The multi-level parking facility located between Thanikachalam road and Singalavelar street of Theyagaraya road which is expected to have over 700 parking slots is likely to be opened for the public this month. The facility, built in an area of 8,826 sq m, is automated with minimal human interface. The structure, which has valet facility as well, can hold as many as 222 four-wheelers and 513 two-wheelers.
READ | Chennai: Multi-level parking facility in T Nagar likely to open this month
Five months before they were hacked to death on a busy highway in Peddapalli district of Telangana on Wednesday afternoon, lawyer couple G Vaman Rao (52) and G Nagamani (48) had sought protection from the high court, alleging police harassment over their PIL which sought a probe into an alleged custodial death. On Wednesday, between 2:15 and 2:30 pm, Rao and Nagamani were pulled out of their vehicle and hacked to death. In one of the purported video clips of the incident, an injured Rao has named Kunta Srinivas, a local Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader. Srinivas, president of the party unit in Manthani mandal, and two others, identified as Veldi Vasantha Rao and Chiranjeevi, were detained on Thursday.
READ | Day after lawyer couple killed, TRS leader detained; father points to ‘illegal’ land deals
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)
Tamil television actor Indira Kumar was found dead on Friday at his friend’s residence in Chennai. As per reports, the actor went to visit his friend. He was found dead in the morning, and the friend immediately alerted the police. An investigation has been started and the body has been sent for post-mortem.
The reason that drove Indira Kumar to suicide is not clear. He did not leave a ‘note’. According to reports, Indira Kumar, a Sri Lankan refugee, was working in a television serial in Chennai and was struggling to find acting opportunities. He is survived by his wife and son.
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With newer variants of Covid-19 emerging and finding occurrences in India, the Centre has refreshed its guidelines for international arrival in a bid to curb the spread of the virus with a specific focus on those arriving into the country from the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa.
These new Standard Operating Procedures are applicable for all incoming international travellers coming in from the UK, Brazil or South Africa transiting through flights originating from the UK, Europe and Middle East. The broader categorisation for these locations has been done because there are no direct flights between India, and Brazil and South Africa; and most of the passengers arriving from these countries arrive through transiting flights from Europe or Middle East.
In addition to the usual procedures of filing out a self-declaration form and submitting it on the Air Suvidha portal at http://www.newdelhiairport.in, those arriving on flights from the UK, Europe and the Middle East will have to get an RT-PCR test done prior to their flight and will be mandatorily subjected to self-paid confirmatory molecular tests on arrival at the Indian port of entry. If the outcome of these tests at the airport is negative, the passengers have to undergo home quarantine for seven days and then get re-tested. If they again test negative, they must self-monitor their health for another seven days. However, in case they test positive at any stage after arrival, they will be put in isolation and the treatment protocols will be applicable.
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The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) conducted 268 fever clinics in Chennai on Thursday. A total of 19,275 people attended the clinics, with swabs collected from 153 people who were identified with ILI symptoms, while others were provided with medication for minor ailments.
The most number of camps were held in Adyar (Zone 13) where 43 camps had been set up, while Perungudi (Zone 2) had the least with five camps.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami Friday said cases other than major offences, registered against protestors opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and people who violated the lockdown norms, will be dropped.
Edappadi said people belonging to a few organisations were involved in demonstrations, participated in rallies, burnt effigies and copies of the CAA law during the protests in 2019.
“To safeguard law and order, police personnel made necessary security arrangements. For damaging public properties and disrupting public peace, as many 1,500 cases were registered against the public. In those cases, except for those that were serious offences, the rest would not be pursued,” Edappadi said.
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Five months before they were hacked to death on a busy highway in Peddapalli district of Telangana on Wednesday afternoon, lawyer couple G Vaman Rao (52) and G Nagamani (48) had sought protection from the high court, alleging police harassment over their PIL which sought a probe into an alleged custodial death.
On Wednesday, between 2:15 and 2:30 pm, Rao and Nagamani, parents of a teenaged son, were pulled out of their vehicle and hacked to death. Scores of people witnessed the attack — at least three state transport buses, dozens of cars and two-wheelers stopped on the highway as the couple’s car was blocked by the two unidentified assailants. Several people also videographed the attack.
In one of the purported video clips of the incident, an injured Rao has named Kunta Srinivas, a local Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader. Srinivas, president of the party unit in Manthani mandal, and two others, identified as Veldi Vasantha Rao and Chiranjeevi, were detained on Thursday.
Srinivas and Veldi Vasantha Rao have been named in the FIR, on the basis of a complaint filed by Rao’s father, G Kishan Rao. The FIR, filed at the Ramagiri police station, also names a third suspect — Akkapaka Kumar.
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Music director Issac Thomas Kottukapally passed away in Chennai on Thursday, family sources said. He was 72.
Kottukapally had received the National Award for Best Background Music for Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu in 2010.
He composed music for many films including Sancharam, Kutty Srank, Swaham, Bhavam and Kunjananthante Kada, among others.
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The International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad Thursday launched a postgraduate certificate course in Internet of Things (IoT) and smart analytics. The course will be offered in the online mode in partnership with TalentSprint, an NSE Group company. The nine-month programme, says Talent Sprint, is designed both for IoT engineers who want to master analytics as well as other tech professionals and managers from industries disrupted by heavy IoT adoption.
A team of faculty leading Smart City research at IIITH will teach participants through live, interactive online classes, and mentor them as they apply learnings on leading industry projects. A few select fresh graduates will also get to join the programme. Applications are open for the first cohort due to start in June 2021.
Every student will get experiential learning with IoT kit through which they can create, test, and validate their IoT ideas. Outstanding projects might get the opportunity to be tested and deployed at the prestigious IIIT Hyderabad Living Lab. The modules will be delivered through interactive live classes, capstones, and hackathons.
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Telangana recorded 165 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total positives to over 2.97 lakh while one death pushed the toll to 1,623, the state government said on Friday.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 35, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (19) and Rangareddy and Karimnagar with 13 each, it said in a bulletin.
The total number of cases stood at 2,97,278 while the total recoveries rose to 2,93,940 with 149 patients being cured. The state has 1,715 active cases and23,761 samples were tested on Thursday. Cumulatively, over 84 lakh samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was nearly 2.26 lakh, the bulletin said.
The case fatality rate in the state was 0.54 per cent while the recovery rate in Telangana was 98.87 per cent. (PTI)
Nearly two weeks after the charred body of a 27-year-old Indian Navy sailor was found in the forests of Palghar, the police have concluded that he was not kidnapped from outside Chennai airport, where he landed from Ranchi on January 31, as he had said in his dying declaration. But the police are yet to ascertain how and why he was in Maharashtra.
In his dying statement, Suraj Kumar Dubey had told police that he had been kidnapped from outside Chennai airport by three persons, who drove him to Palghar where they set him on fire for not paying a ransom of Rs 10 lakh. After he succumbed to 90 per cent burn injuries on February 5, the Palghar police registered a murder case and formed 10 teams comprising 100 officers to investigate the matter.
The police, which have been tracking the movements of the deceased after he landed at Chennai airport, discovered that he had checked into a lodge in Vellore, more than 120 kilometres away from the airport. “Based on the guest register maintained at the lodge, Dubey stayed there overnight on January 31 — the day he arrived in Chennai from his hometown in Jharkhand — and checked out from the lodge at 6 pm on February 1. He was alone. We are trying to find out how he reached Palghar,” an officer said.
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A total of 242 flights will be operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 121 arrivals and 121 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
As India closes in on 1 crore vaccinations against the novel coronavirus disease, data from one month of the exercise show an uneven pattern of inoculation – several states and Union Territories that have robust healthcare infrastructure and were expected to do well on vaccine coverage have, in fact, performed poorly.
Seven states and UTs have administered the first dose of the vaccine to less than 50 per cent of their target healthcare workers, according to Union Health Ministry data until Thursday.
Assembly election-bound Tamil Nadu had set itself a target of vaccinating 5,32,605 healthcare workers in government and private sectors. But as of February 18, the state had achieved only 47.1 per cent first dose coverage of healthcare workers. Vaccination in Tamil Nadu has been moving slowly – on February 3, 23.70 per cent of healthcare workers had received the first shot; this number rose to 30.4 per cent by February 10.
Dr J A Jayalal, who heads the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and practises in Tamil Nadu, said the low coverage in the state is “surprising”. “There is no vaccine hesitancy. However, there is a segment of healthcare workers not taking (the vaccine): the nursing professionals. The percentage of doctors is well above the expected coverage.”
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The National Green Tribunal has formed a committee headed by a former high court judge and directed it to submit a report in relation to a firecracker factory blast in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district in which 19 workers were killed.
The explosion occurred on February 12 when some chemicals were being mixed to produce fireworks at the unit in Achankulam village.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice A K Goel issued notices to the Tamil Nadu government, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Virudhunagar District Magistrate and Sree Mariyammal Fireworks factory.
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Hours after taking charge as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Tamilisai Soundararajan Thursday ordered a floor test in the legislative assembly on February 22 to ascertain whether the Congress-led government in the Union Territory has the majority.
Voting will take place by show of hands and the entire proceedings will be videographed.
On Tuesday, the Congress-led government in Puducherry appeared to have lost majority after a second MLA of the party resigned in two days. Late in the evening, the Centre removed the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of the Union Territory, Kiran Bedi, with whom the government has had a long-running battle. Telangana Governor Soundararajan, a former president of the Tamil Nadu BJP, was given additional charge of Puducherry.
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Tangedco has announced a powercut in parts of Chennai today from 9 am to 2 pm to carry out maintenance work.
Here are the affected areas:
A total of 34 passengers who had returned to Tamil Nadu from UK and 20 of their primary contacts have tested positive for COVID-19 till date. Among the 34 primary cases, nine cases were reported in Chennai, three each in Thanjavur, Madurai and Nilgiris, four in Chengalpattu, seven in Trichy and one each in Theni, Nagapattinam, Coimbatore, Karur and Virudhunagar. Among the 20 contact cases, six were reported in Chennai, three in Thanjavur, two each in Nilgiris and Theni, four in Chengalpattu and three in Nagapattinam.
A total of 2300 passengers had travelled to Tamil Nadu from UK between November 25 and December 23, of which 2146 have been tested. Among these, 24 have tested positive, 2122 have tested negative and the tracing of more passengers is underway. Additionally, 3977 close contacts of the 2122 passengers who had tested negative were also tested for COVID-19 and were found to be negative.
A total of 2161 passengers had travelled to Tamil Nadu from UK between January 8 and February 18, of which 1841 have been tested. Among these, seven have tested positive, 1816 have tested negative and the results of 15 passengers are awaited. Tracing of further passengers is underway.
Of the 34 primary cases, 28 of them who tested negative in their follow up RT-PCR test have been discharged and kept under home quarantine. Similarly, all 20 contact cases who tested negative in their follow up RT-PCR test have been discharged and kept under home quarantine. Six of the primary cases are under hospital isolation.
Tamil Nadu recorded 457 positive cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the state tally to 8,46,937. Among these, Chennai reported 138 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 2,33,936. The state recorded six deaths on Thursday, putting the state toll at 12,438. Five of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 470 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,30,320.
As of Thursday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 4173. Till date, 5,11,793 males, 3,35,109 females and 35 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, 1,69,67,271 samples from the state have been tested till date, with 51,101 samples having been sent yesterday. There are 255 COVID-19 testing facilities in the state, out of which 68 are government and 187 are private facilities.
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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.