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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Rahul Gandhi’s flying visit to Tamil Nadu cost over Rs.1 crore

CHENNAI: “As a politician, you have a duty to be austere,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters here last week during his tour of Tamil Nadu. But the travel bill the Congress general secretary toted up during his three-day visit down south ran to seven figures, not exactly a sum the word “austerity” conjures up. At about Rs.1.5 lakh an hour for a helicopter, and Rs. 1.1 lakh an hour for the Beechcraft aircraft that Mr. Gandhi used for most of the long haul, his Tamil Nadu darshan would have cost the Indian National Youth Congress over Rs. 1 crore in helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft hire charges, The Hindu has established.

The 2006 Beechcraft King Air 350 aircraft, operated by the New Delhi-based Air Charter Services Private Limited, has a 10 per cent plus service charge too. The crew in both instances need to be looked after by the persons hiring the aircraft. Added to this is the expense of the SPG, which tailed the Pawan Hans helicopter in an Army helicopter.

Mr. Gandhi, who was on a day-long whirlwind tour to southern districts on September 8, used a Pawan Hans helicopter from Thiruvananthapuram after arriving there in the Beechcraft (VT-ACD).

On his way back from Coimbatore, Mr. Gandhi took an eight-seater Falcon 2000 aircraft to New Delhi. It belonged to the Mumbai-based TajAir. According to the Taj website ( http://www.tajaironline.com), a New Delhi-Coimbatore one-way trip costs Rs. 20,31,250. “All flights originate from Mumbai. Thus, the fare is calculated ex-Mumbai and back,” the website explains.

The Congress leader hopped from Thiruvananthapuram to Nagercoil to Tirunelveli to Virudhunagar and to the Madurai Kamaraj University on the first day. After an overnight halt at the Circuit House in Madurai, he left for Thanjavur by the Beechcraft on day two. According to back-of-the-envelope calculations by airport sources, with the Thiruvananthapuram-Madurai trip and the overnight halt of the helicopter, the total cost incurred would be close to Rs. 15 lakh.

On day two, he landed at the Indian Air Force strip in Thanjavur. After meeting people and Youth Congress workers, he left by the same aircraft for Puducherry where he met PCC office-bearers. He hopped on to a helicopter for Villupuram and Vellore. Later in the day, after his engagements at Vellore, he flew into the nearby Naval Air Station in Arakkonam, INS Rajali, in a helicopter, before taking the B-350 to Chennai.

From Chennai to Hosur, Mr. Gandhi travelled by the same B-350. A TNCC source said the party paid Rs. 7,500 for landing and parking to Taneja Aerospace for the use of a private airstrip at Hosur. Mr. Gandhi took the same aircraft to Salem and from there to Coimbatore.
Foolproof security

Salem airport authorities said all charges for the landing and ground handling at Salem were paid in Chennai itself, as the Salem airport did not have normal operations. The same aircraft was used to reach Coimbatore. For landing, parking, and route navigation, the Coimbatore airport collected a total of Rs. 6,800 from both the operators. Besides, Rs. 1,500 was paid to a private firm for ground handling.

A senior police official, when contacted, said Mr. Gandhi’s movement by road was restricted to the extent possible in Tamil Nadu. Foolproof security arrangements were imperative in the backdrop of heightened threat to the VVIP perceived by Central and State intelligence agencies.

Besides having in place a three-tier security shield for Rahul Gandhi, who is also protected by the elite Special Protection Group (SPG), the State police chalked out an elaborate scheme for his protection based on specific inputs.

Citing reports of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the police official said a handful of top Sikh militants and cadres of the Lashkar-e-Taiba met at an undisclosed destination in Pakistan recently and allegedly decided to target Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani, and Mr. Gandhi.

Further, reports of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) indicated the movement of a suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre and a sympathiser along the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu.

The last communication was intercepted in the last week of March 2009 and it appeared the suspects were organising the movement of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. “Reports in a section of the media that appeared in the United Kingdom alleged that India had extended military support to Sri Lanka in the war against the LTTE. The resentment has surfaced as hostility to Rahul Gandhi,” the official added.

Dolmen with petroglyphs found near Villupuram

A big dolmen with four petroglyphs that portray men with tridents and a wheel with spokes has been found at Kollur, near Tirukoilur, 35 km from Villupuram in Tamil Nadu.

The discovery was made by K.T. Gandhirajan, who specialises in art history, when he led a team to that area. Petroglyphs are engravings made with a tool. What is special about the latest find is that while two men have been shown having tridents in their hands, a third is brandishing unidentified weapons. Unusually, these figures have been chiselled on the dolmen’s capstone — that is roof-slab. While the pre-historic artist has provided a geometrical pattern to the two men with tridents and other weapons, he has chiselled the third man, with an ornament on his chest, in a free-flowing manner.

This is the second time that a dolmen with petroglyphs has been found in Tamil Nadu. The earlier discovery in the Nilgiris district was also made by Mr. Gandhirajan. But it was a circular dolmen with a petroglyph on the slab wall (The Hindu, May 24, 2009).

“The three figures belong to different periods. But the two men holding tridents are chronologically close to each other,” Mr. Gandhirajan said. He estimated that while the dolmen itself was 2,500 years old, the petroglyphs might be about 2000 years old. The tridents could have been hunting or fishing weapons. Their depiction showed that the engravings belonged to the Iron Age (circa 1000 B.C. to 300 B.C.). The engraving of a wheel was significant because the men who erected the dolmen had the knowledge of wheels.

Six more dolmens were found nearby, on the banks of a lake at Kollur. In addition, three dolmens were situated on the bed of the lake which was built at a later period. The site had been discovered earlier, but not the petroglyphs. The team that visited the site on September 13 comprised G. Chandrasekaran, retired principal of the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, and K. Natarajan and D. Ramesh, both academicians.

Dolmens are normally box-like structures made of granite slabs and a roof slab.

The entrance slab sometimes has a perfectly round porthole. Dolmens are found where there are no natural caverns. While in many places, they were erected over cist-burials, dolmens have also been found without cist-burials. Mr. Gandhirajan argued that it was not necessary that the dolmens be erected over cist-burials only; they had been found on rocky mounds.

Dolmens could have been used as shelters by tribals during rains or winter. Sometimes, dolmens had paintings of red ochre or white kaolin.

“Hundreds of megalithic dolmens were once found in Tamil Nadu. Urban development and extension of agricultural land led to locals smashing them up or carting away the granite slabs for use in their houses. The Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department must make a survey of the surviving dolmens, and it should fence them. For these sites are directly connected with the pre-Sangam or Sangam age culture of Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Gandhirajan said.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Aavin asked to extend supply to Kalvarayan Hills

VILLUPURUAM: The Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation, which supplies Aavin products, should extend its operations to areas such as Marakkanam and the Kalvarayan Hills in the district, Collector R. Palanisamy has said.

He was speaking at the seventh general body meeting of the Villupuram-Cuddalore unit of the Federation here.

Mr. Palanisamy said the performance of certain cooperative milk producers’ societies attached to Aavin was found not satisfactory. He called upon higher officials of Aavin to work with dedication and determination to activate all cooperative milk societies to improve production and quality. They had the responsibility to promote the brand name for which they had to instil confidence among consumers about quality of products, he said.

Mr. Palanisamy noted that the State government had recently increased the sale price of milk; in tune with this, Aavin ought to ensure the quality of its milk.

In the auditing report for the financial year 2003-04, certain shortcomings were pointed out.

Therefore, the officials had the responsibility to set things right, he added.

Strategies such as increasing the number of head of cattle, grazing area, fodder yield and so on could be adopted to improve milk production.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Fair price shops set for image makeover


VILLUPURAM: The very concept of the fair price shop is changing in Villupuram district with the introduction of the self-service system and an ambience similar to that of a private supermarket.

The Cooperative Department in the district has decided to refurbish the image of fair price shops and allow card-holders to walk into the redesigned shops and pick up stuff of their choice.

Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies K.C. Ravichandran told The Hindu that card-holders were of the opinion that weighing is generally not done properly. Therefore, he introduced transparency in the functioning of the fair price shop by allowing the card-holders to measure and weigh their requirements themselves.

Moreover, data relating to the cardholders had been fed into a computer that would display all details on the click of a button. Computerised billing was also being done.

The experiment which started at the Thiruvennainallur fair price shop would be extended to 10 more shops at Kallakurichi, Tindivanam and other places.

Mr. Ravichandran said that a mini-supermarket had been attached to the model fair price shop where packed commodities were being sold at less-than-market prices. He hoped the strategy would introduce the ambience of a supermarket to the rural people. However, Mr. Ravichandran categorically said the new system was meant only for shopping convenience and no element of compulsion was involved in the purchase of goods. The department would have to spend about Rs. 20,000 for the makeover of each shop by fixing false ceiling, wooden or granite racks, and so on. Collector R. Palanisamy had received an encouraging feedback from card-holders during a recent visit to the shop, Mr. Ravichandran added.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Efforts to make State destination for medical education

KANCHEEPURAM: All-out efforts are being taken to make Tamil Nadu as a preferred destination for medical education, according to Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

Addressing a function held at Chinna Kolambakkam near Madurantakam on Monday to mark the inauguration of Karpaga Vinayaga Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Institute, the Deputy Chief Minister claimed that the State has already had more medical colleges in its domain compared to other States. The present Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, as soon as it took over the regime in 2006, decided to ensure that almost all the districts in Tamil Nadu had a medical college.

Subsequently, it was decided to initiate steps for setting up of medical colleges in Villupuram, Dharmapuri, Tiruvarur, Perambalur and Sivagangai districts. While the medical college in Dharmapuri has been set up by the government and had started functioning from last year, the proposals for other four districts were being pursued seriously.

In order to achieve this objective, it was decided to encourage private medical colleges and several incentives/special packages were offered to those in the private sector who came forward to set up medical colleges. Proposals which complied with the guidelines of Indian Medical Association had been accepted and forwarded for clearance from the Medical Council of India.

At present, 15 medical colleges, one dental college, two physiotherapy colleges, two nursing colleges and 21 nursing training institutes were functioning under the control of the Health Department. A total of 17 dental colleges, run by the private sector, were functioning in the State.

Commending the services rendered by Karpaga Vinayaga Educational Trust, founded by the former Union Minister, S. Regupathy, in the field of education, Mr. Stalin said that during the last three years, a total of 5,411 doctors had been appointed in government-run hospitals and primary health centres throughout the State and 5,183 nurses, 1,262 village health nurses and 9,000 paramedical staff had been recruited to provide best health care for the public, he added.
10 colleges

Speaking on the occasion, Health and Family Welfare Minister M.R.K. Panneerselvam said 10 private medical colleges were functioning in the State and the KVIMS and RI was the sixth medical college that was set up in Kancheepuram district.

Backward Classes Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran; Labour Welfare Minister T.M.Anbarasan; former Union Minister and founder, KVET, S. Regupathy; chairman, KVET, S.Valliappan; Collector Santosh K.Misra and others participated in the function.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Engineering college inaugurated at Arani

TIRUVANNAMALAI: Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy inaugurated Anna University Engineering College – Arani on its temporary campus in Sathya Vijaya Nagaram (S.V. Nagaram) Palace on Saturday.

In his inaugural address Mr. Ponmudy said that southern districts have educationally developed long time ago, since Christian missionaries had started a lot of educational institutions in southern part of the State much early. . “ Now, northern districts have also started developing. To alleviate this underdevelopment, Chief Minister has cleared setting up of three engineering colleges at Tindivanam, Villupuram and Panruti. “A Central government polytechnic will come up in Vellore next year and a Central government arts college will start functioning in Tiruvannamalai district from next year. A sum of Rs. 8 crore has been allotted for this arts college. The two institutions are meant for the underdeveloped regions” Mr. Ponmudy said.

He urged teachers to stay abreast of latest developments in their own branch of study. He exhorted the teachers to develop the habit of reading and contributing to internationally acclaimed journals in their subjects. “The standard of the students will grow only when the teachers’ standards grow,” he said.

Food Minister E.V. Velu, in his presidential address, recalled the efforts taken by him to bring the engineering college to Tiruvannamalai district.

Higher Education Secretary K. Ganesan said, “There were only two or three engineering colleges in the State before Independence. Between 1947 and 2006, only six engineering colleges were added to this count. Ever since the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam came to power in 2006, as many as 11 new engineering colleges were started”.

M. Krishnaswamy, Arani MP, in his keynote address, urged the government to take over erring self-financing engineering colleges. He also demanded the government to start a medical college in Tiruvannamalai district.

Anna University-Chennai Vice-Chancellor P. Mannar Jawahar delivered welcome address.

M. Rajendran, Collector, and R. Sivanandham, Arani MLA, spoke. Principal (in-charge) of the new college G. Senthilkumar thanked the gathering.

Mr. Jawahar told The Hindu that a permanentcampus for the new engineering college would be constructed at a cost of Rs. 20 crore on a 25-acre available in Thatchur near Arani.

“The construction is likely to be completed in nine months and the college will start functioning on the new campus from next academic year,” he said.

Mr. Senthikumar said that 240 students have joined the new college, which has four branches of engineering such as EEE, ECE, Mechanical and Computer Science.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Free ambulance service inaugurated in villupuram

VILLUPURAM: Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy on Friday inaugurated the ‘108’ free ambulance services here on Friday. The vehicles would be stationed either at the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) or police stations, as the case may be.

He said that the service was already being provided in 24 districts in Tamil Nadu, and Villupuram was the 25th district to get it now.

The ambulances would be despatched to Marakkanam, Villupuram, Mayilam, Ginjee, Tindivanam, Vikkiravandi, Kiliyanur, Ulundurpet, Thirukkoilur, Sankarapuram, Rishivandhiyam and Kallakurichi.

Each ambulance would have a driver and nurse and an oxygen support system with requisite medicines. The service would be available round the clock.

The service is available for emergencies such as child delivery, accidents, and so on. Users would have to dial 108 for the service, which is free.

Of the five ambulances to be deployed soon, one would be sent to the Kalvarayan Hills to serve the tribes, Mr. Ponmudy said.

Six new PHCs had been set up at Sendur, Keezhmampattu, Melmalaiyanur, Kiliyur, Moongilthuraipattu and Melnaraiyappanur, and six more at Sathyamangalam, Vikkiravandi, Anniyur, Thirunavur and Chinna Salem had been upgraded into 30-bed ones.

Mr. Ponmudy pointed out that of late, the number of institutional deliveries had gone up significantly. Of the 30,250 births during January 2006-August 2007, only 2,042 took place at the PHCs.

But owing to concerted efforts made by the government, of 30,000 child births 14,500 took place at the PHCs from January to August 2009.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Rahul wants more youth to occupy positions


THIRUKKOILUR (VILLUPURAM): Nomination of leaders will soon become a thing of the past and leaders at all levels will hereafter be elected only through organisational elections.

The entire setup of the Youth Congress will henceforth be democratised from grassroots-level with fair representation of women, Scheduled Castes and minorities, according to Rahul Gandhi, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee.

He was addressing over 1,000 Youth Congress members drawn from the Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Cuddalore, Chidambaram and Arani Lok Sabha constituencies here on Wednesday.

Mr. Gandhi said that during his tour, he found 65 per cent of the gathering to be youths. However, more number of elders were holding power. The Youth Congress respects elders but it was enjoined upon the latter to pave way for the youths to occupy positions.

Mr. Gandhi said that in the last Lok Sabha elections, three Youth Congress members had become Members of Parliament and more seats would be allotted to them in the next elections.

When a person said that there was no respite to the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils, Mr. Gandhi said AICC leader Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and himself were keenly taking up the cause of the Tamils not only in Sri Lanka but also in other parts of the world.

On whether the Congress would seek ministerial berths in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led government in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Gandhi said that there were lot more things to concentrate upon. Mr. Gandhi underscored the need for harnessing the energy of the youth and the Youth Congress had embarked upon this endeavour.

At the ward-level, there would be five office-bearers and even if three of them worked sincerely, voters would be attracted to the party, he said.

Youth Congress sources said that the earlier three-tier organisational setup (panchayat, district and State) was abolished on August 13, 2009 and in its place a four-tier mechanism spanning panchayat wards, Assembly constituency, Lok Sabha constituency and State had been introduced.

The election process would get over in December 2010.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Venue of gram sabha meeting to be shifted on rotation

VILLUPURAM: The State government has instructed the village panchayats to conduct gram sabha meetings on Independence Day in the wards, on a rotational basis.

The panchayats should, therefore, hold the session at places other than routine venues. Moreover, the government has also instructed the district administration to send observers to monitor and submit reports on the proceedings, according to C. Kathiravan, Collector (in charge).

Addressing a preparatory meeting for Independence Day celebrations, Mr. Kathiravan told officials that 22 observers would be posted in as many panchayat unions.

It was their duty to verify whether the meetings were held as per rules and prescribed subjects taken up for discussion. Block-level reports on the proceedings should be submitted to the Collector or Collector (in charge) by August 17.

The following are the observers:

Thirukkoilur – Revenue Divisional Officer; Mugaiyur – Assistant Executive Engineer (Rural Development), Thirukkoilur; Thiruvennainallur – Assistant executive engineer, Villupuram; Thirunavalur – Assistant Project Officer, Villupuram; Kandamangalam – Deputy Registrar (Public Distribution); Kaanai – District Adi Dravidar Welfare Officer; Koliyanur – RDO, Villupuram.

Ulundurpet – Asst. Director (Land Survey); Vikkiravandi – Personal Assistant to Collector; Olakkur – Assistant Commissioner (Excise); Mayilam – Secretary, District Panchayat Office; Marakkanam – District Backward Classes Welfare Officer; Vanur – Deputy Director (Minerals); Ginjee – Assistant executive engineer.

Vallam – RDO, Tindivanam; Melmalaiyanur – Assistant executive engineer; Kallakurichi – District Manager, TAHDCO; Chinna Salem – Assistant executive engineer (Water Supply); Rishivandhiyam – Assistant executive engineer, Kallakurichi; Sankarapuram – Assistant executive engineer, Kallakurichi; Thiagadurgam – Assistant executive engineer, Ulundurpet; and Kalvarayan Hills – RDO, Kallakurichi.

The Collector or Collector (in charge), the District Revenue Officer and the Project Officer (District Rural Development Agency) would inspect the sessions at random, besides attending the meetings at the panchayats of their choice.

On the occasion, the village panchayats should display a list of beneficiaries of various developmental as well as welfare schemes launched by both the Central and State governments.

All village panchayats should invariably review the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam and Vazhnthu Kattuvom Thittam.

The village panchayats had also been directed to form committees for improving sanitary condition. Panchayat presidents hve been asked to involve self-help groups and social service organisation in the proceedings, Mr. Kathiravan said.

Candidates asked to verify private ITIs’ credentials

VILLUPURAM: Collector In-charge C.Kathiravan has warned of stringent action against those unauthorised private Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) that are playing a trick on the gullible candidates.

In a statement released here Mr.Kathiravan noted that in the Tiruchi region, comprising Tiruchi, Karur, Perambalur, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Thanjavur and Ariyalur there were 15 government-run ITIs and 190 private ITIs.

Certain institutes were making false claims that they were duly recognised either by the State government or the Central government and were also placing misleading advertisements.

Therefore, Mr.Kathiravan called upon the candidates to be wary of these institutes and verify their authenticity before sending applications.
Cross check

The candidates could check with Joint Commissioner, Department of Employment and Training about the genuineness or otherwise of the ITIs.

They could gather necessary information from the department located at No.5 Abdul Ghafoor Street, Khaja Nagar, Tiruchi-20 or get the details over telephone number 0431-2422171.
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