QChennai: Rajini Apologises for Losing Cool; DMK Boycotts Assembly
Here is your roundup of the top stories from Chennai.
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1. Rajini Loses Cool Over Stand on Tuticorin Clashes, Issues Apology
On 30 May, Rajinikanth visited people who were injured in the anti-Sterlite protests in Tuticorin and promised to donate Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those who were killed and Rs 10,000 for the injured.
This was the first time Rajini, since announcing his political entry in December 2017, had gone beyond the podium and Twitter to reach out and meet the people of Tamil Nadu.
What was a memorable day for many – a superstar offering them hugs and handshakes – turned upside-down pretty soon. When Rajinikanth reached the Chennai airport, reporters asked him to explain his statement that “anti-social elements” were responsible for the clashes. Hearing this, Rajini completely lost his cool and said, “Don't ask me how I know, I know all of that.”
Read the full story here.
2. No Bar on DMK to Do Their Democratic Duties: TN CM
With the Opposition DMK continuing to boycott the Assembly, on Thursday, 31 May, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam said there was no bar on DMK members from returning to the Assembly to discharge their democratic duties.
Raising the issue in the Assembly, Congress member S Vijayadharani urged the ruling AIADMK to appeal to the Opposition DMK to end their boycott and participate in the Assembly proceedings. Another ally of the DMK, KM Mohammed Abubacker of IUML, besides independent legislator TTV Dhinakaran, wanted the ruling AIADMK to reach out to the DMK, which is boycotting the session since 29 May (demanding the resignation of CM on Sterlite issue), to ensure that party performed its democratic duties.
(Source: Deccan Chronicle)
3. Centre Misses Cauvery Deadline Again; TN Plans Contempt
With the Centre failing to keep the Supreme Court deadline on notifying the Cauvery scheme, the Tamil Nadu government plans to file a contempt plea next week, setting the stage for starting a fresh round of legal battle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to return to India on Saturday, 2 June, after his three-nation tour in East Asia.
The Supreme Court had ordered the Centre to implement the Cauvery scheme before the onset of southwest monsoon. Union Water Resources Secretary UP Singh told TOI it would be notified shortly. The Meteorology Department announced that the monsoon set in over Kerala on Tuesday, three days ahead of its schedule, but there is no sign of the Centre gazetting the scheme.
“With the PM expected to return this weekend, the TN government plans to file a contempt plea next week if the Centre continues to fail the state,” said a senior government official, seeking anonymity.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. 100 Sovereigns Stolen from Businessman’s House
A businessman who had returned from Singapore to settle in his native place a few months ago lost his 100 sovereigns of gold jewels and cash as miscreants entered his house in Sunguvarchatram on Thursday, 31 May. The incident happened when Nirmal Xavier (42) of Shokandi village near Sunguvarchatram in Kancheepuram went to a church in Pannur in Tiruvallur district on Thursday morning. Nirmal Xavier had worked in Singapore for four years and recently returned to his village to start a business of his own.
According to the police, Nirmal Xavier, along with his wife Jennet (40) and daughter, went to church. When the family returned home at around 2 pm, they were shocked to find the locks in the gate and back door of the house broken. “They rushed inside the house only to find five broken bureaus. The miscreants had escaped with 100 sovereigns of gold jewels, Rs 1 lakh cash and a laptop kept in the bureaus,” the police said.
(Source: Deccan Chronicle)
5. Australian Woman Robbed at Marina Beach, Loses Travel Documents
A 24-year-old Australian woman tourist was allegedly robbed at the Marina Beach on Wednesday, 30 May, when she had come with her friends. “Elisa Venderson went to the Marina beach along with her friends around 7 pm on Wednesday. Two hours later, her friends went to take a dip in the sea and she was seated on the sand right opposite the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. An unidentified person allegedly robbed her handbag that she had kept near her on the sand. She immediately raised an alarm, but the man escaped,” said the investigation officer.
She lodged a complaint with the Anna square police who registered a case. “We have arranged a temporary visa and she had also lodged a complaint with the Australian Embassy,” the officer added. In her complaint she said she spotted a man snatch her bag and run. Her handbag contained her passport, visa, two mobile phones and Rs 15,000 in cash.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
6. Impaled on Grill of a Gate, Man Saved by a Whisker
At 2 am on 20 May, on-duty cardiothoracic surgeon Dr K S Saravana Krishna Raja received a call from the trauma ward of the government general hospital. “I thought I heard the caller wrong when he said a patient had reported with a gate pierced through him,” said Dr Raja. When he rushed to the ward, he found 29-year-old Vetrivel lying prone on a stretcher with part of a three-feet-long grill inside him.
Around midnight on May 19, Vetrivel, a driver who stayed with his employer in Nungambakkam, had attempted to jump over the closed grill gate. He missed a step and a pointed edge of a grill pierced his back. For close to half an hour, he cried for help, before bystanders noticed his impaled body on the gate.
At 1 am, the police, who had rushed to the spot, alerted the 108 ambulance service. Fire services personnel used hydraulic cutters to slice the gates, leaving the pierced portion inside. This, doctors say, is what saved Vetrivel’s life. “The pierced part was less than an inch from his heart,” said Dr A Sivaraman, chief of cardiothoracic department at GH. “If they had tried to dislodge the grill, death would been instantaneous.”
(Source: The Times of India)
7. CBI Files FIR in Gutka Scam Case
A month after the Madras High Court ordered a CBI probe into the multi-crore gutka scam, the Central agency has filed a First Information Report. The allegation was that ministers and top police and other government officials were bribed for manufacturing and selling the banned gutka in Tamil Nadu. The FIR, which was filed on Monday, is for offences of criminal conspiracy and demand of illegal gratification by public servants and misuse of official position by public servant. It was filed against officials of Central Excise Department, Tamil Nadu government and Food Safety Department, and private individuals.
The case is being probed by Suresh Kumar, a Deputy superintendent of CBI, New Delhi.
The central agency has taken up the case after Madras High Court in its judgment of 26 April directed CBI to conduct investigation into the offence of illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of gutka and other forms of chewable tobacco which are banned in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
(Source: The New Indian Express)