1. Chennai Family Awaits Judgment in Case Where 17 Men Allegedly Raped a Child
"Will the Judge think I am a bad girl uncle, if I tell her what happened to me?" -This was the question that 11-year-old Priya* posed to her advocate N Ramesh before she gave her statement before a judge at the Mahila court. The young child, who has a hearing disability had allegedly been raped by 17 persons, who were all employed at the apartment complex that she lived in at Ayanavaram in Chennai. And while the multiple rapes allegedly took place between January and July of 2018, the minor was forced to relive its sordid details in court this last year, many times.
But Priya's ordeal is finally coming to a conclusion on 1 February, close to a year since the trial in her case began, with the court set to pronounce its verdict on Saturday.
(Source: The News Minute)
2. Screening Not Up to Scratch, Say Flyers
At a time when several airports across the world are meticulously screening passengers for coronavirus, flyers arriving in Chennai airport claim the checking mechanism here is far from satisfactory.
Prasanna Sundar, a 30-year-old working in Shanghai, came to Chennai via Colombo a few days back. He says it wasn't until they were waiting in the immigration line that they were called for health check-up. “Many of us had been waiting in the regular immigration line for over ten minutes and only then did an airport official announce that all passengers from China should form a separate queue. Some passengers would have finished their immigration process and left to claim their baggage by then,” he said.
(Source: The Hindu)
3. BSNL's Chennai Telephones to Work With Just 45% Staff
From today, BSNL’s Chennai Telephones will function with less than half of its staff. At a time when several employees of the once-ubiquitous firm have alleged non-payment of salaries for the past few months owing to a financial crunch, over 55 per cent staff have opted to leave the company by taking the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).
An employee, who claimed to have not been paid salary since December, said the package would be offered in two payouts. "The first installment would be paid in March and the second in the next financial year."
(Source: The New Indian Express)
4. TM Krishna Did Not Tell Us About the Scope of His Book: Palghat Mani Iyer’s Family
As vocalist TM Krishna’s book, Sebastian and Sons, on Dalit Christian mridangam makers, is to be released on Sunday, the family of mridangam maestro Palghat T.S. Mani Iyer said they felt that the author had ‘deceived’ them by not revealing the scope of the book.
He said the family believed that the research was purely academic in nature, because he told them about his visit to slaughter houses, and discussions with those who deal with skin. “But he did not tell us the tone of the book was caste-based. None of our family members is ready to be involved in this controversial issue,” he added.
(Source: The Hindu)
5. Anti-Human Trafficking Clubs Launched in Chennai
The police department would work with NGOs for “zero human trafficking” in Tamil Nadu. Like drugs and arms trafficking, human trafficking is an organised crime, and is difficult to prevent unless public cooperate with enforcement agencies, said M Ravi, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP).
Launching the Anti Human Trafficking Clubs (AHTC) on Friday, he said, as per the 2012 statistics, human trafficking cases were high in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. “But in reality, cases of human trafficking are very less in Tamil Nadu. It is important to prevent and achieve zero human trafficking in the State. We will work with respective NGOs for this,” he said.
(Source: The Hindu)
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