1. Rajini Visits Tuticorin, Donates Rs 2 Lakh to Kin of Deceased
Rajinikanth will donate Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those killed in police firing during the Sterlite protests on 22 May 2018, the actor-politician said. He also announced a donation of Rs 10,000 for people who sustained injuries during the protest. This is the first time Rajini, since announcing his political entry in December 2017, has gone beyond the podium and Twitter to reach out to and meet the people of Tamil Nadu.
Rajini was quite head-on in calling out the inefficiency of the state government. ‘This incident has happened because anti-social elements have intruded. Jayalalithaa used to have an iron grip but the present government has failed,’ he said. He also added that violence was inflicted on protesters because of “negligence of intelligence”. “This should never happen in the future,” he said.
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2. CBSE 10th Result 2018: Chennai Region Second Best Again
Chennai once again emerged at the second position in Class 10 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examination, results of which were declared on Tuesday. The region came second in Class 12 CBSE results too which was announced on 26 May. Thiruvananthapuram region topped with 99.60 pass percentage followed by Chennai (97.37 percent) and Ajmer (91.86 percent). Delhi recorded a pass percentage of 78.62.
Apart from Tamil Nadu, the Chennai region includes Puducherry, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu. The results are available at results.nic.in, cbseresults.nic.in and cbse.nic.in. Four students came on top with 499 marks out of 500, while seven finished second (498) and 14 third (497). As many as 1,31,493 candidates secured 90 percent marks and above, while 27,426 candidates secured 95 percent marks and above.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
3. CBI Takes over Gutkha Scam Probe in TN
The CBI has taken over investigation in the gutkha scam, pertaining to illegal import, manufacture and sale in Tamil Nadu and allegedly involving a state minister besides a former and a top police official, on the orders of Madras High Court, officials said. The agency has registered the FIR against unidentified officials of Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise department and food safety department.
The case which was being probed by the state police was handed over to the CBI by Madras High Court last month. "The clandestine gutkha business is a crime against society, which is needed to be curbed," a bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose had said while issuing its directions on a plea by DMK MLA J Anbazhagan.
(Source: Business Standard)
4. HC Orders Fresh Post-Mortem of 7 Victims
The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered a fresh post-mortem on the bodies of seven out of the 13 people who died in the police firing last week during the violent protests demanding closure of the Sterlite plant in Thoothukudi. Justices S Baskaran and RMT Teekaa Raman ordered the constitution of a team of three forensic experts, including one from either the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) or the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Puducherry or the Government Medical College at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
Making it clear that experts from any one of the three institutions could be made part of the three-member team depending upon their availability, the judges said that it should conduct fresh post-mortem in the presence of the same judicial magistrates who were present at the time of the first post-mortem and listed out the features to be observed.
(Source: The Hindu)
5. Defiant DMK Holds ‘Model Assembly’
Squarely blaming Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for the police firing that claimed the lives of 13 people during the anti-Sterlite protests in Thoothukudi last week, DMK working president MK Stalin on Wednesday said his party won’t extend any cooperation to a government that “massacres its own people.” The DMK held a ‘model Assembly’ at the party headquarters on Wednesday stating that the opposition parties were denied their rights in the Legislative Assembly. Its allies the Congress, the IUML and AIADMK MLA Karunas participated.
At the model Assembly, every speaker blamed the chief minister for saying that he came to know about the police firing only through TV news and for not visiting Thoothukudi till now. Stalin said that mass mobilisation was essential to send home a chief minister who refused to discuss police firing in the Assembly to safeguard legislative democracy.
(Source: The Hindu)
6. No Stay to Chidambaram Family’s Plea Against Income-Tax Department
A vacation judge of the Madras High Court has declined to stay the proceedings initiated by the Income-Tax department against Nalini, wife of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, her son Karti and daughter-in-law Srinidhi under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act.
The IT department had filed a complaint against the trio for alleged non-disclosure of overseas assets in the Special Court for Economic Offences in Chennai on 11 May last. Assailing this, the trio moved the High Court to stay the proceedings and to direct the department to provide a copy of the complaint to them. When the plea came up for hearing, senior counsel A L Sundresan told the judge that a Special Court must be established to hear the cases under the Black Money Act, as the Economic Offences court does not have jurisdiction over the present case. But the State government has not notified any such special court. The official who granted sanction for the prosecution had no such authority under the Income Tax Act, he added.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
7. Party Posts for OPS’ Son, Others Trigger Row over Family Politics
The appointment of the children of senior AIADMK leaders to key party posts on Wednesday triggered a debate whether the ruling party had begun following “family politics,” a practice that it had accused its arch rival, DMK of indulging in. The 37-year-old P Ravindranath Kumar, son of Deputy Chief Minister and party coordinator O Panneerselvam, was made secretary of the Theni district unit of the Puratchi Thalaivi Amma Peravai, one of the wings of the party. KAK Mukil, J Jayavardhan and N Sadan Prabhakar, all hailing from political families, were the new joint secretaries of the Amma Peravai.
Mukil is the son of former minister and one of the founding members of the party KA Krishnasamy, who died eight years ago. Dr Jayavardhan, whose father is Fisheries Minister and organising secretary D Jayakumar, represents South Chennai in the Lok Sabha.
(Source: The Hindu)
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