Despite hard-fought win, DMK image takes a beating

CHENNAI: The sheen of the hard-fought victory in the Lok Sabha elections in the State has faded: DMK’s tremendous show in the parliamentary elections has been relegated to the background following the party’s inability to finalise its list of representatives to the Cabinet more than a week after the win. The gains made in the elections came against seemingly insurmountable odds, especially in the Vanniyar dominated north Tamil Nadu and the acutely caste-conscious deep south. The DMK had fought the elections like it had done never before – in most places, there was hardly any dissent and there were no complaints of DMK leaders working at cross purposes from any district. Its Ministers and district secretaries worked as one unit, even if they had serious differences.

In fact, the district bosses of four northern districts where the PMK holds considerable sway – Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Vellore – promised the Chief Minister that they would come back and meet him only if they managed to win the seats allocated to them. If not, they told him, he should find replacements.

Such was the dedication of senior leaders that most of them went without rest for days on end; checking and re-checking the work in each block and even the lower levels and drawing up fire-fighting plans in areas where people expressed dissatisfaction over the State government’s performance.

Many of them feel let down over the manner in which the party has conducted itself since. “We [the DMK] have been reduced to a laughing stock in Delhi. It is time we took a hard look at ourselves,” said one leader.
Tall demands

Ever since the process of formation of the new government began in New Delhi, the DMK has been at the receiving end of some nasty jokes and has been reduced to laughing stock in the media, with anchor after anchor ridiculing the party for its tall demands. The DMK’s demand for five Cabinet berths was laughed off and its subsequent demand for one Cabinet berth more than last time (last time it was three – till the Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran resigned) was turned down as unacceptable.

A few party seniors wonder the source for one particular story that made headlines day after day in the media: that Senior Ministers T.R.Baalu and A.Raja were not acceptable to the Congress and the Prime Minister. Both the Prime Minister and the Congress have denied that they had placed any such demand. In fact, a few Congress leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vyalar Ravi, are on record saying that it is the prerogative of the party who it nominates to the Cabinet.

“The entire press corps will not run the same story unless someone fairly senior spoke to each one of them. I think our party will have to find out who this person is and which party he or she belongs to,” said a leader.

Representatives of a few other political parties felt that the second term of the United Progressive Alliance Government has got off on a wrong note, only because of the DMK. “Only they can mess it up so badly after such a huge victory. It’s the DMK’s bane,” said a CPI (M) party leader.

Ironically, it was DMK that formed the nucleus for the formation of the UPA ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. They feel that the DMK Ministers in the Cabinet and its Ministers of State will have their hands full for an extended period of time – initially to prove to the Prime Minister, the Congress and its allies that they can deliver, and second, to prove to the sceptical voter and the country that the initial hiccups were mere markers that any small party will have to set to dictate the terms of engagement over the longer term.

Rs.1,600 cr. sought for Railway projects

CHENNAI: Southern Railway has sought Rs.1,600 crore for the current year for early completion of various ongoing projects in the State. In the interim budget presented in Parliament in February this year, the Ministry had sanctioned Rs.700 crore. In the last financial year, the State spent about Rs.1,200 crore on various projects.

A senior Southern Railway official told The Hindu that the zone had demanded another Rs.900 crore if sufficient progress was to be achieved in the current year.

In the last financial year, the zone had converted 485 km length of metre gauge line into broad gauge, laid additional broad gauge lines for 175 km, including 10 km of new lines.

The major pending projects in Tamil Nadu are, laying of new lines between Karur and Salem, Tindivanam and Tiruvannamalai, Erode and Palani, and Attipattu and Puttur; gauge conversion from Tirunelveli to Tenkasi, Manamadurai to Virudhunagar, Dindigul to Podanur via Pollachi, Madurai to Bodinayakanur, and Punalur to Senkottai; Ennore-Attipattu, Chennai Beach – Attipattu (4th line), Tiruvallur-Arakkonam (4th line), and Chengalpattu –Villupuram (doubling).

The official said in the current financial year, it was planned to complete the Salem-Namakkal portion (50 km) of the Salem-Karur new line project (85 km). For this the zone required Rs.150 crore for purchase of track materials. But, the amount sanctioned in the interim budget was meagre. The zone had written to the Ministry to sanction additional funds.

Though the Ministry had sanctioned a double line between Tambaram and Chengalpattu, the Zone had asked it to declare the section as an extension of the Chennai Beach –Tambaram suburban section so as to have dedicated lines for EMU operation.

Similarly, it wanted to extend the Chennai Central–Athipet suburban section up to Gummidipundi in view of the increasing number of suburban commuters to Chennai from Gummidipundi. The official said that the Madurai-Dindigul doubling project had been completed.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety would inspect the second line from Kodaikanal Road to Madurai on July 6 and 7. The Kodai Road–Dindigul portion of the project was over and the section had been thrown open for traffic. The completion of the project would ease congestion on the section. The current utilisation was more than 160 per cent, he added.

Rs 666 crore project to prevent sea erosion

Chennai (PTI): The Tamil Nadu government has proposed a Rs 666 crore project to prevent sea erosion in nine coastal districts of the State, including the capital Chennai.

According to the announcement made by Public Works Department Minister Duraimurugan in the state Assembly here, the proposal has been sent to the Finance Commission seeking financial aid.

The four-phased project would include strengthening of existing measures and the maximum works have been scheduled for Kanyakumari, with a financial outlay of Rs 220.55 crore.

Nagappattinam, Chennai, Tuticorin, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram, Tirunelveli, Tiruvallur and Villupuram are the other districts where the project would be implemented.

Its a shame for all Indian tamil people

http://tamilcircle.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5792:prabhananthikadal&catid=277:2009

Sri Lankan army recovered the body of slain Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran on Tuesday and splashed its images on the national television after LTTE claimed that he was alive and that the group would continue to fight for a separate homeland.

"Prabhakaran's body was found near Nandikadal lagoon (in the No Fire Zone)," Army Chief Gen Sarath Fonseka said in a televised address just an hour after LTTE raised questions over his death with its new international spokesman S Pathmanathan saying Prabhakaran was alive and safe.

The images of the body aired by the television showed Prabhakaran in full battle fatigues with the bullet hole on the temple with his head resting on a newspaper.

Prabhakaran's face was intact with eyes wide open and the image bore a close resemblance to the stocky moustached rebel leader. The TV also showed his dog tag and a LTTE identity card bearing his number 0-01.

The images were shown on television as Pathmanathan came out with a statement. "Our beloved leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people."

The statement was carried by the pro-LTTE website TamilNet.com.

The new face of the LTTE, who according to sources, is based in some South-East Asian country went on to accuse the Sri Lankan forces of "crimes against humanity", saying the outfit's civil leaders B Nadesan and S Pulideevan were killed in "cold blood" when they had come to the Army's 58th division with white flags to negotiate an end to conflict.

The LTTE claims created ripples within the Lankan Government and the Army Chief went on television to state categorically "reports from the battlefield confirmed this morning that they have identified the body of Prabhakaran, this ruthless terrorist leader".

"The fighting was yesterday. He was killed yesterday and the body was identified today," he said.

Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said "we will give the body to an undertaker. We cannot just throw the body in the jungle. We are civilised country."

Conflicting accounts of the Tiger leader's fate came a day after Sri Lankan forces wiped out the entire top LTTE leadership to claim to have ended one of the world's bitterly fought ethnic wars.