Ahead of freedom fighter Muthuramalinga Thevar’s birth anniversary on October 30, EPS and OPS attempt to obtain the rights to take a golden armour from a Bank of India branch in Madurai to the Thevar memorial in Pasumpon, Ramanathapuram. The 13-kg golden armour had been donated by AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa for the Thevar statue at his memorial.
As tradition goes, the party treasurer has powers to obtain custody of the armour, and hand it over to the memorial administrator. Due to the ongoing tussle, both leaders are vying for the opportunity. While OPS belongs to the Thevar community and has a history of obtaining armour rights, the recent court order has made it difficult for him to do so again. Such a tricky situation is not new to OPS. In 2017, he prevented EPS the then CM from taking the armour. The bank managed to handle the situation by giving the armour to two district collectors of Madurai and Ramanathapuram. Will history repeat itself?
Adding fuel to the fraud
Sources told TNIE that a sizable amount of fuel purchased to run generators at Government District Headquarters Hospital, Tenkasi during emergency power cuts was used to fill tanks of vehicles belonging to a top administrator. Taking a leaf out of the administrator’s book, two administrative staff of a private outsourcing firm (involved in sanitary work on the hospital premises), too, began filling their vehicles. As for the sudden blackouts, the shortage of fuel seems to be the new pressing emergency.
Missing doctors
In Dindigul, Health Minister Ma Subramanian was told that doctors of a government hospital go missing during the night hours. This prompted cleanliness workers to administer medicines to patients. In response, the minister replied that 20,000 doctors had been appointed in 11,330 government medical institutions in Tamil Nadu, and promised to take action if anyone was discovered to be missing while on duty. In the same breath, he told the media that any exaggerated messages about treatment provided by cleanliness workers would only damage the name and fame of government institutions.
The Madurai lunch party
Intra-party differences between Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and his rival functionaries of Madurai have once again come to the fore, following the boycott of PTR’s lunch party by DMK MLAs and ministers. The get-together had been called to celebrate the re-election of MK Stalin as the party president. A crestfallen PTR has indirectly named his rivals as chinna manithargal (small men).
Grand welcome in Kovai
Last week, Kanimozhi was given a rousing welcome in Coimbatore. She was visiting the city for the first time after she was elevated to the post of deputy general secretary of DMK. Sources say it was the kind of welcome that had never been given to her before, barring in Thooothukudi from where she was elected as Lok Sabha MP. The welcome was the talk of the town over the past few days. Obviously, the leader, who had till recently lamented that she was being side-lined by the leadership, was pleased. Scores of women-wing cadre too shared her sentiments.
(Contributed by Vignesh V, Thinakaran Rajamani, Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam, S Kumaresan. Compiled by Archita Raghu)