This Week Tamil Nadu

DMK ploy: use RTI,scare cops who target leaders

Since its arrival,the RTI Act has been hailed as a powerful tool that empowers the oppressed and downtrodden against the establishment. Now the DMK,no longer represnting the establishment,has turned to the Act to protect its leaders from the series of cases they are being slapped with everyday. According to the counter-attack strategy prepared by party chief M Karunanidhi,cadres of the DMK legal wing will file RTI applications with questions about the income and assets of officials,especially police personnel,and if they have faced any departmental action. The plan is aimed at intimidating officials and their fear would act as a safety tool for the DMK,Karunanidhi explained to the gathering. Legal wing members are preparing RTI applications,some with up to 100 questions.

A Nehru contests from jail

Nehru is fighting elections from behind bars,and this is not a line from a pre-Independence chapter of a history book. In Tiruchy,where a bypoll has been scheduled after the death of the sitting member days after taking charge as a minister,one candidate is K N Nehru. One of the powerful leaders of the DMK and the transport minister in the previous regime,he has been lodged behind bars for an alleged land fraud,a charge that has netted several leaders and cadres of the party since the AIADMK government took charge. Despite having suffered a loss to late minister Mariam Pitchai and being lodged in the central prison as the case against him is progressing,Nehru has emerged the contestant in the bypoll. With him in prison,it has been left to the partys unofficial number two,M K Stalin,to submit the nomination to the presiding officer. Facing him is J Jayalaithaa loyalist M Paranjothi.

Local body posts on sale

As the local body polls for over 1.32 posts are to be held in the coming month,reports have surfaced about the widely criticised,but not unheard-of,practice of auctioning posts in the rural parts of the state. In the latest such instance,police arrested six villagers from Thadayampatti village in Madurai on charges of scheming to auction the post of village head at about Rs 10 lakh. When personnel from Madurai rural police reached the spot,the villagers were discussing who would pay the money to secure the seat. In June,the police had stopped a similar attempt in Ayyanarkulam panchayat where the going rates were Rs 20 lakh for the post of president,Rs 10 lakh for vice president and Rs 2-5 lakh for ward members. According to those who dont find anything wrong in the auction,the money raised through this would be put to use for the public perhaps in a manner even better than the elected body would do. The Rs-10-lakh tab tentatively fixed for the Thadayampatti presidents post was to go towards the construction and repair of temples,ponds and roads.

Dynasty in puducherry too

Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy has made his mark as a politician with a difference over the last decade or so. A carefully cultivated image,which began with Rangasamy the bike-riding CM,was instrumental in his success when he broke away from the Congress and formed his own party that captured power and made him Chief Minister for yet another term. As it turns out now,he is not very different in one aspect. In the last election,Rangasamy had contested from two constituencies,winning from both. As is mandatory,he resigned from one of them,Indira Nagar,necessitating a bypoll. While several members of his party were lobbying hard to get the ticket for the seat,it went to Rangasamys nephew A Tamilselvan. Son of the Chief Ministers brother N Adikesavan,Tamilselvan was Rangasamys campaign manager in the past. Indira Nagar is Rangasamys home constituency,giving an advantage to the newcomer.