Jallikattu ban: Protests continue in southern TN

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NATIONAL DAILY
VOL. XXXIV NO. 40
8
Death
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H CHENNAI H
SATURDAY 16.1.2016 (EVENING) H OTHER STATIONS SUNDAY 17.1.2016 (MORNING) H 8 PAGES Rs. 4.00 H Regd. No., TN/CC(S) DN/223/15-17, RNI No: 33810 / 82
Make MGR centenary
a national event: Jaya
AIADMK chief urges party cadres to meet
people, explain govt’s good work
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
AIADMK general secretary and
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today
expressed a wish that the birth centenary of party founder and former
Chief Minister Dr M G Ramachandran
should be made a national event. She
also urged partymen to get down to
work for the forthcoming Assembly
elections and kickstart campaign
immediately.
In an epistle to party cadres, a
copy of which was released to the
press here, Jayalalithaa said, ‘Tamil
people will never forget or forgive the
evil regime (referring to the DMK)
that destroyed the society. Also,
Tamilnadu will not accept the regime
that followed the policy of ‘My family
must gain all the benefit; My successors will run government. In order to
destroy the dangerous force, party
workers must work hard to ensure
that the AIADMK emerges victorious
in the upcoming assembly election.’
Further, Jayalalithaa said, ‘Tamilnadu is a role model among all the
States in India. The (AIADMK) party
workers must undertake a vigorous
campaign during which everyone
should meet the people explaining
good work done by the government.
The AIADMK supremo said field
work by the party members would
hold the key for the party’s success.
Also, the Chief Minister urged
party cadres to coordinate and
cooperate to start the election campaign immediately.
Jallikattu ban: Protests
continue in southern TN
q Protestors stage fast q Shops down shutters
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
Tension prevailed in various parts
of southern Tamilnadu including
Alanganallur, Avaniapuram and
Palamedu where protests were
staged demanding permission for
the sport
The protesters claimed that they
were cheated and called it a ‘Black
Pongal’, while letting loose bulls on
the roads in protest.
Shops downed the shutters and
black flags were hoisted in front of
several houses.
Rallies were taken out seeking
permission to hold the sport and
protests were also held. Many
youngsters tonsured their heads
as a mark of protest against the
ban. Youngsters and supporters
of the sport also observed a fast.
This happened in response to the
Supreme Court staying the conduct
of Jallikattu in Tamilnadu.
An apex court bench comprising
Kaannum Pongal: City
under strict police vigil
q Over 12,000 cops to be deployed
q Watch towers to be erected
SAFETY FIRST
A watchtower has been erected on the shores of Marina beach, where
people will gather in large numbers for Kaannum Pongal tomorrow.
Photo: A R JAYAKUMAR
NT Bureau
in the crowd.
Chennai, Jan 16:
Tags will be issued to the children
with contact number written on it, this
After being hit by a natural disaster,
will clear a lot of confusion and help
Pongal is the first celebration the city
lost ones be reunited.
is going to embrace.
Police personnel would be manning
According to police sources, Kaanthe entire stretch of Kamarajar Salai
num Pongal, will see large congreon the Marina beach where a large
gation of people at Marina, Besant
number of people are expected to
Nagar, Island Grounds and few other
visit the MGR Memorial and Anna
places.
Samadhi.
The City Police Commissioner T K
Police sources said all terrain veRajendran has ordered policemen
hicles would be deployed at Marina
to carry out duty in plain clothes as
and Elliots Beach to patrol.
well to be at public places which will
be teeming with people. This year,
Police have also started using the
policemen have strategised a new
beach buggies for patrolling and have
method to address the issue of chilissued action any case of women hardren being separated from families
assment. Tamil Nadu Fire and Res-
Fire kills couple
in Nanganallur
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
A couple was killed after a fire broke out
in their residence in Nanganallur early
this morning.
According to police sources, fire occurred at the house of Venkataramani
(45) in Eighth Street in Ram Nagar. He
lived here with his wife Sowmya (40)
and a relative Chandra (45). The couple
had two children, Vijayalakshmi (17) and
Chandrashekar (14). Police said, Venkataramani had worked with a newspaper.
Early this morning, police said, fire
broke out in the house, the children
were sleeping in the bed room while,
Venkataramani, Sowmya and Chandra
slept in the living room. Police said, the
children woke up and began crying out
for help through the window, alerting
neighbours. In the meantime, thick
smoke trapped the family in the house.
The fire and rescue personnel arrived at the spot after neighbours
informed the police. Venkataramani
and Sowmya died before help could
reach them, while the children had a
narrow escape. Chandra is admitted to
Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital
with burn injuries.
he Union government will announce a friendly tax
regime in next month’s Budget that will encourage
setting up of startups in the country, according to Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley.
‘We have already worked upon an entrepreneur-friendly
taxation regime. There are some steps, which can be
taken up by notifications, which would be taken forthwith.
Others require legislative provisions, which can only come
as part of the Finance Bill when Budget is presented in
order to create a friendly taxation regime for startups,’ he
said at the Start
Up India conference in India.
He assured the startups that both the banking system
and the government will make the resources available
to them.
Meanwhile, the mood was downbeat in the southern
districts as there was no Jallikattu owing to the ban on the
sport by the Supreme Court. There were protests and shops
downed shutters in various places in Madurai district.
In cricket, their bowling frailties thoroughly exposed in
the first two ODIs, India are left with no option but to bank
heavily on their batsmen to steer the side and upstage
the rampaging Australians in the must-win third ODI in
Melbourne tomorrow.
Tomorrow is effectively India’s last chance to salvage
any hopes of turning the tables in this ongoing five-match
series.
cue Services officials said more than
50 firemen from various fire stations,
equipped with life jackets, would be
deployed on the city beaches as part
of accident-prevention measures.
Meanwhile, police sources said,
bathing in the sea would be banned.
However, a team of fishermen
drawn from surrounding areas and
a team of 100 trained swimmers,
would also be kept in readiness as
lifeguards to handle any emergency.
The entire police force has been
mobilised to maintain strict vigil at
Tiruvottriyur, Marina, Elliots and Neelangarai beaches where public are
expected to throng in large numbers.
Apart from a police control room
on the beach front, police assistance
booths, ambulances with a medical
team would be kept in readiness to
handle any emergency.
Police have also installed six watch
towers on the beach. Apart from the
beach front, the Children’s Park at
Guindy, the Arignar Anna Zoological
Park at Vandalur and amusement
parks, All India Industrial Trade Fair
at Island Grounds and shopping malls
would be the preferred destinations
for the public. Tight security would
be provided in all these places, police
sources said.
Dhanush clarifies
on PETA
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
Actor Dhanush has clarified in
twitter that he has nothing to do with
PETA and that he did not speak anything against jallikattu as reported in
few sections of the media.
He wrote, ‘Happy maattu pongal. I
never made any comments regarding jallikattu.I support jallikattu.The
news that’s goin on is a rumour.
Thank u’.
He also wrote, ‘m not a brand
ambassador of peta. I was only
awarded by them once for being a
vegetarian’.
Many youngsters
tonsured their heads
as a mark of protest
against the ban.
Youngsters and
supporters of the
sport also observed a
hunger strike
Justice Dipak Misra and Justice
N.V. Ramana declined to lift an earlier order that put on hold a Central
government notification allowing
Jallikattu and bull races.
Rejecting the contention of petitioner Radhakrishnan, the bench
said they were not inclined to vacate
their order of Tuesday prohibiting
Jallikattu -- on grounds of cruelty to
the bulls. The court said they were
unimpressed by the submission
made by the petitioner seeking a
lifting of the stay.
Appearing for the petitioner, counsel N. Raja Raman told the court
that Jallikattu was a part of Tamil
tradition and culture and was being
carried on for thousands of years.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday passed a stay order on the Modi
government’s lifting of four-year-old
ban on holding of Jallikattu in pollbound Tamilnadu. The court had
said that Tamilnadu, Maharashtra
and the Centre should file a detailed
response within a week.
The court was responding to a
petition filed by Animal Welfare
Board of India, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
India and a Bangalore-based NGO
against the practise
Efforts on to lift the ban
Meanwhile Union Minister of
State for Environment, Forests
and Climate Change Prakash
Javadekar, on his way to Andaman via Chennai told reporters at
the Chennai airport that Supreme
Court has only banned Jallikattu
temporarily.
‘All efforts will be taken by Central government along with the
State government to conduct the
event.’ he assured.
City
2 SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2016
Centre
Time for
development
CHENNAI
RELIEF AT LAST
Relaying works beings on several stretches
on Sixth Avenue
Several stretches in Shanthi Colony are battered and bruised after the recent floods. Residents want them
to be relaid soon.
Photo: M Srinivasan
No more stink
T
Sixth Avenue Main Road which is being relaid.
R
esidents of the Sixth Avenue Main Road are a
happier lot as the battered
and bruised roads in the area are
being relaid. The stretch is an
important junction that connects
various places like Anna Nagar
Tower Park, Iyyappan temple, K4
police station.
After the recent floods there
were innumerable potholes and
heaps of dust along its sides. This
caused inconvenience not only to
pedestrians but also vendors.
A few days ago, commuters were
pleasantly surprised to find that
the road was being relaid. Apart
from residents and commuters,
The old black-topping has been totally
removed and a fresh coat is being given.
The work has been completed up to Fifth
Avenue junction
it brought smiles on the faces of
vendors.
Parthiban, a coconut-seller who
saw the road go from
bad to worse in the
past
few
months,
NA
AN
said it was high time
the officials looked into the
issue and acted.
He says, ‘The old black-topping
has been totally removed and
a fresh coat is being given. The
work has been completed up
to Fifth Avenue juncR
GA tion. The other portion
A
N
of Sixth Avenue is being
dug up to lay cables damaged
during the floods. A new road will
be laid after the cable installation
gets over.’
Ramapuram to get a pumping station
he residents of Ramapuram
are a happy lot as the sewage pumping station being
constructed here at a cost of Rs
48.5 crore, is expected to be ready
in the next three months.
The stipulated time given for the
construction of the pumping station
was 30 months when the work began in 2012. Currently, sewer lines
are erected to a length of 49 kms.
The station is part of the scheme to
provide underground drainage networks to added areas of the Chennai Corporation. Nearly 90 per cent
of the residents in Ramapuram are
expected to have sewage connection this year.
An official with the Chennai Metrowater said once
a newly-constructed sewage
pumping station starts functioning, households in the area will be
provided connections instead of
waiting for the entire locality to be
covered with the sewerage system.
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ANSWER TO
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IN THEATRES
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KATHAKALI
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Mayajaal, Escape
Cinema, Devi Cineplex,
Kamala Theatre,
Udhayam Theatre,
PVR Cinemas, AGS
Cinemas, Abirami
Mega Mall, Woodlands
Multiplex, Sangam
Multiplex
1
9 6
The object is to insert
the numbers in the
boxes to satisfy only one
condition: each row,
column and 3x3 box
must contain the digits
1 through 9 exactly once:
Easy nah?
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Match Point : Australia vs. India 2016 ODI
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Match Point : Australia vs. India 2016 ODI
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Rumble in the Bronx
STAR MOVIES
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Teleshopping
Best of GMC
RAJ TV
05:00PM
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09:00PM
dumpyard. The initial plans were to
construct a 24-hour maternity hospital but it was scrapped to built a
sewage pumping station.
Ramesh R, a resident of the area,
said, ‘We wanted the maternity
hospital project to get through. But
unfortunately it didn’t. However we
are happy that our sewage woes
will end’ .
‘Once it is operational, the pumping station would cater to 50,000
odd residents of Ramapuram.’
IN HOME
JAYA TV
04:30PM
05:00PM
06:00PM
07:30PM
08:00PM
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This will also minimise illegal release of untreated sewage in vacant
plots and water bodies. The
official added that they
were using pre-cast
R
RU
structures for manholes
PO
to save time in construction
on busy roads. The water agency is
already building concrete manholes
instead of brick-made ones to prevent frequent collapse.
Earlier, the area which now houses
the sewage pumping station was a
4 3
2
6
6 4 1 3 8 2 9 5 7
5 2 3 6 9 7 8 1 4
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7 3 9 4 1 5 6 8 2
1 5 8 7 2 6 4 9 3
4 6 2 8 3 9 5 7 1
2 1 5 9 6 3 7 4 8
3 7 4 1 5 8 2 6 9
9 8 6 2 7 4 1 3 5
RAJINI MURUGAN
Mayajaal, Escape Cinema,
Devi Cineplex, Kamala
Theatre, PVR Cinemas,
Sangam, AGS, INOX National
Hall, Rakki Multiplex, Abirami
Theatres, Sri Ganga Cinema,
Raj Theatre
THAARAI
THAPPATTAI
GETHU
Mayajaal, Devi Cineplex,
Kamala Theatre, PVR
Cinemas, Sangam,
AGS, Abirami Theatres,
Uthayam Theater, Sri
Ganga Cinema, Raj
Theatre, INOX National
Hall, Rakki Multiplex
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Theatre, PVR Cinemas, Sangam,
AGS, Abirami Theatres,
Uthayam Theater, Sri Ganga
Cinema, Raj Theatre, INOX
National Hall, Rakki Multiplex,
Maharani Theatre
Around Town
CHENNAI
Music
competition
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha
invites applications from candidates to take part in a Tamil vocal
competition to be
held in the
memory of
Kalaimamani D Pattammal.
A press
release said,
the competition
that will be conducted by the
sabha on 7 February, will be open
to those in the age group below
30 years (male and female). The
competitors should sing six Tamil
songs, of which two should be from
the compositions of Pattammal
and other four from the compositions of Gopalakrishna Bharathi,
Subramania Bharathi and Sri Papanasam Sivan. All the compositions of Pattammal are available
in web site www.dpattammal.com
and have been notated. Audio
CDS of the renditions of her compositions too are available at the
sabha premises.
For details, contact 2815 2166.
SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2016
80 scavengers died in
Chennai in 20 years
q Safai Karmachari Andolan on Bhim Yatra in TN
B SUDHARSAN
Chennai, Jan 16:
Over 80 people in Chennai and
around 250 people in Tamilnadu
lost their lives while cleaning sewer
lines and manholes between 1993
and 2013, according to data available with Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a national movement
aimed at total eradication of manual
scavenging and rehabilitation of
scavengers.
While this means that over 20 per
cent of a total of 1,200 people who
died while involved in manual scavenging across India between 1993
and 2013 were from Tamilnadu, the
data further points out that hardly 3
per cent of the families of victims
have been compensated by the
State governments so far.
This is why SKA, led by its national convener Bezwada Wilson,
launched Bhim Yatra, a pan-India
Over 50 members of SKA, accompanied by
manual scavengers, will be visiting all districts
of Tamilnadu for a week and raise demands,
including compensating the family members of
manual scavengers who died in harness after
1993 for Rs 10 lakh
campaign to raise awareness on
manual scavenging, on 10 December, 2015 in New Delhi. The
campaign entered Chennai on
Wednesday. According to Samuel
V, the State convenor of SKA,
the lack of awareness among the
general public on the issue of
manual scavenging continues to
be a leading cause that prevents
family members of victims to claim
the amount that is rightfully theirs.
‘The families (of the victims)
themselves have little idea whom
to approach to claim the compensation amount. Some of them
aren’t even aware of the amount
that they need to claim,’ says
Samuel.
So, members of SKA participating
in Bhim Yatra would guide the victims’ families on the issue, he adds.
Over 50 members of SKA, accom-
Woman gets
hearty heart
TAFE chief
likely to head
IIT Jodhpur
NT Bureau/PTI:
Chennai, Jan 16:
As it aims to ‘strengthen the partnership between industry and academia’,
the Human Resource Development
Ministry is understood to be contemplating appointment of leading
business captains as chairpersons
of Board of Governors of prestigious
IITs.
According to sources, the Ministry
has sought the nod of
President Pranab Mukherjee to
appoint Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman and CEO of Tractors and Farm
Equipment Limited, Chennai as the
Chairperson of Board of Governors
of IIT Jodhpur. Similarly, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya
Birla group, is likely to head the Board
of Governors of IIT-Delhi.
The Ministry is also understood to
have zeroed in on some other leading figures from the industry to head
these prestigious institutions.
Sources said that Chairman and
Managing Director (CMD) of Cadila
Pharmaceuticals Rajiv I Modi is likely
to be appointed as the Chairperson
of the Board of Governors of IIT-Guwahati. In this case too, the approval
of the President has been sought, the
sources said.
Approval of the President, who is
the Visitor of these prestigious institutions, is needed for the appointments.
Another eminent business leader
from the pharma sector Pankaj
Ramanbhai Patel is understood to
have been considered by the Ministry to head the Board of Governors
of IIT Bhubneswar.
‘It is important that the eminent
person who is appointed as the
head of Board of Governors of
these technology institutes brings
a fresh look and government also
realises the need to strengthen the
partnership between industry and
academia. So the intent is to bring
someone who can bring expertise
and perspective,’ a senior official
breathing, digestion comes under ‘involuntary system’ that is beyond one’s
control and are commonly referred to
as the autonomous nervous system.
Occasionally patients admitted in the
hospitals with heart failure and acute
breathless have normal heart pumping
function. But in some cases, it causes
a backlog of blood in the lungs when
there is high blood pressure and a rapid
heart rate. This further attributes to an
increase in the sympathetic nervous
system influencing the heart and the
vasculature, and result in a higher BP
and heart rate leading to breathless
episode.
Speaking on the treatment, Cherian
said, ‘When the patient was admitted at
FLL with three episodes of acute breathlessness in the recent past, we did an
analysis of ECG’s and blood tests that
indicated us that she can be recovered
invited for
tailoring course
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
by performing Vagus Nerve Stimulation
therapy that doesn’t require any kind of
drugs and has no side effects either.
The whole procedure was done in less
than an hour under general anesthesia
and the patient was discharged on the
third day. Subsequently the patient will
be flowed up at intervals of 15 days, one
month, three months and six monthly
thereafter for two years from now’.
‘Also, it has to be noted that the patient
has Diabetes and also had undergone
Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery at FLL
during 2007. We know the high level of
suffering a patient undergoes and cannot achieve satisfactory relief using drug
therapies. So, we at FLL are extremely
delighted to be able to perform Vagus
nerve stimulation therapy, thereby providing a further and a very promising
alternative treatment for the patients
hereafter,’ he said.
The annual Jagannath Rath Yatra organised by ISKCON was held in
Chennai on Thursday. The yatra started from Kapaleeswarar Temple, Mylapore at reached the venue at Chetpet Kuchalambal Kalyana Mandapam
through R K Mutt Road, Royapettah High Road, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai,
Cathedral Road, N HRoad and Village Road. During the procession,
ISKCON distributed prasadam to the general public.
India, Japan CGs
conduct joint exercise
Chennai, Jan 16 (PTI):
The Coast Guards of India and
Japan on Friday conducted a joint
exercise in the Bay of Bengal to
‘gauge inter-operability’ where
a series of activities, including
scenarios of hijacking and rescue
were performed.
The joint exercise, named
‘Sahyog-Kaijin-XV’, saw ships,
choppers and personnel from
either sides engage in a variety
of activities witnessed by the Director General of Indian Coast
Guard Vice Admiral H C S Bisht
and Vice Commandant of Japan
Coast Guard Vice Admiral Hideyo
Hanamizu.
Speaking to reporters, Bisht
said the joint exercise, part of
the ongoing cooperative arrangements between the two sides for
the last 15 years, was being done
to ‘gauge inter-operability’.
The aim of the exercise was to
‘engage with each other in case
of any contingency and fine tune
our strategy so that we can keep
larger maritime frontiers safe,’ he
told reporters.
While the threat of piracy, especially from Somalian pirates,
had reduced ‘we cannot say with
certainty that threats don’t exist’,
and therefore the need for such
initiatives arose where one side
can learn from the other,
Bisht said, adding one has to
‘keep the guard up’.
Hanamizu expressed satisfaction over the exercise and hailed
the expanding relationship between India and Japan, especially
between the Coast Guards of the
two countries. The Indian Coast
Guard was represented by seven
surface units and two aircraft. The
ships included Samudra Pahredar, Rajkamal and Rajtarang
while one Dornier aircraft and
one Chetak helicopter were also
involved.
JCG Ship Echigo participated
in the joint exercise and the two
Coast Guards did simulated
situations of hijack of a merchant
vessel by ‘pirates’ and its subsequent rescue, cross deck landing
of helicopters, search and rescue
demonstration and external firefighting.
‘The exercises focus towards
acquainting the Coast Guards
with each other’s capabilities and
strengthening their working level
relationship, besides consolidating joint operating procedures,’
an official release said. To a que-
panied by manual scavengers, will be
visiting all districts of Tamilnadu for a
week and raise demands, including
compensating the family members of
manual scavengers who died in harness after 1993 for Rs 10 lakh. ‘This
is as per the Supreme Court ruling in
2014,’ stresses Bezwada.
‘We would also demand that the
manual scavengers be given better
government jobs and rehabilitated
so that they can lead their lives with
dignity,’ Samuel adds.
Bhim Yatra will culminate in Tamilnadu on 21 January.
Applications
q Frontier Lifeline performs Vagus Nerve Stimulation Therapy
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
Frontier Lifeline Hospital (FLL) and
Dr K M Cherian Heart Foundation has
performed a device therapy to modulate the autonomic nervous system to
treat heart failure.
The successful procedure, also
termed as the ‘Vagus Nerve Stimulation Therapy’, was done on a 63-yearold woman who was suffering from
acute breathlessness by Dr K M
Cherian, chairman and CEO, Frontier
Lifeline Hospital along with Dr Joy M
Thomas, senior consultant cardiologist
and Dr Anto Sahayaraj, junior consultant, pediatric cardiac surgery, a press
release said.
Heart failure is the final common pathway in many forms of heart disease that
is associated with excessive morbidity
and mortality. Functioning of heart,
3
ry on the fishermen issue, Bisht
said ‘a large’ number of them
were aware of the International
Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL)
with the neighbours, including Pakistan and Sri Lanka since most
of them carried Global Positioning
System (GPS) devices.
However, due to ‘stray’ incidents
of crossing the IMBL, the Coast
Guard was conducting Community Interaction Programme
to sensitise the fishermen on
the importance of ‘respecting
and honouring the sanctity of
the IMBL’.
This has resulted in fishermen
becoming our ‘eyes and ears’
where in one instance a fishermen in Goa had informed about
an unidentified boat.
However, there was nothing
suspicious about it since it
hailed from Gujarat and only
did not belong to Goa, he said,
adding this was a positive result
of the community interaction
programme.
On the security front, besides
other agencies, the Coast Guard
was maintaining round-the-clock
vigil with a number of boats and
aircraft doing the job in different
coastal areas, he said.
The Lions District 317 F Service Foundation, Bangalore Chapter in association with QNET conducted a camp at Meenambakkam in Chennai recently and handed over relief materials to 200
Jayalakshmi Ammal Education and
Charitable
Trust is
inviting applications
for its 51st
batch of
government approved three month
course for women in tailoring, bridal
designer, blouse embroidery and
beauty care .
The course will be commence from
January last week onwards.
Application forms can be collected from the Trust’s office at SP
20, Third Street, First Sector, K K
Nagar, from Monday to Saturday,
between 10 am and 5 pm.
Interested candidates may register
their names at 2371 1184 and 2474
7728.
Blend
4 SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2016
WHAT NEWS TODAY PRINTS IS NEWS THAT COUNTS
Kejriwal’s game
T
he odd-even scheme — which meant that cars with registration
number ending with odd plied on odd days and those with
even numbers on even days — was conceived in hurry and,
consequently, lacked proper planning and infrastructure. Still, carowners went along with it without a murmur.
For, they knew that pollution was a huge health hazard and that
something needed to be done about it. Remarkably, the central
government, the courts, and the Delhi Police gladly committed
themselves to try and make the experiment a success. A PIL
questioning the scheme was rejected by the Delhi High Court.
Yet, there was no denying that it inconvenienced a lot of people not
only in Delhi but those coming from outside for work or pleasure.
It was because the odd-even rule applied to all vehicles entering the
city from eight a.m. to eight p.m. Unsurprisingly, long before the
end of the 15-day period, Kejriwal declared that the scheme was a
grand success. Indeed, he went to Kolkata to address a gathering of
investors only to boast that with the implementation of the scheme
the AAP had established that it can govern too.
Of course, it in no way tested his governance skills, especially
when the middle and upper classes, which generally own fourwheeled vehicles, willingly cooperated, as any aware group of
citizens could be expected to do. The fear of the traffic police and
the hefty Rs. 2,000 fine on violators did the rest. But what of the
outcome? Well, the scientific data is not clear whether pollution
came down due to the scheme.
Several pollution meters in the city showed that it had actually
gone up during the period. But that was due to weather conditions
which are not amenable to any such experiments and tend to create a
blanket of terrible fog and smog all over the city and beyond during
this time of the year.
Yes, thanks to the experiment there were fewer number of vehicles
on the roads. But reducing traffic was not the objective behind the
experiment. Reducing pollution was. Of that there was no guarantee,
of course. Tackling the growing problem of pollution would require
a holistic approach and cannot be solved with gimmicks. In any
case, four-wheeled vehicles account for less than ten percent of the
total pollution.
The biggest culprit was road dust. Though tens of thousands of
sweepers are on the rolls of the municipality, if the roads still remain
unswept it is because of corruption and indiscipline in the civic
bodies as a whole. Whether it is Mumbai or Delhi, or any other big
metro, municipal corporations are cesspools of corruption. Again,
due to the failure of the urban local bodies, illegal and unregulated
construction activity is a major creator of pollution. Small and
medium-scale industries add to the problem but a bigger culprit is
the burning of the agricultural waste, including husk.
So, how by tinkering with a minor part of the far bigger problem
did Kejriwal expect to tackle Delhi’s pollution remains beyond
everyone’s comprehension. The closure of schools, the huge
expenditure on advertisements, the hiring of thousands of volunteers
at Rs. 500 per day for eight-hour shifts, etc., were all part of
Kejriwal’s own self-glorification project.
Nirupama Rao @NMenonRao
Historical habit of treating garbage
disposal/cleaning up as not a personal
responsibility. ‘Pollution’ -potent word in
our tradition.
‘Character is a by-product; it is
produced in the great
manufacture of daily duty.’:)
Anupam Kher @AnupamPkher
Tech that changes voice
LONDON:
Scientists have created a new digital audio platform that can change
the emotional state of a person by
modifying the tone of their voice while
they are talking, to make them sound
happier, sadder or more fearful.
New results show that while listening to their altered voices, participants’ emotional state change in
accordance with the new emotion.
‘Previous research has suggested
that people try to manage and control their emotions, for example
hold back an expression or
reappraise feelings,’ said
lead author Jean-Julien
Aucouturier from the French
National Centre for Scientifi c
Research (CNRS).
‘We wanted to investigate what
kind of awareness people have of
their own emotional expressions,’
she said.
In an initial study using a novel digital audio platform, participants read
a short story aloud while hearing their
own altered voice, sounding happier,
sadder or more fearful, through a
headset.
The study found that the participants were unaware that their voices
were being manipulated, while their
emotional state changed in accordance with the manipulated emotion
portrayed.
This indicates that people do not
always control their own voice to meet
a specific goal and that people listen
to their own voice to learn how they
are feeling.
‘The relationship between the expression
and experience of emotions has been a long-standing topic
of disagreement in the field of psychology,’ said Petter Johansson, one
of the authors from Lund University
in Sweden.
‘This is the first evidence of direct
feedback effects on emotional experience in the auditory domain,’ said
Johansson.
CHENNAI
Al Qaeda strikes again
Storms hotel in Burkina Faso 20 killed, 63 hostages freed
OUAGADOUGOU:
Sixty-three hostages, including
33 wounded, were evacuated in
the early hours of Saturday from a
Burkina Faso hotel besieged by al
Qaeda-linked gunmen, communication minister Remis Dandjinou.
‘There are some dead but we don’t
have the numbers. The assault is
ongoing with the Burkinabe forces
supported by French special forces,’
Dandjinou said, adding that amongst
those rescued was labour minister
Clement Sawadogo.
The breakthrough in the ongoing
siege came after security forces
launched an assault in the early hours
of Saturday to rescue hostages held
by the Al Qaeda linked gunman in a
Burkina Faso hotel where at least 20
people have been killed.
A fire raged at the main entrance
and screams could be heard from
inside Ouagadougou’s four-star
Splendid hotel, which often has UN
staff among its guests and has security checks at its entrances.
The attack comes less than two
months after a jihadist hostage siege
at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in
the Malian capital Bamako in which
20 people died including 14 foreigners -- an attack claimed by the same
Al-Qaeda affiliate as the unfolding
Ouagadougou assault.
The French ambassador to Ouagadougou Gilles Thibault announced the
beginning of the assault on Twitter.
Officials had earlier said French forces could join a counter-attack on the
hotel, but Thibault did not clarify if they
had joined the initial rescue mission.
Sporadic fire
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM) claimed responsibility for the
attack saying it was ‘revenge against
France and the disbelieving West’,
according to US-based monitoring
group SITE.
The ‘mujahideen brothers’ of AQIM
‘broke into a restaurant of one of the
biggest hotels in the capital of Burkina
Faso, and are now entrenched and
the support of French special forces,
who have a permanent presence in
the country, to deal with the unfolding
situation, and a US defence official,
speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Washington could provide dronebased surveillance.
A witness also reported seeing four
assailants who were of Arab or white
appearance and ‘wearing turbans’.
Unprecedented attack
The Burkinabe army meanwhile said
an armed group had also carried out an
attack earlier in the day near the border
with Mali, killing two people.
‘In the afternoon around 2:00 pm
(1400 GMT), around 20 heavilyarmed unidentified individuals carried
out an attack against gendarmes in
The attack comes less than two months after a
jihadist hostage siege at the luxury Radisson
Blu hotel in the Malian capital Bamako in
which 20 people died including 14 foreigners
-- an attack claimed by the same Al-Qaeda
affiliate as the unfolding Ouagadougou assault
the clashes are continuing with the
enemies of the religion,’ SITE quoted
the group as saying.
Barry said Burkina Faso may enlist
the village of Tin Abao,’ the army said
in a statement, adding that an officer
and a civilian had been killed and two
people were wounded.
German town bars
male asylum-seekers
Voting begins
in Taiwan’s Prez
election
TAIPEI:
Polls have opened in Taiwan’s
presidential election in which the
island’s China-friendly Nationalist Party appears likely to lose
power to the pro-independence
opposition.
The Democratic Progressive
Party’s Tsai Ing-wen is poised to
become the self-governing island’s
first female president, returning the
main opposition party to power after
eight years under Nationalist President Ma Ying-jeou, who is constitutionally barred from another term.
The outcome of the contest for a
majority in the 133-seat legislature
remains uncertain, with independents and smaller parties posing a
threat to both the Nationalists and
the DPP.
A win for Tsai would introduce
new uncertainty in the complicated
relationship between Taiwan and
mainland China, which claims
the island as its own territory and
threatens to use force if it declares
formal independence.
BORNHEIM:
A western German town has barred
adult male asylum seekers from its
public indoor swimming pool after receiving complaints that some women
were sexually harassed there.
It was the latest sign of social tensions
related to the arrival last year of 1.1 million migrants in Germany, and followed
reports of sexual assaults on women
by young foreigners during New Year’s
Eve celebrations in Cologne.
The deputy mayor of Bornheim, a town
of 48,000 about 18 miles south of Cologne, said Friday that a difficult decision
was taken to send a clear message that
breaching German cultural norms was a
red line that should not be crossed.
‘There have been complaints of
sexual harassment and chatting-up
going on in this swimming pool by
groups of young men,’ said the deputy
mayor, Markus Schnapka, and this
has prompted some women to leave.’
‘This led to my decision that adult
males from our asylum shelters
may not enter the swimming pool
until further notice,’ he added.
He did not say how the ban would
be enforced. German news media
outlets reported that asylum seekers, who get no funds from the
state, must present an identification
document to be admitted to pools at
a discounted rate.
VOICE MAIL
Problem of change
Sir,
Of late, chocolates have started
tasting bitter on the palate of customers who shop at retail outlets/
general stores because when you
purchase goods from retail outlets,
they prefer to give chocolates/
candies instead of returning 1Re
or 2 Re coins as change.
It is actually a loss for every customer and bigger loss especially
if you daily do transactions where
you are forced to get toffees/
candies instead of change and
you end up losing small change
of Re1/Re2 coins.
The customers also don’t protest
as they feel it is too much of hassle
to argue for small change worth Re
1/Rs 2. One of the major problems
faced by many of retailers in India is
insufficiency of coins. Though banks
claim that there is no shortage of
coins and all that the shopkeepers
have to do is to collect them from
the bank, the shopkeepers say
that instead of waiting in the queue
(at the bank) for a long time and
running the risk of losing business,
they prefer to get change from other
small vendors/bus conductors, for
which shopkeepers pay 10-20 per
cent commission.
It is high time RBI and the Union
Government intervene in the matter and make more change/coins
available.
T S KARTHIK, Valasarvakkam
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ADDRESS YOUR LETTERS TO :
The Editor, News Today, 85, Mount Road, Guindy,
Chennai - 600 032.
or e-mail to : [email protected] / [email protected]
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Enterprise
CHENNAI
‘Uber, Ola won’t reduce
individual car buyers’
NT Bureau
Pune, Jan 16:
After calling taxi-hailing services like
Uber and Ola as a threat to the (passenger car) industry, Mahindra Group
chairman Anand Mahindra said their
penetration will not lead to a fall in
number of individual auto buyers.
‘Despite the Ubers and the Olas,
individual buyers of city and commuter
cars are not going to become extinct,’
Mahindra said in a video message at
the launch of the company’s compact
SUV called KUV100.
Though he conceded that overall volumes of commuter and city users may
drop because of the ‘sharing economy’,
there will ‘indeed remain many buyers
who would want to own a car and enjoy
the experience of driving.’
On heightened sensitivity to pollution,
he said, ‘There is going to be enormous
societal pressure to use vehicles in cities with small footprint, both in terms of
carbon and space occupied.’
It may be noted that Mahindra was
among the leading auto industry chieftains to flag concerns around taxi ag-
India, Germany
ink work plan
for food safety
New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI):
India and Germany signed a work
plan for cooperation in the areas of
food safety, solid waste management, and air and water quality
management.
The work plans were signed
at the third meeting of the joint
working group between the two
countries.
The Working Group was established in 2013 based on the
declaration signed between Food
& Consumer Affairs Ministry and
German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (now
Ministry for Economic Affairs and
Energy) for cooperation in Standardisation, conformity assessment
and product safety.
The work plan for cooperation in
the area of Solid Waste Management, food safety, air and water
quality management was signed,
the Consumer Affairs Ministry said
in a statement.
It outlines various activities for
the next years’ cooperation which
also include amongst others,
leather and leather products, air
and water quality, product safety
and toy safety, legal metrology and
laboratory testing facilities.
In the meeting there were delegates of both Indian and German
sides comprised of the members
from the concerned ministries,
national standards bodies, and
representatives from trade associations.
gregating apps in September last year.
‘The ease of access being offered by
taxi-hailing apps like Uber and Ola is
the biggest potential threat to the auto
industry. Since these apps operators
have made transportation a commodity, (auto) sales could be hit and
volumes may be impacted,’ he said.
The onus, Mahindra said, is on the
auto industry to build cars ‘passionately’
to ensure demand for cars doesn’t go
away. ‘The market is becoming polarised and I am not a strong believer in
the sustained growth of the mid-sized
sedan market,’ he added.
Uber is keen to increase its India
presence from the current 18 cities.
Industry estimates peg Uber’s daily
rides at around 2,00,000.
Despite initial hiccups in India, the
US-based taxi-hailing app is investing
$1 billion to ramp up its operations by
March next year.
Its domestic rival Ola, which leads the
market in terms of number of taxis, drivers and users by a wider margin, is also
getting millions of dollars of investments
to increase its market share.
q New SUV aimed at youth and first-time buyers
ABINESH H
Pune, Jan 16:
Automobile major Mahindra &
Mahindra Ltd (M&M) ventured into
a new segment with the launch of
KUV100, a compact which targets
the youth.
The product comes in a petrol
engine with an aggressive pricing
to attract first time car buyers and
the company plans to take on passenger car market leaders Maruti
Suzuki for its Swift and DZire models and Hyundai for its Grand i10
and Astra.
Speaking at the launch, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra
Ltd, Dr Pawan Goenka said, ‘The
KUV100 is a defi ning moment in
the automotive journey of Mahin-
hence people are preferring to travel
by road. Also train and air tickets are
not available on immediate basis,’
Salageri said.
Volvo Buses Business Head (India
and South Asia) V R V Sriprasad
said the order includes a mix of Volvo
9400XL and Volvo 9400PX multi-axle
models with I-Shift, designed to impart highest levels of comfort to passengers and drivers.
‘Apart from bringing in
new technologies and
features, Volvo’s focus
is on imparting quality training to drivers,’
Sriprasad said.
‘Volvo has trained
over 26,000 bus drivers till date and this gives
us confidence to focus on
the entire concept of safety,’
he said.
Volvo has sold over 5,400 buses in
India, besides catering to the export
markets in the SAARC region and
South Africa, Sriprasad said.
The company also manufactures
the Volvo 8400 city bus, nearly 1,500
units of which are helping millions
of people in 34 cities with their daily
commute, he added.
Founded in 1976 by Vijay
Sankeshwar, VRL has the largest
fleet of commercial vehicles in India
with 4,077 vehicles, which include
373 buses and 3,704 trucks, Salageri
said.
Coolpad ties up with
Videocon to make handsets
New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI):
Chinese handset maker Coolpad
said it has partnered Videocon to assemble its handsets in India, a move
aimed at helping the company garner
larger share in the strongly contested
Indian smartphone market.
Coolpad, which forayed into India
last year, is also looking at setting
up its research and development
(R&D) operations here to cater to the
SAARC region.
‘We have partnered Videocon to
assemble our handsets in India.
This will help us bring our products
faster to our consumers.The plant in
Aurangabad has a monthly capacity
of 3 lakh units,’ Coolpad India CEO
Syed Tajuddin said.
He added that it will at least be
another 1-2 years before full-fledged
manufacturing will be done in India.
‘The target is to produce one million Made in India phones by H1 of
2016. Initially, around 15,000-20,000
devices will be imported from China
and rest will be manufactured from
India,’ he said.
Interestingly, Videocon also has its
own line of smartphones selling in the
Indian market.
Asked about the cost benefits of
manufacturing in India, Tajuddin said
the scale of operations in the country
is still not comparable to China.
‘However, the costs of manufacturing in China are going up and people
are looking at India as the next big
destination. Manufacturing in India is
giving us about 5-6 per cent benefit
which we will pass on to the consumers,’ he said.
Recently, many international players like Xiaomi, Gionee and Asus
have set up assembly units in India.
Handset makers are looking to tap the
multi-billion dollar opportunity in India,
which is one of the fastest growing
markets globally.
According to research fi rm IDC,
shipments in India grew 21.4 per
cent year-on-year to 28.3 million
units in the July- September 2015
quarter.
Samsung led the tally with 24 per
cent share, followed by Micromax
(16.7 per cent), Intex (10.8 per
cent), Lenovo Group Lenovo and
Motorola (9.5 per cent) and Lava
(4.7 per cent).
Tajuddin said the company is
eyeing fi ve per cent share of the
smartphone market in India.
Coolpad is also exploring plans of
setting up a R&D unit in India.
‘The discussions are on (within
the company). India will cater to
the entire SAARC region, this is a
very important market for us. The
centre would provide employment
to 200-300 people at least,’ he said.
BSNL reduces mobile
rates by up to 80%
New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI):
State-run BSNL said it has extended the scheme giving 80 per
cent reduction in mobile rates to its
existing customers, with effect from
January 16.
The company had earlier announced the scheme for new customers.
‘Earlier, BSNL had reduced call
rate by up to 80 per cent for its new
prepaid mobile customers only and
now the same has been extended for
existing BSNL prepaid users also,’
the company said in a statement.
The call rates have been reduced
for both per minute and per second
billing plans.
‘Our tariffs are most competitive in
the industry having largest network
coverage. Two new special tariff
vouchers (STV) have also been
5
Mahindra’s 9th launch
of fiscal: KUV100
Volvo bags Rs 60 cr
order from VRL
Bengaluru, Jan 16 (PTI):
Leading bus transport service provider VRL Logistics said it has placed
an order for 51 multi-axle intercity
coaches worth Rs 60 crore with Volvo
Buses India.
‘We have placed an order with
Volvo Buses for 51 multi-axle intercity
coaches worth Rs 60 crore,’ VRL
Logistics Limited Vice President
(Travels) Prabhu Salageri said.
He said VRL operates
Volvo buses on one of
the longest routes in
India at present, connecting Bengaluru to
Jodhpur in Rajasthan,
and plans to operate
in new routes including Bengaluru-Nashik,
Bengaluru-Nagpur and
Bengaluru-Indore.
The other new routes being planned
are Goa-Mumbai, Nagpur-Pune,
Visakhapatnam-Chennai and Bengaluru-Visakhapatnam, he added.
Salageri said there is a spurt in
demand for road travel because of
improved road conditions and problems in booking train or flight tickets.
‘The improved road conditions and
reduction in travel time has increased
demand for road travel, and hence it
has prompted us to expand by operating in new cities.
‘Train takes 24 hours to reach Mumbai from Bengaluru, but our buses
reach the destination in 16 hours, and
SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2016
introduced,” BSNL Board Director
(Consumer Mobility) RK Mittal said.
BSNL is taking various initiatives to
improve its services and add more
customers.
The company has also gone
mobile number portability (MNP)
positive with 1,57,564 people joining
its network and 1,24,158 leaving its
network between July to November
period.
dra. This vehicle is our first foray
into ground up petrol engine and
with it we are defining a new SUV
sub-segment and targeting a new
customer group. We are staying
with ‘Make in India’ initative. Our
development team used alternative
thinking and challenged the limits to
deliver a vehicle that is poised to be
nothing less than a game changer
for us. We are entering a new orbit
and hope to deliver yet another icon
(after Scorpio and XUV500), yet
another dream.’
KUV100 which, he described as
a ‘Compact Utility Vehicle’ will be
available in seven colours and Mahindras are working on a financing
scheme to enable college students
to buy this vehicle.
President and chief executive
(automotive), Mahindra & Mahindra
Pravin Shah said, ‘Mahindra is a
market leader in the SUV segment
we wanted to come out with breakthrough vehicles and that’s how the
KUV100 came to be. I believe that
this vehicle will appeal to the youth
and first- time car buyers.
This is the ninth vehicle to have
been introduced by Mahindra this
financial year. With this vehicle Mahindra intends to gain volume and
marketshare which it had lost in the
past two years amidst stiff competition from all passenger car makers.
M&M officials said the KUV100 combines aggressive styling and an SUV
stance and ample space to accommodate even six people including the
driver. The vehicle is available at all
Mahindra dealers priced at Rs. 4.42
lakh for the petrol base model and Rs.
5.22 lakh for the base diesel variant.
An investment of Rs. 1,200 crore
was put into developing the KUV 100
and it took four years for final product
to come out including a brand new
petrol engine. This is the first petrol
engine Mahindra has developed.
SBI partners Snapdeal
to offer loans
Mumbai, Jan 16 (PTI):
Country’s largest lender State
Bank of India today announced
launch of SBI e-Smart SME to offer easy working capital to online
e-commerce players.
The bank has initially tied up with
e-commerce major Snapdeal to offer instant loans to its sellers.
‘The e-commerce growth has
created a new ecosystem enabling
more than 5 lakh sellers to sell
product on digital platform. It has
also opened up opportunities for
the banking industry, ‘SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told
reporters.
SBI E-Smart SME will use data
analytics gathered by Snapdeal to
assess the sellers credit worthiness,
instead of traditional lending based
on financial statements like balance
sheet and income tax returns. The
bank is also planning a similar tie-up
with Flipkart, Paytm and Amazon
going forward, she said.
‘The biggest challenge for SMEs
is to raise financing through formal
banking is often they don’t have collateral or a long history of financial
statements to give confi dence to
lender.
‘Through this real time analytics
tool we have created with SBI, we
can assign a credit score to all sellers on our platforms,’ said Snapdeal
co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl.
In one year, through its Capital
Assist Program, Snapdeal had lent
over Rs 250 crore to 1,000 sellers.
In this year, it is targeting Rs 1,000
crore loans to SMEs, he added.
In May last year, SBI had partnered with Snapdeal to finance
seller loans through the latter’s
Capital Assist platform. This initiative to offer instant loans will take it
further ahead.
Initially, sellers will be able to avail
loans up to Rs 25 lakh. Loans up to
Rs 10 lakh will be collateral free with
a competitive interest rate. Women
entrepreneurs will have a special
concession of 25 basis points.
Loans below Rs 10 lakh will be
covered under the Pradhan Mantri
Mudra Yojana Scheme.
The bank had hired management
consulting firm BCG to facilitate the
development of this credit model.
Yesterday, SBI had launched InCube in Bengaluru to specially cater
to the needs of startups.
The bank has nearly one million
MSME customers with a loan book
of around Rs 1,80,000 crore as on
December end.
SBI and Snapdeal are also exploring collaboration opportunities on
various other areas in the digital
banking space.
ONGC not to cut capex
despite fall in revenue
New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI):
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp
(ONGC) today said it will not cut capital
expenditure despite its revenues falling
because of international oil prices slumping
to 12 year low.
The fall in cost of services, however, will
lower the financial outgo, it said.
‘There will be no cut in capex activities.
In fact there will be an increase, but financially there will be a reduction because of
the fall in services cost,’ ONGC Chairman
and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf
told reporters here.
ONGC will carry out the same amount
of activity as it had planned -- drilling of
number of wells, seismic surveys and
field development; but the money spent
on these will be lower as the cost at which
some of the services which are available in
the market are lower now, he said.
The company is slated to spend Rs
36,249 crore on capex in the current fiscal
ending March 31.
Drilling rigs and associated services are
available at the cheapest rate in two decades, he said. He said the fall in crude oil
prices to below USD 30 per barrel was a
“matter of concern” for an exploration and
production (E&P) company like ONGC.
Oppo ropes in Hrithik
as brand ambassador
In May 2015, Oppo also
announced a 3-year partnership with FC Barcelona as global partner.
Mumbai, Jan 16 (PTI):
Chinese handset maker
Oppo has roped in Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Sonam Kapoor
as its South Asia Region
brand ambassadors.
‘Both Hrithik and Sonam
are youth icons and are
looked up to for their
style and attitude, which
is completely in tune with
our brand philosophy,
which is about young at
heart and pursuing for
perfection, and always
be a trendsetter,’ Sky
Li, Vice President Oppo
and Managing Director of
International Mobile Business, said in a statement.
The move coincides with
the company’s second
year anniversary in India.
‘I am proud of the
brand’s growth in India
and am very excited to
be a part of yet another
successful innings of the
brand in India in 2016,’
Hrithik Roshan said.
Oppo sells its phones
offline in over 20 markets
around the world, and offers online sales to other
fifty-plus countries.
Oppo is the official global partner worldwide for
the mobile phone category with International
Cricket Council (ICC)
for four years, from the
start of 2016 to the end
of 2019.
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January 23, 2016 at No.80 ( Old No.141 ),
Greams Road, Chennai – 600 006, to interalia
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Date: 12.01.2016
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE
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Mr .P.Jayaraman(2) both are sons of Mr.P.G.Pandurangan residing at Door
No.53/25, Ramalingeswarar Koil street, Teynampet, Chennai 600 018, informs
that last year while carrying the parent document of original has been lost
somewhere else .. The above parent document number 3378 of 1983 was
registered at Sembium S.R.O., on 16th July 1983 by Smt.C.Annapurnamma to
and in favour of Mr.P.Bojarajan, to an extent of 2800 square feet, comprised in
Survey Number: 1252 part of Annapoorna Nagar, Plot No.108 at Madhavaram
village.. If any person having any claim or charge, right, interest and /or mortgage
to the above mentioned land hereby requested to make the same known in writing
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If no claim is received from anybody, it will be presumed that no claim.
N.R.Ramanujan,B.Com.,B.L., Advocate,
1, Anjaneyar Street, Karthikeyarj Nagar,
Maduravoyal, Chennai -600095
6 SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2016
LOCAL SPORTS
Shrikrishna wins
national title
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
Tamilnadu lad S Shrikrishna
retained the sub-junior billiards
title defeating Sparsh Pherwani
411-161 in the final of the Manis h a Constructions National
billiards and snooker
championship at
Indore recently.
Earlier in the
semifinals,
Shrikrishna got
past
Sumehr
Mago, an 11-yearold student of
Beacon
High
School, Maharashtra, 322-157.
Results
(final):
Shrikrishna bt Sparsh
Pherwani
411-161;
Semi- finals: Shrikrishna bt
Sumehr Mago 322-157; Sparsh
bt Harmehr Mago 260-248.
Asics opens store in city
ASICS has opened a new franchise store at Express Avenue
Mall here recently.
Speaking about the launch Rajat Khurana, Director, ASICS India Private limited said the outlet
offers a wide range of running
and other sporting goods for all
levels of athletes from beginner
to competitive.
A press note said ASICS FOOT
ID dynamic analyses the consumer’s gait while running and
helps runners find the most
suitable shoes to draw the last
ounce of performance out of
them.
Sports
Federer lands in
Djokovic’s half
World No.1 faces Korean rookie in opening round
Serena-Sharapova clash likely in quarterfinals
Melbourne, Jan 16:
Five-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic could face
record Grand Slam winner Roger
Federer in the semi-finals of the
season’s opening Grand Slam following Friday’s draw in Melbourne.
The 10-time Grand Slam champion from Serbia is projected to face
Japan’s seventh seed Kei Nishikori
in the quarters, while Switzerland’s
17-time major winner Federer is set
to meet Czech Tomas Berdych in
the second quarter-final of the top
half of the men’s draw.
Top seed Djokovic, who wore
down Andy Murray to win last
year’s final at Melbourne Park, won
three Grand Slam titles among 11
tournament victories in a stellar
2015 season, and a win-loss record
of 82-6.
He will play South Korean Hyeon
Chung in the opening round.
Federer, who lost to Djokovic in the
Wimbledon and US Open finals last
year, will play Georgia’s Nikoloz
Basilashvili to get his campaign
underway and could possibly meet
Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second
and No. 27 Grigor Dimitrov in the
third.
Federer won his last Australian title
in 2010 and made four semifinals
in a row before losing in the third
round last year to Andreas Seppi.
Explosive young Australian Nick
Kyrgios, seeded 29, could face
Berdych in the third round.
British second seed Murray, who
has lost in four Australian Open finals, is drawn to meet Spanish terrier David Ferrer in the quarter-finals in the bottom half of the men’s
draw.
The Scot will take on Germany’s
Alexander Zverev in the opening
round, while eighth seed Ferrer
could face Lleyton Hewitt in the
second round in the Australian
great’s 20th consecutive and farewell home Grand Slam before his
retirement. Murray could have a
showdown with top-ranked Australian youngster Bernard Tomic in the
fourth round.
Dhoni wants more
runs from batters
Brisbane, Jan 16
(PTI):
A disappointed India
skipper Mahendra
Singh Dhoni called
on his batsmen
to
take
additional
pressure
and
score more runs
given the insipid
performance put
up by the team’s
bowlers in the first
two One-day Internationals against Australia.
Dhoni extolled his batsmen for managing successive 300-plus scores
but said they need to add at
least 30 more runs than what
they have put on the board so far.
India suffered their second defeat
in a row to concede a 0-2 lead despite setting consecutive 300-plus
targets for the Aussies.
‘You can’t win a match only by
scoring runs or you
cannot
score only
280 and
say the bowlers
have to win the match. Both departments have to improve.
Scoring 300 in back-toback matches is quite
tough anywhere, but we
have done it in Australia,’ Dhoni said after
India’s
seven-wicket
defeat.
‘But I feel the batsmen have to take
some more pressure
on themselves now,
and instead of 300,
they have to target
330-340. It might
happen that in pursuit
of that we are all out
for 280, but if we want
to win comfortably,
then we definitely need
George Bailey hit a half-century
to score on the higher
to fuel Australia’s chase.
Relegation battle a reality
for Chelsea: Hiddink
London, Jan 16:
Champions Chelsea are involved
in the relegation battle this season,
manager Guus Hiddink said on
Friday ahead of his side’s Premier
League clash with Everton.
Chelsea, who romped to the title
last season eight points clear at the
top, are 14th in the table after 21
games, six points above the relegation zone.
‘We all like to look forward, but
don’t be unrealistic when you are
six points above the relegation line,
that is a fact,’ Hiddink told reporters
on Friday.
‘I think so, relegation is a reality... we have a little bit more of a
CHENNAI
breathe, but we have two very difficult games coming up, who have
a very good away record in the last
10 games.’
Brazil forward Alexandre Pato has
been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge during the January
transfer window, according to British media reports.
Hiddink, however, said he was
happy with the strikers he has at his
disposal and that the club were not
active in the transfer market.
‘No, we don’t have to sell players to
bring in. I’m happy that (Loic) Remy
is now working a full week with high
intensity, and if needed he can be
on the pitch,’ the former Netherlands manager said.
‘That’s good. As long as this is
happening, we are not very active
in doing other things.’
The Dutchman also confirmed last
season’s Premier League player of
the year Eden Hazard, who is yet to
score in 27 appearances this season, will miss the Everton game
on Saturday.
The 25-year-old could make his
comeback against Arsenal on 24
January.
Agut wins 1st
title of season
side,’ Dhoni said. Dhoni lamented
the ‘freebies’ his bowlers offered to
the hosts in Perth as well as here
yesterday and asked them to stop
giving easy runs.
‘In both the games we have
given a fair amount of extras,
and that takes that number of runs
off the total score. The breeze was
also circulating around and that
made it slightly difficult for Ishant
Sharma. I feel even if we don’t cut
down the extras, we’ll have to score
a few more runs. So there are two
options, either put pressure on the
batsmen by scoring 330 or give
them the batting first,’ said Dhoni.
While Rohit Sharma scored his
second successive century, and
was aided with fifties from Virat
Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, India still
only managed to score 75 runs in
the last 10 overs. It reduced their
score from an intended 330 to 308
for 8 that proved to be inadequate
once again. ‘We tried our best to
score. I felt they bowled well in the
last 10 overs, and it’s always
difficult because you keep losing wickets. And it’s difficult for
the new batsmen to come in
and straightaway play the big
shots,’ he said.
Joe Root
Rafael Nadal faces a potential
rematch of his losing 2014 final
against Swiss fourth seed Stan
Wawrinka in the other quarter-final
in the bottom half of the draw.
Wawrinka is projected to face bigserving Canadian Milos Raonic in
the fourth round, while Nadal, who
won the Australian title only once in
2009, could take on South African
Kevin Anderson in the last 16.
Wawrinka, who upset Djokovic in
last year’s French Open final for his
second major win, opens against
Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov, while
Nadal meets Spanish compatriot
Fernando Verdasco.
The floater in that quarter of the
draw is No. 13 Milos Raonic, who
plays Lucas Pouille of France in the
first round. Raonic beat Federer in
the Brisbane International final last
week.
In the women’s section, Defending champion Serena Williams and
No. 5-ranked Maria Sharapova
were drawn into the same section,
setting up a potential quarterfinal
Auckland, Jan 16:
Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut
won the ASB Classic singles title when his American opponent
Jack Sock was forced to retire
with illness while trailing 6-1, 1-0
in Saturday’s final.
Sock said after his 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
semifinal win over top-seed and
four-time champion David Ferrer
that he came close to withdrawing from that match after waking
Friday with ‘flu-like symptoms.’
His illness had fully taken hold
by the time of the final in hot conditions at the Auckland Tennis
Center and Sock lasted only 28
minutes before being forced to
retire.
He showed little energy during
the first set which Bautista-Agut
wrapped up in 20 minutes. Sock
then had a long discussion with
the tour trainer, doctor and supervisor before deciding to come for
the second set.
He immediately dropped serve
for the third time in the match
and at that point signaled that he
couldn’t go on.
‘I just want to tell everyone that,
hey, I’m sorry that I couldn’t finish the match,’ Sock said. ‘But I
wanted to come out and at least
attempt it.
‘Like yesterday, you never know
what can happen. I feel like I
owed you guys at least
an effort to come out
here and play.’
Quarterfinal projections:
Men: Novak Djokovic v
Kei Nishikori; Roger Federer v
Tomas Berdych;
Rafael Nadal v Stan Wawrinka; David Ferrer v Andy Murray.
Women: Serena Williams (1) v Maria
Sharapova (5); A Radwanks (4) v P
Kvitova (6); A Kerber (7) v G Muguruza (3); Venus Williams
(8) v S Halep (2).
All eyes will be on Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams.
match featuring the 2015 finalists.
Six-time champion Serena has a
tough draw starting in the opening
round against Camila Giorgi of Italy, who finished 2015 at No. 34 and
was the highest-ranked player who
was not seeded for the season’s
first major which begins Monday.
Serena, who just missed a calendar year Grand Slam last year
when she lost in the U.S. Open
semifinals, could also meet former
No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in
the fourth round at Melbourne Park.
Aamir booed on
return to int’l cricket
Auckland, Jan 16 (PTI):
etkeeperbatsman Kamran
Pakistan pacer Mohammad Aamir
Akmal
said.
was booed on his return
to
Aamir was also
international cricket by
welcomed
by
his former teamthe crowd during the
mates Salman
first Twenty20 match
Butt and Moagainst New Zealand
here yesterday, reports
hammad
Asif
said.
who served fiveyear bans and
The 23-year-old left-arm
varying jail time for
pacer was making his first
involvement in the spotappearance for Pakistan
fixing scandal that broke
since returning from a fiveyear ban and jail time for
out in the aftermath of the
Lord’s Test in 2010.
being implicated in a spot‘Whatever happened on
fixing scandal in 2010.
that tour to England is
Pakistan defeated the hosts
now history but we have
by 16 runs to take a 1-0 lead
all learnt a lot from it. We
in the three-match series, with
Mohammad Hafeez scoring
learnt that one should
never let your people,
61 as they reached 171 for
team and supporters
eight. Shahid Afridi’s astute
captaincy coupled with an all- Mohammad Aamir down nor try to spoil
an otherwise beautiround effort, helped Pakistan
overcome New Zealand’s chalful sport,’ Butt said.
lenge.
Asif said it is never
easy for any pace
Aamir opened the bowling, taking
bowler to make a
1 for 31 from four overs, but did
comeback to innot bat. Back home however,
ternational cricket
the Pakistan cricket fraternity
after such a long
was relieved to see Aamir make
time.
a comeback.
‘The crowds and people in New
‘I thought Aamir
handled the pressure
Zealand are very hospitable and
well and bowled well
friendly and they understand crickdespite the spotlight on
et. I was not expecting them to react
to Aamir’s comeback today,’ wickhim,’ Asif said.
Root, Stokes lead
England’s comeback
Johannesburg, Jan 16
(AFP):
Joe Root hit a thrilling century for England as he and
Ben Stokes transformed
the third Test against
South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium here
yesterday.
England were 238 for
five when the threat of
lightning brought an
early close on the
second day, 75
runs behind South
Africa’s first innings total of 313.
Root was on 106
not out, his ninth
Test century.
A fifth-wicket partnership of 111 in
78 minutes off 97
balls with Stokes
(58)
swung
the match dramatically in
England’s favour after a
four-pronged South African
pace attack had reduced
the tourists to 91 for four.
Root and Stokes counterattacked, posting a fifty
partnership off only 35
balls in a match where the
average scoring rate had
hovered at around three
an over on a pitch offering
help to the fast bowlers.
‘He takes the pressure off
you,’ Root said of Stokes.
‘He comes in and plays
aggressively, the slips
come out and there are
men on the boundary.
You can run well between
wickets because there all
those gaps. Hopefully he
can continue in the form
he is in for the rest of the
trip.’
Root reached the first
half-century of the match
off 77 balls with nine fours.
He admitted that he struggled in the early stages of
his innings against some
high-quality pace bowling.
‘I was all over the place,
my feet were going nowhere and I was just happy to get through to lunch.’
But the advent of Stokes
brought a change in his
own game.
‘When you see someone
scoring at the other end
like that and putting your
opponents under pressure it brings that out in
your own game.’ Stokes,
who hit a dazzling 258 in
the drawn second Test in
Cape Town, got a hostile
welcome from Morne Morkel, fending a bouncer off
his glove for a single.
But in the next over Stokes
pulled a short ball from Rabada for six. He reached
his fifty off 46 balls and his
innings lasted 54 deliveries
before he offered a caught
and bowled chance to Morkel off a leading edge.
Root continued to bat aggressively and reached his
century off 126 balls when
he punched Chris Morris
through the covers for his
16th four.
‘Tomorrow (Saturday) it’s
about making it a big one,
building a partnership with
Jonny (Bairstow), trying to
get some kind of lead,’ said
Root, who needed treatment for a cramping left
calf towards the close before reassuring it was nothing serious.
Mixed Bag
CHENNAI
SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2016
7
‘Steps being
taken to prevent
honeytrap cases’
Up, up and above
Jaipur, Jan 16:
Against the backdrop of an IAF
official falling prey to a honey trap,
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar
today said all precautions are being taken to prevent such incidents
which have so far been confined to
the lower level.
‘I do not think that such things (espionage) are at high level. Few things came
to light but they were at lower level and
we have taken all precautions (to prevent
them),’ he told reporters here.
‘Things like honey trap are generally
avoided when we are alert. We should
be alert all the time.We take care of it
at the time of recruitment and training.
There are also clear guidelines and
code of conduct (for personnel) to deal
with social networking sites,’ he said.
Recently, a 30-year old IAF official
Ranjith KK was dismissed from service
and arrested for allegedly passing on
official secrets to a suspected intelligence operative. According to Delhi
Police crime branch, the official had
been compromised after falling prey
to a honey trap set up by the suspected operative, Damini McNought, who
posed as a journalist on Facebook.
Modi’s personal
website gets
new look
TNEB plans to shift power panels from basement
Recent flooding in city leads to policy shift
New Delhi, Jan 16:
The personal website of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has
got a new look as it
has been upgraded to
make it more attractive
to the people.
Fresh in content
and with new design, the website
is aimed at bringing the Prime
Minister closer to the netizens, an
official said.
‘My website has an all-new look &
remains a repository of information
that would interest you. Check it
out... All-new www.narendramodi.
in is also very mobile friendly, so
you can browse the site on your
mobiles on the go,’ Modi said in a
series of tweets.
The website brings the latest information around the work of the
government in the last 20 months.
A series of articles chronicle the
ground covered in the economic
spheres, clean Ganga, Swachh
Bharat, ‘Make in India’, energy sector among other areas.
M P SARAVANAN
Chennai, Jan 16:
Tamilnadu Electricity Board’s
(TNEB’s) decision to shift generators
and electricity panels on the basement to the ground floor, at a height
of three feet, has been welcomed by
the construction industry but experts
point out that there will be glitches in
implementing it.
Chennai Metropolitan House and
Flat owners Association president
G Subramanian reasons it out: ‘It is
a very good move by the Tamilnadu
Electricity Board, asking builders to
shift the electricity panels and generators on the basement to the ground
floor. During the recent floods, many
high-rise buildings across the city
went without power for days together
after the basements got inundated.’
He appreciated that the TNEB has
sent a letter to 18 government agen-
cies, including the CMDA, about the
issue following the severe damage
during the floods. Around 18 patients
in the intensive critical care unit of a
private hospital died after the power
unit and gensets kept in the basement
shut down following the flooding in
December 2015.
One of the main reasons for damage
of electrical junction boxes is that they
are situated below the staircase or at
the entrance of apartments. In most
areas, many power cables and local
junction boxes lie either on the road
or in low-lying areas.
‘Shifting of the gensets and electric-
ity junction box to the ground floor will
serve little purpose until the major
issue of power cables is solved,’ says
Subramanian, who is also former
superintending engineer of TNHB.
‘The recent floods exposed a lot of
problems regarding power distribution
and power cuts. Almost all power
cables, electricity boxes and transformers are either on the road or are
low-lying. Almost all EB stations had
to shut down power to prevent electrocution on the streets, but not due to
flooding of basements. Until the basic
problems are solved, shifting will only
help in certain cases.’
Elaborating on other issues, builders feel that the entire operation
would harm the industry.
An office-bearer of Chennai Suburban Builders Association said,
‘Though it is a good idea, shifting
power connections to the ground floor
will be a time-consuming process as
it can be done only by EB workers.’
This being the case, any delay in
the process will affect the construction industry, he feels. ‘I personally
feel that TNEB would require more
manpower,’ he suggests.
He reiterates, ‘Though planning permission comes from the local bodies,
validating the capacity and ensuring the
safety of equipment installed comes
from the chief electrical inspector to the
government. This will delay construction activity for many days.’
The TNEB letter asks the authorities
to ensure that all power consumers
comply with the requirement before
issuing completion certificates (to
get service connections from government agencies). It has sent the letter
to CMDA, directorate of town and
country planning, all 10 corporations
and directorate of rural development.
‘Friendly tax regime for
startups in Budget’
Stand Up India to help SC/ST entrepreneurs: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI):
Government in the Budget next
month will announce a friendly tax
regime that will encourage setting
up of startups in the country, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
‘We have already worked upon an
entrepreneur-friendly taxation regime.
There are some steps, which can be
taken up by notifications, which would
be taken forthwith. Others require
legislative provisions, which can
only come as part of the Finance Bill
when Budget is presented in order to
create a friendly taxation regime for
startups,’ he said at the Start Up India
conference here.
Recognising the need to encourage
startups, a fund was suggested in the
Budget last year, he said.
He assured the startups that both
the banking system and the government will make the resources available to them. Besides Start Up, the
Finance Minister said the government
will launch Stand Up India scheme
under which, bank branches will lend
to entrepreneurs belonging to SC/STs
and women. ‘On Independence Day
Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) announced the Stand Up India scheme.
The Stand Up India would be separately launched. It is a programme,
which envisages women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs belonging
to the SC, STs (to get funding from
banks). These were the segments
which were not throwing up entrepreneurs. Each bank branch, public sector or private sector, would actually
adopt one in the SC/ST category and
one in the women category. So they
will adopt two such entrepreneurs and
fund them to set up establishments,’
he said.
By funding trading or manufacturing establishment of this segment,
almost 3,00,000 new entrepreneurs
over the next two years will be created, he said.
To promote startups, the Finance
Minister said the government is easing the process of doing business.
Pongal celebrtions was held at Tamil Univeristy, Thanjavur. Mayor
Savithri Gopal, Tamil University Vice-Chancellor K Bhaskar, professors
and students participated.
Myneni falls at final
hurdle in qualifiers
Melbourne, Jan 16 (PTI):
Indian Davis Cupper Saketh
Myneni gave his all but could not
cross the final hurdle at the Australian Open Qualifiers, losing the third
round to Mirza Basic, here today.
Myneni made a good start but
eventually lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-8 after
battling hard for two hours and six
minutes against his opponent from
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After splitting a set each, Myneni
had five break chances in the decider
but could convert only one and that
proved crucial in the outcome of the
match. He lost his serve twice.
Myneni’s defeat means that India’s representation in the men’s
singles main draw will be restricted
to only Yuki Bhambri, who will face
world number six Tomas Berdych
in his first round.
Bopanna & Mergea lose final
In Sydney, Rohan Bopanna and
Florin Mergea had to be content
with a runners-up finish at the ATP
Apia International after losing the
summit clash to Bruno Soares and
Jamie Murray today.
The fourth seeded IndoRomanian pair lost the
final 3-6, 6-7(6) to the
unseeded Brazilian-Briton
pair on hour and 29 minutes.
Bopanna and Mergea had a
good chance to stretch the match
to a Super Tie-breaker by racing
to a 4-0 lead in the second-set
tie-breaker but allowed the rivals
to come back and snatch the win.
‘Another very significant difference
of what makes it a landmark event
is a final break or the ultimate break
that you have with the conventional
licence raj of India,’ he said.
‘We did well to break off from it in
1991 but it was only partial. It was
partial because who would be funded
there was an invisible role of state,
control over land permissions, foreign
investment proposal and of course
unless the political nods came to venture into newer areas which involved
a lot of capital, a lot of energy going
into it and an entrepreneur or investors was normally reluctant,’ he said.
Emphasising that the government
has limited potential to create jobs,
Jaitley said, the private sector has its
own challenges.
‘The private sector own expansion itself is throwing up a challenge because
they have over-stressed themselves
and their stress in turn gets reflected
on our banking system, something
which the RBI and the govt working in
tandem, and over the next few months
are going to add to the bankers ability
to improve and be able to lend with a
greater amounts,’ he said.
Under these circumstances,
the government had to explore
new areas and it is among those
newer areas that it conceived of
the MUDRA scheme.
Tamilnadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa inaugurated a list of newly constructed government buildings
under Cooperative and Food Department across State through video conferencing at the Secretariat
in Chennai recently.
Politicians should
stay away from
cricket: Rahul
Mumbai, Jan 16 (PTI):
Congress Vice President Rahul
Gandhi today made a strong pitch for
politicians to stay away from cricket
administration.
During an interaction with management
students at a leading business school
here, Rahul was asked if politicians
should stay away from cricket and sports.
‘I don’t think politicians should be
anywhere near the administration of
cricket. Cricket should be run by cricketers. I don’t think politicians should
be running cricket,’ Rahul said.
The Congress leader claimed the
Pathankot terror attack was mishandled by the Modi government.
‘The best experts on dealing with
terrorism, foreign policy are not being
consulted. NSA is dealing (with the
attack) directly. His job is strategy, not
tactics which is the job of NSG. When
you let people who don’t know what
to do, do it, you get into a problem,’
he said.
As part of Maattu Pongal celebrations, cows were decorated and offered
prayers by priests at Ghosala at West Mambalam in Chennai today.
Polio camp: Rly to
set up 250 booths
Over six lakh children to
be vaccinated tomorrow
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:
Southern Railway has joined
hands with the nation in the mission to sustain India free from
polio.
According to a press release, all the divisions and units
of the medical department
in Southern Railway are in
preparedness to administer polio drops to children
below 5 years tomorrow and
on 21 February.
A total of 250 polio immunisation booths covering major railway
stations, railway colonies, railway
hospitals and railway health units
have been planned for tomorrow.
There will be 39 mobile teams
on trains to cover the children in
journey. The service will be open
from 6 am to 6 pm in all major railway stations. Extensive measures
have been planned to cover the
children living in outreach, slums
and also the transit migrants
o n the sides of railway stations
through mobile teams. St John
Ambulance Brigade and Scouts &
Guides of Southern Railway have
been roped in to assist the medical
officers in this programme.
The Chennai Corporation has
also called upon the people in
the city to vaccinate their children
against polio.
A press release from the Corporation said as many as 6.73 lakh
children below five years will be
vaccinated during the first session
that is to be held in 1,570 centres.
Children who are injected will
be marked on their left
hand’s little finger
with a black ink
to indicate that
they have been
vaccinated.
‘There is no
harm in vaccinating for polio.
So people can come in
without any unwarranted
fear. Vaccinating helps in killing
of polio virus from the body of
children. Even if children were
given vaccination on their own,
participating in this camp will only
strengthen their immunity and
hence it is important for them to
take it up,’ it said.
‘Bus stands, government and
private hospitals and nutrition
centres have been allocated to
hold this camp. In addition to this
mobile vans will also be available
in Marina beach and Koyambedu
market. Children outside Chennai can also avail this opportunity
and get themselves vaccinated.
Around 6,280 people from the government and NGOs will carry out
this service,’ the release added.
Desperate India eyes
survival vs rampant Oz
Melbourne, Jan 16 (PTI):
Their bowling frailties thoroughly
exposed in the first two ODIs, India
are left with no option but to bank
heavily on their batsmen to steer the
side and upstage the rampaging
Australians in the must-win third
cricket one-dayer here
tomorrow.
The Indians lost the first
two ODIs despite setting
targets of more than 300 for
the Aussies, the sort of debacle which prompted under-fire skipper
Mahendra Singh Dhoni to admit that
his batsmen will have to take more
pressure given that the bowlers have
been a huge letdown.
Tomorrow is effectively India’s last
chance to salvage any hopes of turning
the tables in this ongoing five-match
series. Barring the token win in Zimbabwe, the Men in Blue have lost
their previous two challenging ODI
contests played since the World Cup
here last year, against Bangladesh
(away) and South Africa (home).
They are now on the brink of losing
a third successive series.
It is not a comfortable position for
Dhoni to be in. The calls for moving
beyond his reign had grown louder
with each passing defeat last year.
So much so, the BCCI had to check
the situation and announce him as
the limited-overs’ captain at least until
the 2016 World T20.
Dhoni was absent from that summer
tour to Zimbabwe, and as such now
has back-to-back defeats. At this
juncture, with his team staring down
the barrel, he needs to show why he
is still the man to do the job.
Of course, it will be easier said than
done as the resources at his disposal
don’t paint a pretty picture. He was on
target in the post-match press confer-
ence in Brisbane, highlighting that
his batsmen have scored 300-plus
in consecutive games in Australia.
Yet, he must also be fully aware that
the score doesn’t really matter unless
his bowlers can defend it and the harsh
truth is they have failed twice in a row.
When the Indian skipper talked about
asking his batsmen to score 330-340
from here onwards, he wasn’t joking.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are
going great guns at the moment and
need to shoulder even more responsibility. Their partnership strike-rate
at Brisbane was markedly better
than at Perth, a concern obviously
addressed in the turn-around time
between the two games, and yet the
death overs bore a similar look.
8 SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2016
th
(Ge
, CHENNAI
Licensed to post without prepayment under WPP. No. TN / PMG / (CCR) / WPP-470 / 15-17
u)
Style, substance
Daringly
real
U
dhayanidhi is back. This time breaking from his regular mould of
comedy films, he takes the action route. An entertainer laced with
family drama, Gethu is directed by Maan Karate fame Thirukumaran.
A thriller that moves at a leisurely pace. What promises this gripping
action film sadly ends without much twists and turns. Amy Jackson,
Sathyaraj, Vikranth, Karunakaran and Pragathi play key roles.
Udhay’s good action sequences and Sathyaraj’s solid performance makes it an interesting watch. The movie unfolds in Kumuli,
where the picturesque locales helps cinematographer Sukumar
weave a magic on screen.
Sethu (Udhay) is a librarian, who is do-gooder and a quiet
son of a physical education teacher Sathyaraj. The latter ends
up locking horns with a bar owners of a local wine shop (Mime
Gopi and IM Vijayan). Unfortunately Mime Gopi is found dead
and the blame falls on Sathyaraj. The onus is on Sethu to find
the real culprit and save his father. His enquiries lead him to a
man called Craig aka Bull (Vikranth), a sharp snipper who is on
a mission to kill India’s most wanted scientist. What happens
then forms the climax.
Udhay is good and manages to get under the skin of the role of an
angry young man well. Sathyaraj is an upright man fighting injustice.
Karunakaran manages to evoke comedy while Amy Jackson as an
Iyengar girl in love with Udhay is okay. Vikranth as snipper is scenestealer. His menacing eyes adds value to his character.
Music by Harris Jeyaraj is okay while Sukumar lets his lens do all the
talking. The action scenes are captured well.
Perhaps a more gripping script would have done justice to the story.
Nevertheless, Thirukumaran and Udhay can be lauded for trying something different.
M BHARAT KUMAR
(Tharai Thappatai)
A
template Bala film in rural background with violence and gore makes up Tharai Thappatai. He
has taken to one too many layers in narration - from
the dying art of karakam to sufferings of women to
travails of a youngster, who loses his love. But all
provided in a staple Bala diet.
Known for breaking the rules, Bala had on the past
won the wows of Tamil audience. However, the core
of Tharai Thappatai, be its visuals and narration are
no different from his earlier films.
Sannasi (Sasikumar) manages a folk artistes group
and he is skilled in playing Nadaswaram and Thavil.
There is Sooravalli (Varalakshmi), a bold, girl and a
skilled Karakam dancer in the group.
Sooravalli and Sannasi fall for each other. The
former is ready to do anything for Sannasi. They go
to Anandaman to stage a show only to realise that
the organisers are not keen on the art but on the girls
performing in the troupe.
When Sannasi tries to propose to Sooravalli, the
girl’s mother arranges her wedding with Karuppaiah (RK Suresh), a driver to the district Collector.
Months go and Sannasi realise that Sooravalli’s
life is in danger and that Karuppaiah has put her in
a spot of bother. He goes on a mission to save her.
Varalakshmi has given a performance of a lifetime. As an out-spoken and bold girl she excels.
Her intense portrayal adds weight to the script.
Sasikumar is in his elements playing a tough
character with ease. RK Suresh as baddie is the
highlight. G K Kumar as Sasikumar’s father fits
the bill well.
The film is maestro Ilayaraja’s 1,000th and the
legendary composer uses traditional instruments
in BGM to complement the script well.
Bala has tried to present the pain and sufferings
of a few who the society has not bothered to look
to. But in the process, he has made it too real and
more violent.
M BALASUBRAMANI
Death dance
(Kathakali)
A
fter a children’s special in Pasanga 2, comes
a murder mystery in Kathakali by Pandiraj.
Who killed Thamba, a baddie and a fishermen
association chief in Cuddalore? This forms the crux
of the revenge drama Kathakali. There are enough
twists and suspense that keeps one engrossed in
their seats. It is a cat and mouse game all through
as the baddies bay for the blood of the hero Vishal
who they assume to be the murderer. The onus is
on Vishal to set things right.
A fashion-freak Anbu (Vishal) returns from USA
to his native Cuddalore for his marriage. While he
prepares for the day, a baddie Thamba (Madhusudhan), gets killed. With a long history of enmity
between Thamba and Anbu’s family, the blame
falls on Anbu. He and his brother (Mime Gopi) are
suspected to have committed the murder and they
are wanted by the police and baddies for revenge.
How Anbu takes on the police and escapes from
the goons is the rest.
Hip Hop Aadhi has added momentum to the racy
thriller with his catchy BGM. Vishal as Anbu does
a good show. Meenukutty, the lady love of Anbu
(Catherine Tresa) has managed to enchant the
audience with her lovely looks and grace. In fact,
the actress looked much better than her role in her
previous movie Madras.
Kathakali’s biggest strength is the water tight
screenplay of Pandiraj. This is the first time the
director has tried his hand at suspense thriller.
Balasubramaniem’s camera captures the agony
and frustration of a youngster in trouble well.
Produced by Vishal and Pandiraj, Kathakali is an
interesting watch.
MARIAYN JENNIFER
Kathakali’s biggest
strength is the water tight
screenplay of Pandiraj.
This is the first time the
director has tried his
hand at suspense thriller
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