QChennai: Kamal Is Waiting for Rajinikanth’s Party Launch & More

Here is your roundup of the top stories from Chennai.

Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth have promised a better Tamil Nadu and better governance to the people. Will they deliver?

(Photo Courtesy: IANS)

1. Rajini Silent on Many Issues: Kamal

Kamal Haasan said after Rajinikanth launches a party, if he had any differences with its ideological position, he wouldn’t hesitate to criticise it even in strong terms.(Photo Courtesy: Kamal’s PR Team)

Actor Kamal Haasan, who recently founded his political party Makkal Needhi Maiam, on Monday said that his co-star and aspiring politician Rajinikanth was silent on many issues. At a press conference in Coimbatore, when a journalist claimed that Mr. Rajinikanth was silent on the Cauvery issue and sought his reaction, Mr. Haasan said it was not the “only issue” on which his long-time friend was silent. “There were other issues too on which Rajinikanth has not expressed his opinion, and therefore, it would not be right to pin him down on this issue alone,” he said.

Interestingly, on Saturday evening, in an interview with News18 Tamil, Haasan, when queried how he could desist from criticising Rajainikanth “who is a party leader,” shot back asking “which party is he is the leader of?” When the interviewer interjected to say that Rajinikanth was the leader of a proposed party, he said, “Let him come. Let him launch a party, name it and explain his ideology like I have done. Then we can see if our ideologies match…”

(Source: The Hindu)

2. TFPC Mulls Undercutting Digital Service Providers

Well-known distributor and exhibitor, Tirupur Subramaniam said that they were not averse to working with a new player but co-operation would depend on the terms offered. (Photo: iStock)

In an effort to break the monopoly of digital service providers, the Tamil Film Producers Council is considering bringing in digital projection equipment for theatres. Stating that it was important to limit the powers that the digital service providers have over the theatres, TPFC treasurer SR Prabhu said they will bring in new players into the market. “When the strike ends and new movies start screening in theatres, all issues such as Virtual Print Fee (VPC), booking charges, and transparency in reporting BO collections will be resolved. Theatres make money via collecting parking charges and food/beverage costs. Why can’t they pay for their projectors too?”

Rejecting the reduced VPF offer made by Qube Cinema Technologies, he said that the theatres have to be more transparent. “The theatres shouldn’t sell movie tickets more than mandated by the government,” said Prabhu, adding, “There will be no shooting from 16 March and no outdoor shooting from 23 March.”

(Source: The Hindu)

3. ‘If AIADMK MLAs Resign, DMK Will Follow Suit’

DMK leader Duraimurugan criticised the EPS government for always wanting to keep the BJP in good spirits and not fighting hard for the people’s cause. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@duraimurugandmk)

DMK Deputy leader in the Assembly Duraimurugan on Monday said his party MLAs were ready to resign if Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, his cabinet colleagues and MLAs resigned their post to exert pressure on the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board.

In a statement here, he said instead of blaming the DMK on the Cauvery water dispute, the government should bring pressure on the Centre. “If it is not able to get the board constituted, the Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues and MLAs should resign. The DMK MLAs are ready to follow the direction of our working president and resign our posts,” he said.

(Source: The Hindu)

4. Tahsildar, Police Inspect Office of Trekking Club

The Chennai Trekking Club (Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

A day after trekkers, many of them women, were caught in the forest fire in Theni, the Palavakkam house that served as the office of the Chennai Trekking Club (CTC), which had organised an all-women expedition, remained deserted. The Sholinganallur Tahsildar and personnel from the Neelangarai Police Station visited the house, located in the upscale VGP Layout. They entered the premises through the unlocked gate and carried out an inspection.

A man who introduced himself as the caretaker could only say that the CTC held its meetings within the two-storey property. Another person said its owners had been trying to rent out the property for over a month. “There was a ‘To let’ board on the gate, but it is missing now,” he said. The house itself was sparsely furnished; neighbours recalled seeing a board on the pillar adjacent the gate with CTC founder Peter Van Geit's name and that of the club. All that was left of it on Monday was a rectangular mark of faded paint.

(Source: The Hindu)

5. Smart City: Corporation to Ink Deal with Brussels

On Monday, civic representatives from the City of Brussels met with Chennai Corporation officials, visiting waste to energy projects in Otteri, bio-gas plants in Arumbakkam and other civic facilities. (Photo Courtesy: iStock)

The City of Brussels will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Greater Chennai Corporation to develop innovative civic aspects relating to smart city, urban planning and solid waste management.

The MoU with Brussels, a major centre of international politics, is expected to facilitate funding from multilateral agencies for infrastructure development in Chennai. The MoU is also expected to promote cooperation in waste management policy through prevention, reuse, recycling, incineration with energy recovery and land-filling.

(Source: The Hindu)

6. City Has Enough Water to See Through Summer: Metrowater

Chennai has received 2,160 mcft of Krishna water since January 1. This is equal to nearly three months of drinking water supply to the city and has helped boost the storage in the water bodies till now.(Photo Courtesy: iStock)

The inflow of Krishna water into city reservoirs reduced drastically on Monday as the water bodies in Andhra Pradesh have run short of resources. However, this summer may not be hard for Chennaiites as there is adequate storage to maintain water supply till August end, note officials of Chennai Metrowater.

On Monday, Tamil Nadu’s entry point of Kandaleru Poondi canal received only 110 cusecs or about 3,100 litres of water flowing per second. The flow had dwindled steadily from 600 cusecs last month. Krishna water may be supplied for another week to Chennai. Officials of the Water Resources Department said the water level at Kandaleru reservoir, Andhra Pradesh, from where Poondi reservoir gets water, has nearly touched dead storage with 6,800 million cubic feet (mcft) against its capacity of about 68,000 mcft.

(Source: The Hindu)

7. After Many Decades, Four City Reservoirs to Be Desilted This Summer

The project is also expected to bring a revenue of about ₹640 crore to the department through the sale of savudu soil.(Photo Courtesy: IANS)

Improved storage in the four reservoirs of Chennai may become a reality as a project to remove silt is likely to commence in May or June this year. The Water Resources Department has submitted a detailed project report to the State government to remove the silt deposited for several decades in the lakes. The four reservoirs are spread over a total area of 21,000 acres.

It will be a three-year project as desilting operation can be done only during five months in a year when the water level is relatively low. There are restrictions on the volume of silt that could be removed and transported, said an official. The department expects to remove up to seven feet, or 5.39 crore cubic metres, of silt from the reservoirs. Once the project is completed, the original storage capacity of the lakes, which is nearly 11,000 million cubic feet, would be restored.

(Source: The Hindu)