With the former Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, not finding a mention in the list of star campaigners of the AIADMK for the Srirangam by-election, Ministers and party functionaries have taken up intensive street and door-to-door campaigning in the constituency.
To make up for their leader’s absence, party men have organised screening of speeches on LED screens made by Ms. Jayalalithaa during her visits to Srirangam as Chief Minister, when she elaborated on the various development projects implemented in the constituency. The party has also come out with presentation of the development works implemented in the constituency. The messages are to be propagated through short message service (SMS), YouTube, WhatsApp and other social media, sources say.
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Cases of illegal quarrying registered that remained at 90 for one year (throughout 2014) has risen to 98 in January 2015 alone. Soon, this might hit a century, says a police officer. Seven new cases of illegal quarrying in Madurai district were registered on Saturday. Soon after the High Court appointed him as Legal Commissioner, IAS officer U. Sagayam had inspected many quarries in the last two months. Besides having received hundreds of petitions, he also heard grievances from the affected people during inspections. In a recent inspection at Rengasamypuram near Melur on January 20, conflicting views on the registration of a criminal case on an illegal quarry site were voiced by officials and local people. Consequently, Mr. Sagayam sought a report on the cases registered by the officials of the Department of Mines and Public Works Department with regard to illegal mining and destruction of waterbodies.
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The manner in which the appointment of the faculty of the National Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology was cleared at a Syndicate meeting of the University of Madras has generated much discussion among university officials and administrative officers. The recent meeting was turbulent with Technical Education Commissioner Praveen Kumar walking out barely 15 minutes after it commenced and the Vice Chancellor refusing to consider his suggestions. Syndicate members say Higher Education Secretary Apoorva walked in only during the second half of the meeting and was unaware of the preceding events. “It was unusual that the appointments were discussed at the beginning and end of the meeting. What had happened before her arrival was conveyed to the Secretary but at the end of the meeting the discussion on the appointments came up again and she approved of it,” a Syndicate member said.
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While political parties, including the AIADMK and the DMK are making strenuous efforts to win over voters in Srirangam, K. Padmarajan, who is known for taking on political bigwigs in every election and end up invariably on the losing side, has yet again entered the fray. He does not have many vehicles in tow or star campaigners to reach out to the voters and popularise the ring symbol allotted to him. However, he invariably makes it a point to occupy the front row in all election related meetings to catch the attention of at least election officials and journalists.
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It is no surprise that almost every IAS officer at Fort St George has a Wi-Fi account, and expectedly, these accounts are all secured.
But this rule does not operate in a few places of the Secretariat and as they say, these places are free Wi-Fi spots. Naturally, the Press Reporters Room is one of them, the other being the Public Department on the second floor of the main block.
But, what is more perceptible is that no such facility is provided by the Department of Information Technology, a wing of the government that has been mandated with the ultimate task of increasing the access to information When pointed out, a senior official says plans are on the anvil to remedy the situation.
