1. State Lags in Swachh Mission
Nearly 95% of village panchayats in Tamil Nadu are yet to attain the status of being open defecation free (ODF).
Yet, officials in charge of rural development in the State are confident that Tamil Nadu can achieve 100% coverage in ODF in a year or so.
The Central government has set the deadline of October 2, 2019 for universal sanitation coverage in rural parts of the country.
As per the 2011 Census, only 49.3% of rural households had latrines. But, according to information available on the website of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin in the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (http://sbm.gov.in/sbm/), the coverage of individual household latrines is now 75.95%.
Source: The Hindu
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2. Hunt on for Trolls Who Abused Journalist
The city police have are in hot-pursuit of miscreants who trolled a woman journalist for her tweet commenting on a film.
Meanwhile, actor Vijay in a statement issued on Thursday evening, urged his fans to treat women with respect, batting at the same time for freedom of expression.
He said: “I have the greatest respect for women... Anyone has the freedom to criticise anybody’s film. For no reason should women be verbally abused. That is my view.”
Source: The Hindu
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3. Post GST, TN Mulls Restructuring SOPs
Tamil Nadu is looking at restructuring incentives offered to industries, including those for existing memorandum of understandings due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Under GST, exemptions given to industries are not allowed and the GST council has left it to the discretion of the States to grant exemptions for industries.
Tax experts point out one of the key challenges to the firms is whether they can avail themselves of the incentives available to them within their investment period, especially in cases where taxes are lower under GST in comparison to the prior period.
Source: The Hindu
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4. Now, Onion Prices Soar
After remaining stable for over a year, the price of onion, a common ingredient in Indian cuisine, has begun to soar over the past one week. Rain that wreaked havoc in Gujarat and Maharashtra has affected the supply to the city, traders said.
Onions were priced at Rs. 40/kg in retail market on Wednesday and this may further go up, note traders.
The Koyambedu wholesale market receives only half of the normal onion loads of 65 trucks daily. The city mainly receives its stock from Maharashtra and Gujarat apart from Karnataka.
Source: The Hindu
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5. Wheelchair Marathon to be Held Next Month
In a move to raise awareness about spinal cord injury, and promote an inclusive society, the Spinal Foundation, in association with the Kotak Mahindra Bank, will hold the second edition of the Kotak Wheelchair Marathon on 3 September.
Participants can run for distances of 21.1 km, 10 km or 5 km as part of the event. The marathon is open to everyone. “The idea is to promote inclusiveness,” said S Vaidyanathan, co-founder, The Spinal Foundation. “In our last marathon, out of the 925 participants, 225 were disabled,” he said.
Source: The Hindu
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6. Kadiramangalam Residents Counter ONGC Claims
Residents of Kadiramangalam in Thanjavur district, along with environmental activists, countered the claims made by ONGC regarding the 30 June oil spill in their village at a meeting here on Wednesday.
Challenging ONGC’s claim on the promptness with which they plugged the leak, the residents presented lab study results of contaminated soil and water drawn from the spill site on July 9 and July 15 to show how a large proportion of hydrocarbon residue remained in the soil and water there, and the site had not been fully remediated.
Source: The Hindu
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7. Time’s Up: Dhivakaran
The time given to the two factions, the AIADMK (PTA) and AIADMK (Amma) to merge was over and had they come together within the two months deadline given to them, party deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran would have completely kept away from the party affairs, VK Sasikala’s brother, V Dhivakaran said on Thursday evening.
Addressing journalists in Thanjavur, Mr. Dhivakaran said due to the factionalism in the AIADMK, the cadre were confused. “When we ourselves are confused, you can imagine how much the cadre would be confused. No one is taking care of the party now,” he said.
Source: The Hindu
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