QChennai: TN Transport Union Workers Call off Strike and More

Here is your roundup of the top stories from Chennai. 

The Tamil Nadu bus strike left commuters in the lurch, with auto rickshaws and private cabs hiking rates for the day. 

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

1. TN Transport Union Workers Call off Strike After 8 Days

Commuters stranded at a bus depot as bus services are curtailed due to a strike called by crew members belonging to employees unions on disagreement to wage accord in Chennai.(Photo Courtesy: IANS)

The Tamil Nadu transport association has announced that it will withdraw its strike and resume duties from Friday, 12 January, reported ANI. The striking unions wanted the wage revision to be fixed at 2.57 times – while the state government insisted it be 2.44.

A Soundararajan, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said, ‘All workers will resume duties from tomorrow (12 January). All public run buses and special buses for festivals will also run as per schedule.’

Read the full story here.

2. TN Assembly Day 4: Leaders of Local Bodies to Be Directly Elected

This will be the first Assembly session that TTV Dhinakaran will be attending as an MLA.(Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia/ Assembly Legislature)

The Tamil Nadu government has tabled a bill to directly elect Mayors, Municipal Chairpersons and Panchayat leaders. Until now, councillors would elect Mayors and chiefs following an amendment during Jayalalithaa's tenure.

SP Velumani, minister for municipal administration, proposed that the direct election of leaders of local bodies will ensure better administration.

Read the full story here.

3. 'IT Slump, Political Instability Hit Housing Sector'

Both supply and sales for the Chennai residential market came to their lowest level since 2011 in terms of yearly and half-yearly numbers.(Photo Courtesy: Reuters)

For the first time in a decade, the number of new launches of residential units in Chennai fell below 10,000 units in 2017 due to factors like the slowdown in the IT sector and political instability among others, according to Knight Frank India.

“Chennai started on a positive note in the first half of the calendar year and was the only city to see a 4 percent rise in sales. However, a poor performance in the second half led to negative growth as other factors, such as the GST and the implementation of Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA), had an impact on the sector,” Kanchana Krishnan, director-Chennai, Knight Frank India, said. The launches of residential units fell by 33 percent to 3,200 in the second half of 2017 and sales fell 14 percent to 6,670 units, which led to a dismal annual performance, said the report.

(Source: The Hindu)

4. SC Asks Centre, States to Set up Panels on Mullaperiyar Dam

The Mullaperiyar dam is built on an elevated junction of 850m and has a height of of 53.6m from the foundation for catering to the irrigational needs of Tamil Nadu. (Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Despite assurances from the Union government that the 122-year-old Mullaiperiyar dam is “safe”, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed it to set up a special committee to exclusively prepare disaster management plans.

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra also directed Tamil Nadu, which owns the dam, and Kerala, where it is situated, to set up similar committees. It said the three committees would work in harmony. The Bench said the step was taken to allay the fears of thousands of people who live downstream or in the vicinity of the dam.

(Source: The Hindu)

5. Aadhaar Card Must for Licence for Roadside Bunk Shops: HC

A separate committee was constituted for grant of licences in every zone.(Photo Courtesy: iStock)

The Madras High Court has made it mandatory for those seeking licence from the Greater Chennai Corporation for establishing bunk shops on roadsides to produce their Aadhaar cards in order to prevent individuals from obtaining licences for multiple shops, and give an undertaking that they shall not sell cigarettes and other tobacco-based products.

The petitioners had pointed out that the Corporation had constituted a number of committees, as required under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act of 2014 for protecting the rights of urban street vendors and regulating street vending by identifying the vendors and granting licences to them.

(Source: The Hindu)

6. No Gold Collected for Casting New Temple Idols, Clarifies HR & CE Dept

The department asked the Idol Wing to prove its charge on the missing gold in Kanchi temple. (Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia/ Ssriram)

Contesting the charge of the Idol Wing, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department has clarified that no gold or any metal had been collected for the casting of new utsava idols of Somaskandar and Elavaarkuzhali Amman at the Kancheepuram Ekambareswarar temple.

A senior official of the Department said that no donor had come forward to donate gold for casting the idols. “Only the priests (archakas) who perform pujas donated a few grams of gold and that too at the time of casting them. We have videographed the process of making the idols,” the official said.

(Source: The Hindu)

7. Radial Road Stretch to Have Six Lanes

The 1.5-km stretch from the toll plaza to Kamakshi Hospital junction too needs to be widened.(Photo Courtesy: Google Maps)

The Highways Department will soon begin work to widen the stretch of Thoraipakkam Radial Road from Pallavaram to Keelkattalai at a cost of Rs 35 crore. The existing four lanes would be expanded to six with service lanes and would help in reducing traffic snarls on the road.

As part of the work that is likely to be finished in less than two years, pipe culverts that carry stormwater across the road would be changed to box culverts with larger capacities at a cost of Rs 7 crore. It will take time to construct the additional lanes since quite a lot of earth is required as a depth of 3-6 m needs to be filled. However, no land acquisition would be required, as the road has a width of 200 ft.

(Source: The Hindu)