A tale of two Rajas

While Union Telecom Minister A Raja continues in his post despite the allegations levelled against him in the spectrum scam,another Raja is on the run in Tamil Nadu....

A tale of two Rajas

While Union Telecom Minister A Raja continues in his post despite the allegations levelled against him in the spectrum scam,another Raja is on the run in Tamil Nadu. N K K P Raja,the Handloom and Textile Minister in the state until recently,was removed from his post by the DMK leadership . His fall from grace came after a person approached the Madras High Court alleging Raja had abducted his family members to arm-twist them into selling a 10-acre property. Sensing trouble,the DMK leadership promptly sacked the first-time minister a year ago though he was allowed to retain his position as the Erode district secretary of the party. Even as the Crime Branch-CID was investigating the case,another row broke out a little over a week ago when Raja and his wife Uma Maheshwari got themselves admitted to a private hospital claiming that one Sivabalan and his gang attacked them. Sivabalan was among those who were allegedly abducted by Raja. The local police later received information about Sivabalan being held illegally and found the youth tied to a pole and beaten severely at Rajas farm house. The DMK expelled him from primary membership and made his father,local strongman N K K Periyasamy,the district secretary. With the CB-CID on the lookout for him,Raja is now on the run.

Star land deal

Popular Tamil actor Vijay,who created a flutter by indicating his willingness to join the Congress party,was allegedly a beneficiary in a government land deal,raising questions on acquisition and subsequent utilisation of land by the government.

According to information obtained under RTI by one Karthikeyan,his land,acquired by the state government four decades ago to create residential colonies,has now been sold to the actor. Though the government had announced in 2003 that land unused till then would be returned to the legal heirs,Karthikeyan and his mother Saraswati were unsuccessful in retrieving their six-acre property. The Tamil Nadu Housing Board informed the family in 2008 that the land was to be used for laying roads and other public purposes for Ambattur Municipality and Thravidam panchayat. Later last year,when a compound wall appeared contrary to TNHB claims,Karthikeyan filed an RTI application and found out that the five acres were given to Vijay on April 25,2007. On his petition that it was an illegal allotment due to personal influence,the Madras High Court has issued notices to authorities and Vijay.

The unusual suspects

Chennai Police have two unlikely targets these days: kite-flyers and beach cricket players. The police banned kite flying across the city after a few motorists were injured due to broken kite lines. These threads are doubly dangerous as the youth here stick ground glass to the line known as manja for cutting their rivals kites free. The police has tried to enforce this ban several times in the past and this time around has had to restrict the ban to kites that have the manja thread,much to the relief of hundreds of children. Meanwhile,a large number of youth protested the ban on playing cricket at the service road in Marina beach. Cops,who used to chase the cricketers off occasionally,started seizing bats and stumps to stop the practice completely following continuous complaints from walkers.

Police Commissioner T Rajendran has assured that he will take up the issue with the Chennai Corporation and some school authorities to find space for the cricketers on Sunday mornings.