QChennai: VCK Says Will Remain a Strong Ally of DMK & More
Catch all the latest news from Chennai right here.
1. Will Remain a Strong Ally of DMK: VCK
VCK general secretary D Ravikumar on Tuesday said the party would continue to be a strong alliance partner of the DMK. Speaking to The Hindu , he said the VCK had never been in a position to dictate terms to bigger parties.
“The DMK and the AIADMK are in a position to decide who their allies are. The VCK is a smaller party, and we can only reject an alliance. In that context, the VCK will have to take a decision [on alliances] before every poll. This has been reiterated by our leader Thirumavalavan many times,” he added. Ravikumar said the VCK was determined not to be in an alliance comprising the BJP or the PMK. “Therefore, the DMK is, and will remain, our natural ally,” he added.
(Source: The Hindu)
2. Illegal Water Extraction Continues
Unabated illegal extraction of water in Madambakkam has residents worried that their groundwater will be depleted even before the onset of summer. Residents tried putting an end to one of the “greediest” water extraction operations in the town along the Paduvanchery Main Road on Tuesday but failed miserably. “Around 500 lorries of water is extracted from two agricultural wells every day and sold in various parts of the city for very high prices,” said a resident of Paduvanchery.
Videos taken by the residents who tried to stop the operations show the tanker lorry drivers unfazed by the opposition.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
3. Police Bust Rave at Mamallapuram Resort
In a pre-dawn swoop, over 100 police personnel raided a resort off East Coast Road (ECR) near Mamallapuram and detained over 160 revellers, including seven women, from a rave. At the second rave busted in the State in as many days, the police seized party drugs, liquor, ganja and other substances. Most of the revellers were college students, call centre employees and a couple of young married couples.
Around midnight on Sunday, Tiruvallur District Superintendent of Police (SP) R Ponni, who is also in charge of the Kancheepuram district police, received information from the police headquarters about a rave being organised at Odour Resort, located in Pattipulam near Mamallapuram, off ECR.
(Source: The Hindu)
4. Rebellion Among 3 AIADMK MLAs
A rift seems to be brewing within the three AIADMK MLAs who are facing a motion for their disqualification. While two of the three MLAs had moved the Supreme Court and got an interim stay of the motion, the third MLA A Prabhu on Tuesday instead chose to approach the Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal seeking more time to file his response. All three are facing the motion on charges of supporting the rebel leader Dhinakaran.
On Friday, when the other two MLAs, E Rathinasababathy and VT Kalaiselvan, filed the petition in Supreme Court, they said that Prabhu did not join them in filing the case only because he was out of station.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
5. Light Rail Transit Being Considered for Chennai
The Ministry of Urban Development is reportedly mulling over the implementation of Light Rail Transit in Chennai and New Delhi soon. Chennai Metro officials recently made a presentation on the viability of LRT in the metro and tier II cities.
“We are seeing if we can build LRT in the metro cities as feeder services to the main project; it could serve independently in the tier II cities like Coimbatore. We just had one round of discussion to see if it can be implemented as a pilot project in Chennai and Delhi Metros,” a source said. According to Chennai Metro officials, while construction of an underground station will cost Rs 500-600 crore, that of an elevated station will require nearly Rs 150-200 crore. “But if an LRT station is built at-grade, it may require only about Rs 70-80 crore,” said an official.
(Source: The Hindu)
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