensive testing need to be isolated and their contacts have to be traced at the earliest and quarantined.
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Deploring the freebies culture in Tamil Nadu to woo voters, the Madras High Court on Wednesday advised leaders of the political parties to stop this and engage in promoting infrastructural facilities.
The court’s observations came while admitting a writ petition from M Chandramohan from Tirunelveli district praying for a direction to the authorities concerned to convert the reserved Vasudevanallur Assembly constituency into a general one.
“Each party tries to outdo each other in terms of populist promises. If one party promises monthly assistance of Rs 1,000 to women household heads, there is a counter offer of Rs 1,500. It goes on. The result is people started having a mindset that they could make a living out of freebies,” a Division Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi said.
A trend has been created that whoever avails loan from banks does not repay them, expecting waiver of loans during election. In this way, people themselves get corrupted by the political parties. The way in which the parties throw their promises, which are unreasonable and unworkable, are really unwanted.
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Across districts in southern and central Tamil Nadu, the Edappadi Palaniswami government does not seem to be facing significant anti-incumbency. However, what appears set to cost the CM is his perceived “subservience” before the “Modi-Shah” duo of the BJP.
In the AIADMK-led alliance, the BJP has been given 20 seats. In the 2016 Assembly polls, the BJP had got 2.84% of the votes contesting on 188 seats, forfeiting deposits in 180 and winning none.
The BJP’s spectre also hangs heavy because, while EPS is seen as efficient and praised for holding the AIADMK together after J Jayalalithaa’s death, there doesn’t seem to be much recall value about his government’s achievements. Lacking both the charisma of Jayalalithaa and the oratory of M Karunanidhi, EPS is failing to put this across.
The minorities — Christians at 6.12% of the population, and Muslims at 5.86% are the largest groups — are also upset over the AIADMK’s alliance with the BJP.
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A total of 248 flights will be operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 124 arrivals and 124 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
The Election Commission on Wednesday ordered transfer of three police officials, including two IG ranked officers, in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, following "adverse inputs."
In a communication to the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, with a copy marked to the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO),the EC directed the transfer of IG Central HM Jayaram, IG West Dhinakaran,and SP Rural Coimbatore Arul Arasu.
The EC directed the transfer of the officials "based on adverse inputs," it said, and also named the replacement for the respective officials. "Jayaram, Dhinakaran and Arul Arasu will be attached to the DGP Headquarters awaiting posting orders" and their posting cannot be done without its permission, the EC said.
Further, the Commission also directed the appointment of A Arun as Police Commissioner of Tiruchirappalli City, a day after it transferred then incumbent J Loganathan. (PTI)
The Madras High Court Wednesday ordered the Chennai civic body to exhume the body of a doctor—who was forced to be buried in a cemetary of a different faith after his death due to Covid-19—and reinterr it at a burial ground of his family’s choice.
The order came on a plea by Anandhi Simon, the wife of Dr Simon Hercules who died of Covid-19 in April 2020.
Stating that the dignity of the deceased should be maintained throughout the process, Justice Abdul Quddhose observed that the aftermath of the doctor’s death was “shocking” as the incident had given a go-by to all human values. His corpse was shunted from one burial ground to another due to the objections raised by heartless human beings for allowing the burial of the body of a Covid-19 victim, the judgment said.
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Tamil Nadu recorded 2579 positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the state tally to 8,86,673. Among these, Chennai reported 969 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 2,48,965. The state recorded 19 deaths on Wednesday, putting the state toll at 12,719. Seventeen of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 1527 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,58,075.
As of Wednesday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 15,879. Till date, 5,35,382 males, 3,51,255 females and 36 transgenders have tested positive for the virus in the state.
According to a bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu, 1,95,95,368 samples from the state have been tested till date, with 83,713 samples having been sent yesterday. There are 259 COVID-19 testing facilities in the state, out of which 69 are government and 190 are private facilities.
Good morning!
Welcome to the live blog from Chennai and Hyderabad where we bring to you the latest updates on Tamil Nadu elections 2021, COVID-19 vaccination, COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, UK COVID-19 virus in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and more across Chennai and Hyderabad throughout the day. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the states in real time.
A total of 2.5 kg gold worth Rs. 1.15 crore have been seized and five cases of gold-smuggling booked against passengers who arrived in Hyderabad from Dubai by a flight, Customs officials said on Wednesday.
The gold was concealed in mixer-grinder motors and cutting appliances being carried by the passengers on Tuesday in their check-in baggage, they said. The passengers were detained and further investigation was in progress, the officials said.
In a separate incident, the Customs officials, in coordination with CISF, booked a case of smuggling of foreign exchange against a passenger who allegedly was attempting to depart by a flight to Dubai on Tuesday.
The man was found to be carrying 30,000 US dollars in a handbag. The currency,equivalent to Rs 21,48,000, was seized under the Customs Act, 1962, a press release said. (PTI)
Uttar Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday hit out at both the Congress and DMK alleging that they have failed to safeguard women. Referring to some alleged derogatory remarks made by some political party leaders, including DMK MP A Raja, recently, Adityanath said this has proved that there would be no protection to women if these parties were voted to power.
Addressing a rally in Coimbatore seeking votes for Vanathi Srinivasan, BJP candidate for the Coimbatore south assembly constituency, he said the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was always development of Tamil Nadu, both industrially and economically. If the BJP-AIADMK was voted to power, the state would get more funds for development activities, he said.
The BJP-led government has sanctioned to Coimbatore city a defense corridor for manufacturing components for the sector, by which it will become self-reliant (Atmanirbhar) and result in generation of large employment, Adityanath added.
The chief minister also thanked the people of Tamil Nadu for contributing nearly Rs 120 crore for the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. (PTI)
Responding to the notice served on him by the Election Commission (EC), DMK leader A Raja Wednesday said he never made any derogatory or defamatory statement against Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami and the AIADMK as well as the BJP are falsely propagating that he had insulted the CM.
“I deny that I made any derogatory or defamatory speeches against the Hon’ble Chief Minister and I made any speech which would demean or defame women or motherhood,” Raja wrote in his response to the notice served by EC.
He added, “As a student of Ambedkar, Periyar and Anna, as a person who was guided by Dr. KALAINGAR Kuranithi and as a member of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, I Had or Have or will never indulge in such activities which will disrepute women. The basic foundation of the Dravidian movement is to empower women and to get them equal rights in the society. Belonging to such movement one cannot even dream of bringing disrepute to women or motherhood.”
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Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail over isolated pockets in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the next five days, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said Wednesday.
As per the forecast, since the dry land breeze from north-west is moving towards Tamil Nadu, the temperature may increase 3-5 degree Celsius between March 31 – April 4. The rise in temperature will be felt in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Thiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Kallakurichi, Namakkal, Karur, Tiruchirapalli, Perambalur, Ariyalur, Mayiladuthurai, Puducherry and Karaikal.
“For next 48 hours, the sky condition is likely to be mainly clear. Maximum and minimum temperature will be around 39 ?C and 28 ?C respectively,” the release from IMD read.
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Telangana saw 684 fresh coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest single day spike so far this year,pushing the aggregate to 3.07 lakh, while the toll rose to 1,697 with three more fatalities.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 184, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri and Nizamabad districts with 61 and 48 cases respectively, a state government bulletin said on Wednesday.
The bulletin said 394 patients recovered from the infection on March 30. The cumulative recoveries stood at 3,01,227, while 4,965 people were under treatment. As many as 56,122 samples were tested on March 30. Cumulatively, the number of samples tested was 1.01 crore. The samples tested per million population was 2,72,746, it said.
The recovery rate in the state was 97.83 per cent, while the case fatality rate in the state was 0.55 per cent. (PTI)
Prices of petrol and diesel were steady across the country on Wednesday, March 31, 2021. The auto fuel prices were last changed on March 30, when petrol fell by 22 paise per litre and diesel slipped by 23 paise in the national capital. The key auto fuel prices were revised on three occasions during the entire month of March 2021.
In Chennai, the price of petrol is Rs. 92.58 per litre and that of diesel is Rs. 85.88 per litre.
In Hyderabad, the price of petrol is Rs. 94.16 per litre and that of diesel is Rs. 88.20.
With the DMK seen to have an edge over the AIADMK in the Tamil Nadu elections, Revenue Minister R B Udhayakumar is among the few AIADMK ministers who is confident of a win. An ardent J Jayalalithaa loyalist who once refused to wear footwear in her presence, Udhayakumar kept the AIADMK flag flying in Madurai at a time when DMK leader M K Alagiri ruled the region. While Alagiri is a spent force now, Udhayakumar’s popularity has surged, on the strength of the time and efforts he has dedicated to his constituency Thirumangalam.
Past 11 pm on a Monday, Udhayakumar, 49, is in no hurry to wrap up campaigning as his team hands out pamphlets at the Amma Temple compound here, built by Udhayakumar with two bronze statues of M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa. The team includes Udhayakumar’s daughter Priyadarshini, who is in-charge of his trust, which is behind several welfare schemes in the area, including 1,000 tuition centres.
A senior AIADMK minister, who is struggling to retain his seat, admits Udhayakumar is a sure winner along with CM Edappadi K Palaniswami. “He started his poll campaign at least two years ago. He must have met every voter several times by now.”
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The Election Commission on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to DMK leader A Raja for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami during an election campaign.
The former Union minister and DMK’s “star campaigner” has been asked to respond to the notice by 6 pm on Wednesday.
Based on ground reports, the Commission said, it is of the view that “the contents of the speech made by you are not only derogatory but also obscene and lower the dignity of motherhood of women, which seems to be a serious violation of the provisions of Model Code of Conduct.”
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Hitting out at the main opposition player DMK and its ally, the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday advised the two parties to ‘control’ their leaders. Referring to recent remarks by top DMK leaders, including former Union telecom minister A Raja, at a rally in support of state BJP president and the party’s Dharapuram nominee L Murugan, the PM said if they come to power, “they will insult many other women of Tamil Nadu”.
“While the NDA has a development agenda, the Congress and DMK have their dynastic agendas,” Modi said, adding that their speeches have nothing positive but are only meant to “demean others and spread lies”.
“Congress and DMK have launched their outdated 2G missile… It has one clear target, women of Tamil Nadu,” Modi said, referring to Raja, who apologised to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday after derogatory remarks about his mother kicked up a storm in the state.
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Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party Tuesday was trolled by netizens on social media for using the footage of Dr. Srinidhi Chidambaram, wife of Sivaganga Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, in one of their promotional videos ahead of the state Assembly polls. On March 28, the party had shared a video on their Twitter page titled “Let Lotus Bloom, let Tamil Nadu grow.”
The over 5-minute-long promotional video showcased the greatness of Tamil language, culture, and how the saffron party is helping the state to grow.
In the video, a footage of a classical dancer was shown to highlight the cultural value of the state. And the dancer in the video is none other than Dr. Srinidhi Chidambaram, a popular Bharatanatyam dancer and wife of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram.
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The Election Commission on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that it would use only new Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), manufactured three to four years ago, for the April 6 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
Following the submission, the court disposed of a petition from the DMK on the matter.
The EC’s submission was made in its counter-affidavit filed before the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy when the PIL from DMK Organising secretary R S Bharathy came up for further hearing today.
In response to DMK’s plea to not to use EVMs which are beyond the expiry of 15 years, the EC agreed to use only M3-EVMs, manufactured between 2017-2019.
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The Election Commission on Tuesday shunted out Commissioner of Police, Tiruchirappalli district in Tamil Nadu to a non-election post at the state headquarters.
In a directive to the state chief electoral officer (CEO), the Commission said "the matter of wide-scale bribery to government officials by some political representatives" has come to its notice. "Based on preliminary reports and inputs, the Commission has found a case of serious dereliction of duty by some police officials," the letter said.
It said J Loganathan, IGP, Commissioner of Police, Tiruchirappalli district will be transferred from his present posting to a non-election post at the state headquarters. Tamilmaran, ACP, Golden Rock Range, Law and Order, will also be placed under suspension for serious dereliction of duties and be attached to DGP headquarters immediately.
"Compliance of the above direction of the Commission may be done immediately and a compliance report may be sent by 1 pm on March 31," the letter to the CEO said. (PTI)
The Madras High Court on Tuesday debarred a litigant from filing Public Interest Litigations (PILs) for one year for filing a frivolous one today. What made the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy pass the restraining order was the prayers of the petitioner.
The petitioner, advocate S P V Paul Raj of Tenkasi district, prayed for a direction from the court to the Election Commisison to subject the contesting candidates in the April 6 elections to covid tests, as they were widely roaming about in their constituencies.
The candidates kissed infants, hugged the elderly and moved about very closely with the general public as part of their campaign, he contended. He feared that the candidates and their campaign might end up in creating clusters of COVID-19 cases if they were
allowed to move about freely without testing negative for the virus.
In support of his prayer, he pointed out at candidates of certain political parties having tested positive for the virus recently. (PTI)
A 36-year-old real estate broker and his two associates were arrested by Hyderabad police Tuesday for impersonating a high-ranking government official and cheating nearly 100 persons of around Rs 3 crore after promising them favours.
Addressing the press, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said that one Avushodapu Sudhakar collected huge amounts on the pretext of providing them double-bedroom houses under the state government’s flagship scheme, allotment of government lands, jobs in the government sector, and even promised to arrange gold at a price cheaper than the market price.
Sudhakar had employed Sangoju Naga Raju (35) and Battala Bheemaiah (32), who moved along with him as security guards, and also carried a toy pistol for his security, said police.
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The Madras High Court has asked the parents of two women, who were in a live-in relationship, to subject themselves to counselling by a specialist in the field, to face the matter wisely. Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who gave an interim order on Tuesday, hoped that the parties will work towards a peaceful resolution.
'What is required for the present is an understanding of the issue in hand,' the judge said. He was passing orders on a petition from the women, seeking protection for their living together without any disturbance from their respective parents. While one of them was 22 and pursuing MBA, the other woman, 20, was an undergraduate student. They were natives of Madurai district and were in a relationship for about two years.
They told the judge their friendship blossomed into love and that they were very clear that both of them will be a partner to each other for life. But, their parents did not like this. They exerted pressure on them to separate. The women left Madurai and were presently under the care of a city-based NGO.
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Three people including a school teacher have been arrested by the district police of Tenkasi for sharing on social media a picture of a postal ballot with a vote cast ahead of the Tamil Nadu elections.
The action was taken based on a complaint by S Palani Nadar, a Congress candidate from the Tenkasi Assembly constituency. He claimed Sahara Arockia Anishtal, a graduate teacher from RC Middle School in Surandai, had cast her vote through a postal ballot, taken a picture of the ballot paper and shared it with her friends on WhatsApp and Facebook.
Following the complaint, the school administration was directed by the district election in-charge to suspend the teacher, and send a compliance report to the district education officer.
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Tamil Nadu recorded 2342 positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the state tally to 8,84,094. Among these, Chennai reported 874 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 2,48,031. The state recorded 16 deaths on Tuesday, putting the state toll at 12,700. Fourteen of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 1463 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,56,548.
As of Tuesday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 14,846. Till date, 5,33,873 males, 3,50,185 females and 36 transgenders have tested positive for the virus in the state.
According to a bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu, 1,95,11,655 samples from the state have been tested till date, with 83,154 samples having been sent yesterday. There are 259 COVID-19 testing facilities in the state, out of which 69 are government and 190 are private facilities.
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