While owning a house is everyone’s dream, making that come true is Perala Manasa’s dream. On Wednesday, the 23-year-old civil engineer announced the launch of OPods or micro homes in pipes comprising one bedroom with a built-up area 120 sq ft and made out of a concrete sewerage pipe of 2000 mm diameter. Though primarily aimed at the underprivileged, Manasa has 12 different designs of experimental mobile housing that may suit different sectors.
READ | Telangana girl launches OPods or micro houses built of sewerage pipes at low-cost
The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections ended peacefully on Tuesday and the voter turnout stood at 72.78 per cent with people sealing the fate of nearly 4,000 candidates including that of AIADMK’s Edappadi K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin, the key contenders for power. Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told reporters that the EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail units functioned well and less than one per cent warranted replacements.
READ | TN Assembly polls end peacefully, voter turnout 72.78 per cent
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)
Superstar Rajinikanth on Thursday took a private plane to Hyderabad to join the shoot of his upcoming film, Annaatthe. Last December, the shooting came to an abrupt stop following the break of the coronavirus on the sets of the film in Hyderabad. While four crew members tested positive for the virus, Rajinikanth had tested negative. However, the stressful situation caused fluctuations in his blood pressure level, requiring hospitalization.
Rajinikanth will join his co-stars Nayanthara, Keerthy Suresh, Khushboo, Prakash Raj and others on the sets of Annaatthe. Written and directed by director Siva, the film is bankrolled by Sun Pictures. And if everything goes according to the plan, the film would release in theatres during the Deepavali holiday.
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In the wake of rising coronavirus infections in Telangana, particularly in Greater Hyderabad, traders at one of the oldest markets in Hyderabad have announced self-imposed restrictions. The state government has clarified — on multiple occasions — that it would not consider imposing a lockdown.
In Begum Bazar, a wholesale hub for items ranging from pulses to jewelry, the Hyderabad Kirana Merchants Association has resolved to keep the shops open only between 9 am and 5 pm, starting April 9. At a meeting on Wednesday, the members have stressed on the need for wearing masks and ensuring personal hygiene through use of sanitisers as well as social distancing. The association asked its members to push for wearing masks among customers and even provide the customers with masks if they don’t carry one.
In the past, different traders associations have imposed restrictions in timings. When the number of coronavirus cases rose rapidly in the city last year, the traders here had voluntarily observed lockdown.
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Polling is underway in 515 Zilla Parishad Territorial constituencies and 7,220 Mandal Parishad Territorial constituencies of Andhra Pradesh. Polling began at 7 am this morning and will continue till 5 pm. As of 11 am, 21.65 percent voting was recorded.
The elections are being held following an order of a division bench of the AP High Court comprising Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice C Praveen Kumar on Wednesday that set aside the single judge order and allowed the State Election Commission to conduct elections to MPTCs and ZPTCs as scheduled on April 8.
However, the court directed the SEC not to take up counting and declaration of results pending disposal of the petitions. A day before on Tuesday, the single judge bench of Justice U Durga Prasad Rao had stayed the election notification stating that the model code of conduct was not enforced as directed by the Supreme Court. Terming the elections ‘unlawful’, the opposition Telugu Desam Party had announced a boycott of the polls.
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COVID-19 cases in Telangana breached the 2,000-mark on Wednesday with 2,055 fresh infections pushing the tally to over 3.18 lakh, while thetoll rose to 1,741 with seven more fatalities.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 398, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (214) and Rangareddy (174), a government bulletin said on Thursday.
The total number of cases stood at 3,18,704 while with 303 patients being cured, the total recoveries were at 3,03,601. The state has 13,362 active cases and 87,332 samples were tested on Wednesday. Cumulatively, over 1.06 crore samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was over 2.86 lakh, the bulletin said.
The case fatality rate in the state was 0.54 per cent while the recovery rate in Telangana was 95.26 per cent. According to a separate release, over 14.04 lakh people in the state have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while over 2.76 lakh got their second shot also as of April 6. (PTI)
DMK general secretary Duraimurugan tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. He is reportedly isolating himself at home in Chennai.
Ahead of the assembly election in Tamil Nadu, Duraimurugan had been actively participating in various party initiatives.
Sources said on Wednesday evening that he experienced slight discomfort and took a COVID-19 test at a private hospital in Nungambakkam. The result on Thursday confirmed that he has been infected with the virus.
As per local reports, Duraimurugan undertook COVID-19 vaccine but has tested positive for the pandemic virus.
Veteran Tamil filmmaker SP Muthuraman (86) has been admitted to Medway hospital in Chennai with symptoms and signs of COVID-19. In a press release issued by the hospital, Muthuraman is suspected to have COVID-19 pneumonia. “He is under the observation of the Medical Team at Medway Hospitals. He is stable at present,” the release read.
SP Muthuraman who made his debut with Kanimuthu Paapa in 1972 worked closely with Tamil film actors like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Jai Shankar, etc. His association with Rajinikanth in particular was widely appreciated. He won the state award for best director for ‘Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai’ movie starting Rajinikanth. His last movie ‘Thottil Kuzhanthai’ was released in 1995.
It is not uncommon for some voters to feel cheated by politicians who fail to keep their election promises. But in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, it did not take long for voters to realise that they have been taken for a ride.
Around 200 people queued outside a grocery shop in Kumbakonam town on Wednesday morning, the day after Assembly polls ended in the state, hoping to encash the Rs 2000 tokens issued to them, allegedly by a local candidate. However, the store owner, Sheik Mohammed, had to turn them away claiming that his shop has no connection to the candidate.
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The Madras High Court on Wednesday took objection to a Tamil Nadu government order (GO) of August 2020 cancelling arrear exams of college students in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and held the GO was not acceptable to it.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, which made the observation while passing further interim orders on the PILs from advocate Ramkumar Adityan and former Anna University VC E Balagurusamy, directed the state government and the UGC to arrive at a solution that can be taken by way of an examination or some other method.
"The State and the UGC should put their heads together to suggest any ameliorate measures that may be taken by way of an exam or some other method. There is no doubt that lakhs of students, who had thought that they had cleared the particular course after writing the final semester exam may have to be held back because they did not clear previous papers. At the same time, unqualified persons cannot be certified to have qualified to pursue professional courses or even higher studies," the judges said.
Earlier, Advocate-General Vijay Narayan told the judges that the exemption had been granted only to arts and science courses since the regulatory bodies of other professional courses like medicine, engineering and law, refused their sanction. The court also pointed out the UGC guidelines, which do not provide such a scenario. "The State government appears to have cancelled arrear exams in violation of UGC guidelines and they are absolutely unacceptable," the bench said.
The court then adjourned the matter till April 15 after directing the UGC and the State government to jointly work and find out a solution that would serve the interest of students without compromising on the sanctity of the system, notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic. (PTI)
A Hyderabad court on Wednesday awarded life sentence till death to a man for raping his 17-year-old daughter in 2017. Judge B Suresh of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge (MSJ) Courtat LB Nagar, found the accused, guilty under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IPC and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment until death.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000, a release from Cyberabad Police Commissionerate said.
The girl was staying with her father after the death of her mother and following her elder sister's marriage, the release said. In October 2017, the girl filed a complaint with police stating that over a 10-month period her father used to come home drunk at night and sexually assault her besides threatening her that if she disclosed it to anyone, he would send her out from his house.
Consequently, she informed her father that she was not getting menstrual periods following which he took her to a hospital where a doctor after examination said she was pregnant. Her father gave her some tablets and got the pregnancy aborted.
On the occasion of Diwali festival, the girl went to her aunt's house at Warangal and narrated her ordeal. A case was registered and the man was subsequently arrested. (PTI)
The only two remaining Telugu Desam Party Legislators in Telangana Wednesday evening joined the ruling party and merged the TDP Legislature Party (TDPLP) into Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party (TRSLP).
Mecha Nageshwara Rao who represents Ashwaraopet constituency and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah who represents Sathupalli were the only MLAs in Telangana Legislative Assembly to have won on TDP tickets. On Wednesday, Nageshwara Rao maintained that he could not do justice to the people of his constituency in the last two and a half years, and being the ruling party’s MLA could help him serve the people better.
The two MLAs gave a letter to the Assembly speaker Pocharam Sreenivas Reddy requesting the merger. This followed their meeting with Chief Minister and TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan.
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DMK youth wing leader Udhayanidhi Stalin on Wednesday denied he had breached the Model Code of Conduct during the poll campaign for the just concluded Tamil Nadu Assembly elections by making some remarks about late BJP leaders Sushma Sawaraj and Arun Jaitley.
Responding to an Election Commission notice, issued on Tuesday, he said it “has not taken the whole alleged speech into consideration and only referred to two lines” from his speech.
In his reply, Udhayanidhi Stalin said the “tenor and intention of his entire speech must be appreciated” to decide the context of the extracted two lines uttered and urged the EC to furnish a transcript of the entire speech for him to furnish a full and proper reply. “At the outset I deny that I have committed any breach of the Model Code of Conduct,” he said.
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A woman has complained that she was sexually assaulted by her brother and cousin since she was around eight years old in Kothagudem district, police said on Wednesday. A day after she filed the complaint, her 25-year-old cousin allegedly killed himself by hanging at his house on Wednesday, they said.
In the complaint, the 20-year-old woman accused her brother and cousin, a software engineer, working in London and now staying in Kothagudem, of repeatedly raping her since she was a second standard student (about 8 years). In the complaint, she alleged that her mother and other family members did not take action against her brother and cousin in spite of her informing them and she was tortured by all of them.
Following the complaint, a case under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IPC was registered, a police official said.
Meanwhile, an audio conversation, purportedly between the woman and one of the accused, was broadcast by some local news channels in which the accused is heard admitting his guilt and seeking apology from her. (PTI)
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) conducted 231 fever clinics in Chennai on Wednesday. A total of 18,337 people attended the clinics, with swabs collected from 256 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 39 camps had been set up, while Manali (Zone 2) had the least with three camps.
While owning a house is everyone’s dream, making that come true is Perala Manasa’s dream. On Wednesday, the 23-year-old civil engineer announced the launch of OPods or micro homes in pipes comprising one bedroom with a built-up area 120 sq ft and made out of a concrete sewerage pipe of 2000 mm diameter.
Hailing from a poor family in Bommakal village in Telangana’s Karimnagar district, Manasa credits her single mother for inspiration and the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) for the education that enabled her to dream. After doing B.Tech (civil engineering) from Lovely Professional University in May 2020, Manasa spent another six months researching the designs prevalent in Japan, Hong Kong and other places to suit the local needs and weather conditions before registering a company in January 2021. The work on the first model began in March 2021.
Though primarily aimed at the underprivileged, Manasa has 12 different designs of experimental mobile housing that may suit different sectors. The OPod comes with a bedroom, kitchen, hall, washroom, and shelves, and is equipped with electricity, water, and drainage. With a balcony-like lounge area over the tube, the OPod is best suited for one or two persons. “This is a first-of-its kind model in India. In 40 to 120 sq ft, we can have a customized movable all-weather home with a life span 100 years. The cost may come around Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 5.5 lakh,” said Manasa, adding that designs for two or three-bedroom homes are also available.
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Governor Banwarilal Purohit appointedK N Selvakumar as the Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) in Chennai for a period of three years.
Senior most serving professor of TANUVAS with rich teaching experience of about 32 years, Selvakumar, played a key role in the development of Technology Achievement Index in the Indian Livestock Sector and Milk Price Policy Modelling Technique for the state government.
Selvakumar, working as Dean of Madras Veterinary College, had served as Member Technical Monitoring Committee, Animal Husbandry Department, Tamil Nadu government. He possesses a vast research experience having 84 overall journal publications and presented 14 research papers in International academic events, a communique from the Raj Bhavan said here on Wednesday.
He has about 22 years experience in the University administration having functioned as Director of Distance Education, Controller of Examinations, Dean, Madras Veterinary College, Dean, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Orathanadu and Professor & Head in Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. Also, he has 25 years experience in the University UG and PG admission programmes. (PTI)
Actor-politician R Sarath Kumar, his wife Radhika and another person were on Wednesday sentenced to undergo one year imprisonment in connection with a cheque bounce case. A Special Court constituted for hearing cases against MPs and MLAs, which passed the conviction order, however, kept it in abeyance for 30 days following an appeal from the accused. Both are actors while Kumar, head of the political party All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, is also a former MP and ex-MLA.
According to film financing firm Radiance Media Private Limited, Magic Frames company, in which Kumar, Radhika and Listin Stephen were partners, had borrowed Rs 1.50 crore. Later, Kumar had obtained a hand loan of Rs 50 lakh from the firm. In return, they had issued cheques. When the cheques were presented for realisation, they all bounced.
Following a complaint from the firm, cases were filed against the accused. They had moved the Madras High Court challenging the criminal proceedings pending against them before the Saidapet fast track court. However, the court had refused to quash it in May 2019. Instead, the judge had directed the Saidapet court to complete the trial within a stipulated period. In the meantime, the case was transferred to the Special Court for MP/MLAs in Chennai.
When the matter came up on Wednesday, presiding officer N Alicia recorded the submissions of the counsel for the plaintiff and defendants and sentenced the three to one year imprisonment for offences under Sections 138 and 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. (PTI)
A total of 245 flights will be operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 122 arrivals and 123 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
Tension prevailed in Tamil Nadu’s Velachery area on Tuesday evening after some men wearing ‘Polling Official’ badges were found carrying four electronic voting machines, including two VVPAT machines, on two-wheelers. It is reported that the ‘poll officials’ were corporation staffers.
The Election Commission has suspended the three officials besides ordering an investigation into the incident.
Apparently one of the machines fell on the road when the men were riding near the Taramani main road and as they attempted to lift it, they were caught by a passer-by who stopped them with the help of local residents. The officials were also reported to have been carrying some cash.
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Tamil Nadu recorded 3986 positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the state tally to 9,11,110. Among these, Chennai reported 1459 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 2,57,851. The state recorded 17 deaths on Wednesday, putting the state toll at 12,821. Fourteen of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 1824 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,70,546.
As of Wednesday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 27,743. Till date, 5,49,952 males, 3,61,122 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, 2,01,73,626 samples from the state have been tested till date, with 80,535 samples having been sent yesterday. There are 260 COVID-19 testing facilities in the state, out of which 69 are government and 191 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.
Tension prevailed in Tamil Nadu’s Velachery area on Tuesday evening after some men wearing ‘Polling Official’ badges were found carrying four electronic voting machines, including two VVPAT machines, on two-wheelers. It is reported that the ‘poll officials’ were corporation staffers.
The Election Commission has suspended the three officials besides ordering an investigation into the incident.
Apparently one of the machines fell on the road when the men were riding near the Taramani main road and as they attempted to lift it, they were caught by a passer-by who stopped them with the help of local residents. The officials were also reported to have been carrying some cash.
Read more
Gold weighing 1.2 kg andvalued at Rs 60 lakhs was seized from a passenger who arrived at the international airport in Hyderabad from Dubai, customs officials said on Wednesday.
The passenger arrived by a flight from Cochin on Tuesday and the gold smuggled from Dubai, concealed in the washroom of the aircraft was subsequently retrieved, they said.
The customs sleuths booked a case against the passenger. Investigation is in progress. (PTI)
A day after making waves in Tamil Nadu, superstar Vijay quietly took off to Georgia to begin shooting for his upcoming film, which has been tentatively titled Thalapathy 65. A picture of him standing at the airport for security clearance on Wednesday is going viral on social media. One of the travellers at the airport spotted Vijay and clicked pictures of him.
Vijay made sensational headlines on Tuesday after he made quite an entrance at a polling station in Chennai. He rode his bicycle from his house to the Neelankarai polling booth with a swarm of his fans following him on bikes. Soon many interpreted it as Vijay’s commentary on rising fuel prices. And there was also discussion about the significance of the colour of his bicycle, which was a combination of red and black.
However, Vijay’s team has refused all the speculations and claimed that there was no political motivation behind him riding a bicycle. “There is only one reason why Thalapathy Vijay came by cycle to cast his vote. The booth is in the street behind his house. It’s a narrow street, and it would be difficult to take the car there. There is no other reason for it,” Vijay’s team said.
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A case of violation of model code of conduct has been registered against Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani, police said on Wednesday.
The Minister allegedly took his car with an AIADMK party flag near a polling booth on Tuesday, the polling day in the state, which was the violation, the police said. A complaint was lodged by Raja Mohammed, the zonal officer of Thondamuthur Assembly constituency from where Velumani has contested.
The Minister was spotted wearing a shawl bearing the party flag within 100 metres of the polling booth, which was also a violation of the model code of conduct, they said.
Based on the complaint, police registered a case against Velumani. (PTI)
Senior Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram failed to appear before a Delhi court on Wednesday in connection with the INX media money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The father and son duo sought exemption from appearance citing their star campaigner status in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Special Judge MK Nagpal initially suggested that the Chidambarams appear through video conferencing, but later accepted their exemption applications.
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Petrol and diesel prices were unchanged across the country for the eighth consecutive day on Wednesday, April 7, 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 diesel is Rs. 85.88 per litre.
In Hyderabad, petrol is priced at Rs. 94.16 per litre while diesel is priced at Rs. 88.20 per litre.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) conducted 181 fever clinics in Chennai on Tuesday. A total of 6650 people attended the clinics, with swabs collected from 30 people who were identified with ILI symptoms, while others were provided with medication for minor ailments.
The most number of camps were held in Anna Nagar (Zone 8) where 28 camps had been set up, while Manali (Zone 2) had the least with three camps.
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with adjustable arms, making it able to lift packages of different sizes and shapes, is the latest innovation from the researchers of the Robotics Research Center (RRC) at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-H) in Hyderabad. ‘Elasticopter’, a patent-pending design developed by 24-year-old Suraj Bonagiri, is considered a big breakthrough in drone technology.
The journey from a novel design to a working prototype of a reconfigurable quadcopter emerged from the limitations of existing delivery drones which focus only on the weight of packages to be lifted while ignoring the size. As drones are designed for unique purposes and to carry specific payloads, any forcible fitting, and lifting of inappropriate payloads will lead to instability, inefficiency, and even compromise safety, Suraj says.
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As many stepped out to vote today, a picture of an Andhra Pradesh police constable holding a baby, as the mother went inside the voting booth has gone viral on social media.
The photograph, which has been shared by the official Twitter account of Andhra Pradesh police, features the uniformed cop, deployed outside the voting booth in Tamil Nadu, holding a one-month-old baby.
“AP Police’s humane face at Tamil Nadu Elections. Anantapur police constable deployed for Elections 2021 carried and lulled a 1-month-old crying baby until the mother’s return from the voting booth, winning the hearts of many,” read the caption of the post.
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Telangana added 1914 fresh cases to it coronavirus tally on Tuesday, the highest single day spike this year, pushing the aggregate to over 3.16 lakh , while the toll rose to 1,734 with five more fatalities.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 393, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 205 and Nizamabad 179, a government bulletin said on Wednesday.
The total number of cases stood at 3,16,649 while with 285 patients being cured, the total recoveries were at 3,03,298. The state has 11,617 active cases and 74,274 samples were tested on Tuesday. Cumulatively, over 1.05 crore samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was over 2.84 lakh, the bulletin said.
The case fatality rate in the state was 0.54 per cent while the recovery rate in Telangana was 95.78 per cent. According to a separate release, over 13.37 lakh people in the state have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while over 2.70 lakh got their second shot also as of April 6. (PTI)
Voting for the high stakes assembly elections in Tamil Nadu began on Tuesday. The top stars of the Tamil film industry descended on their designated polling stations across the state to exercise their right to vote. And their presence added more drama to an already high-voltage election day.
Many celebrities showed up to vote very early in the morning to beat the crowd. Most of them chose to cast their vote without using their celebrity status to jump the line. Actor Suriya, his father Sivakumar and his younger brother Karthi stood in the line along with other electors, waited for their turn patiently to vote. The stars also posed for cameras for the media and showed their inked fingers, while some fans seized the opportunity to grab a quick selfie with them irrespective of whether they approved or not.
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The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections ended peacefully on Tuesday and the voter turnout stood at 71.79 per cent with people sealing the fate of nearly 4,000 candidates including that of AIADMK’s Edappadi K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin, the key contenders for power.
The 71-plus polling percentage is likely to go up with completion of data collation, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told reporters. The EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail units functioned well and less than one per cent warranted replacements, he said.
Kallakurichi recorded the highest of 78 per cent and Chennai at 59.40 per cent was the lowest, he said adding other information like votes cast by men and women shall be made available later.
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The Election Commission Tuesday issued a notice to DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin for his alleged remarks that BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley died as they were 'unable to tolerate the pressure and torture' given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The EC has asked him to respond to the notice before 5 pm on Wednesday, 'failing which the Commission shall take a decision without any further reference to you'.
The notice said the Commission received a complaint from the BJP on April 2 alleging that Udhayanidhi Stalin, while addressing a political gathering in Dharapuram on March 31, made a statement that 'Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley (both Union ministers) died unable to tolerate the pressure and torture given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi'.
The Commission said it is of the view that the contents of the speech made by him violates the provision of model code of conduct which states that 'Criticism of other political parties, when made, shall be confined to their policies and programme, past record and work. Parties and candidates shall refrain from criticism of all aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties. Criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided'. (PTI)
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Tamil superstar Vijay, nicknamed ‘Thalapati’, came to his designated polling booth on a bicycle to cast his vote as Tamil Nadu went to polls on Tuesday, prompting speculations and reactions online.
A video of the actor, riding the bicycle as his entourage followed him, has gone viral on social media. The actor was seen in a green T-shirt paired with blue trousers and a facemask, when he turned up at the polling station in Neelankarai, Chennai.
While many said the move may have been the actor’s way of registering his protest against the rising prices of petrol and diesel, others said it was a message to people to travel emission-free. Some others called it a publicity stunt.
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A complaint on violation of the Model Code of Conduct was lodged against BJP candidate in Coimbatore South Constituency Vanathi Srinivasan for sporting a Lotus emblem while casting her vote in Coimbatore on Tuesday, official sources said.
Vanathi Srinivasan, who arrived with a few party workers to the election booth, was found having a white lotus engraving on her sari, while casting her vote and her opponent Congress candidate, Mayura Jayakumar lodged a complaint with the returning officer in Coimbatore.
The complaint was forwarded to the Chief Electoral Officer, Chennai for follow up, since lotus is the BJP symbol, official sources said. (PTI)
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of likely development of heatwave conditions over multiple states in the country lasting till the end of this week. Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and interior parts of Tamil Nadu will experience heatwave till Thursday.
Over the last two days, the day temperature over these regions have remained 2 to 4 degrees above normal and is expected to remain over 40 degrees Celsius till April 8. Nagpur (41 degrees Celsius) and Akola (42.5 degrees Celsius) remained hot on Tuesday.
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In view of Covid-19 surge in Telangana, teachers are directed to attend half a day school. The Director of School Education, Telangana in a circular Tuesday mentioned that following a meeting with the state education minister and teachers unions, it has been decided that the teachers will attend schools from 8 am to 12:30 pm with effect from April 7.
The teachers have to maintain Covid-19 guidelines — social distancing, carrying hand sanitisers, without it they will not be allowed to enter school. All the schools, educational institutions in the state were closed since March. The decision was taken following a number of Covid-19 clusters had emerged in residential schools and hostels.
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Tamil Nadu recorded 3645 positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the state tally to 9,07,124. Among these, Chennai reported 1303 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 2,56,359. The state recorded 15 deaths on Tuesday, putting the state toll at 12,804. Twelve of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 1809 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,68,722.
As of Tuesday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 25,598. Till date, 5,47,561 males, 3,59,527 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, 2,00,93,091 samples from the state have been tested till date, with 80,856 samples having been sent yesterday. There are 260 COVID-19 testing facilities in the state, out of which 69 are government and 191 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.