QChennai: Movies to Be a Costly Affair, Robbery Drama Backfires

Here are the top news stories from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

1. Movies on Big Screen Costlier From Today

Following the recent implementation of the local entertainment tax of 10% on Tamil films and 20% on non-Tamil films, the government has now increased the base price of tickets from Rs 120. This move comes after several requests from the industry, urging the government to revise ticket prices.

It will apply from 9 October. A ticket will now cost Rs 192 (150+28%GST) in Chennai. Sasi Raman, Director of TicketNew, said, “This will likely affect everyone involved including our advertising and branding partners. The effective hike, when you take into account all the recent taxes, is a mere Rs 4. There might be a general perception that the theatres stand to gain from this move, but I’m not so sure. Do you know that theatres reduced base fare to less than 100 to ensure they fall under the 18% GST?” He also pointed out that this could affect non-Tamil films in a big way. “Why will anyone screen a film which will have a lesser turnout?”

Source: The New Indian Express

Also Read: Theatre Strike Makes Tamil Nadu Go Ayyo! Ayyo! Ayyayyo!

2. 4 Held for Staging Robbery Drama in Madhavaram

The police arrested a woman and three others who staged a robbery to avoid returning nearly ₹9 lakh collected from 150 people as part of a Deepavali chit fund at Madhavaram on Saturday. According to the police, Amutha was running the chit fund for the past three years without the knowledge of her husband Pandi, an engineer at a private firm. She returned the money collected from depositors with interest for two years. “But this year, she was not able to. So she decided to stage a fake robbery with the help of her mother and a friend,” explained a police officer.

Amutha littered her house with articles to give the impression that it had been ransacked. “She then left the house and got Gandhi Rajan, introduced to her by Uday Rajan, to enter her house and leave in 10 minutes,” said a police officer. Amutha returned to the house and raised a hue and cry.

Source: The Hindu

3. Actor Jai Drives Drunk, Slapped with Fine, Has Licence Suspended for 6 Months

Actor Jai Sampath of Chennai 28 fame, who is better known by his first name, was on Saturday slapped with a fine of Rs 5,200 and had his licence suspended for six months by a court on charges of drunken driving. The actor had on 21 September rammed his Audi car on the walls of a bridge at Adyar. Police found that the Subramaniapuram actor was drunk at the time of the accident. According to reports, Jai had partied with Premgi Amaren and others at a hotel in Nungambakkam, after which he got into the accident.

Apparently, this is the second time the actor has been caught driving drunk. In 2014, Jai had been booked for ramming into a divider on the road near Kasi Theatre in Ashok Nagar.

Source: The Hindu

4. Nadigar Sangam Seeks Tax Relief

Actor Vishal, who is the secretary of the association, appealed to the State government to withdraw the entertainment tax and said the government should not build a ‘manimandapam’ for the industry as with the high taxes, they would find it impossible to function. He further said that the vice-president of the Sangam, Karunas, who is also an MLA, was involved in talks with the government on the issue.

Following the imposition of additional taxes on movie tickets, the Producer’s Council had called for a halt on the release of Tamil films in theatres from Friday. “This will result in a producer having to pay nearly 40% tax. We also strongly believe that movie goers should only have to pay the cost of the movie ticket and no further taxes and we are meeting Ministers and Secretaries of the departments concerned on Tuesday at the Secretariat, following which we hope for a favourable outcome for the industry,” he said, addressing the media following the meeting.

Source: The Hindu

5. ID Cards Soon for Street Vendors

With the official members of Town Vending Committees nominated, work on the issuance of identity cards for over 26,000 vendors in the city will begin shortly. The election of at least 90 non-official members of the Town Vending Committees would be completed this month, sources said, adding that members from the street vendors’ community were likely to play a key role in making decisions on the identification of street vending zones in all the 15 zones of the Corporation.

However, the Chennai Corporation has already directed the zonal executive engineer of each of the 15 zones to identify the possible vending zones in coordination with the police, sources said.

Source: The Hindu

6. New Water Scheme for Tambaram Planned

The Tambaram Municipality has planned a ₹240-crore water supply improvement scheme in 2018-19. With an increase in population, it has felt the need to improve its supply mechanism to provide water to residents at least on alternate days, said an official.

A detailed project report has been prepared and it will be submitted to the State government to get the required financial support through the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation scheme of the Union government, the official added.Ten more borewells and six big wells would be dug at the Palar river basin to get an additional 60 lakh litres of water and efforts will be taken to get 360 lakh litres of water from desalination plants in Nemmeli.

Source: The Hindu

Also Read: Chennai Water Crisis: It is Time You Know What is Happening

7. Students to Showcase Ideas at Science Fair

The city will see an influx of students and teachers from across the country later this week as part of the India International Science Festival.

The third edition of the festival will be held from Friday at various venues, including the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Anna University, Central Leather Research Institute, National Institute of Ocean Technology and the Structural Engineering Research Centre-SERC. As many as 15 events, including a special session on women entrepreneurship and one for non-governmental organisations involved in promoting science, have been planned. The aim of the festival is to raise awareness about science among schoolchildren and sensitise them to the government’s flagship programmes, such as Digital India, Make in India and Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat, he said.

Source: The Hindu