Mayhem by media!
Ask why some town panchayats in the Dindigul district such as Nilakottai, Ammanayakanur and Sithayankottai barred journalists from reporting council meetings. Sources tell TNIE that a council meeting at Nilakottai on September 27 ended up in a scuffle after a resolution was passed to construct 30 commercial shops near the bus stand at the cost of Rs 1.5 crores.
The trigger was that one councillor objected to it saying the construction is already underway. When it was widely reported in the media, Collector S Visakan did plan a visit to the locality. When they got a whiff of it, the town panchayat authorities immediately dismantled the construction.
At Sithayankottai, it was a different issue: media reported how the husband of the town panchayat president frequently called the shots. The authorities have now found an easy way to ‘govern’: Keep all journos away.
Cop’s prescription for lesbians
Seeking refuge at police stations may turn out to be a harrowing experience for members of the LGBTQ+ community. A 19-year-old lesbian in Chennai had reached out to an All-Women Police Station in the city after her father threatened to murder her and her partner.
The woman police inspector immediately called her parents to the police station and began giving her unsolicited advice. She said only a man and woman can love each other, and that anything other than that is a mental illness. “There is no lesbian-gisbian and all. You just need a good sleep and some medicines.”
Not under one umbrella
Some senior DMK leaders, including ministers Sekar Babu and KN Nehru, have faced flak in the past for belittling Chennai Mayor R Priya on multiple occasions. Recently, the mayor was seen holding an umbrella for a minister as it was raining during an event in the city.
Many on social media quickly condemned it. Soon, another video clip of the minister asking for an umbrella and the mayor refusing it surfaced. By then, the damage had already been done.
Suspension for suicide bid
A policewoman from Sivakasi was suspended after she, clad in her uniform, attempted suicide at a public traffic point. As per sources, she took extreme step following a quarrel with the inspector, who marked her absent as she didn’t report to the duty assigned to her. Apparently, she couldn’t make it due to her child’s illness and she had sought leave for a week but was denied. A senior department official told TNIE that the issue could have been sorted out if it had been escalated to any of them.
Vote bank politics
The move by EPS to pay tribute to freedom fighter Muthuramalinga Thevar on his Jayanthi on Oct 30 in Chennai instead of visiting his memorial at Pasumpon in Ramanathapuram district has the potential to weaken his vote bank among the community.
The general belief is that the followers and the community supported OPS for various reasons (he belonged to their locality and caste). OPS had snatched opportunities to retain the vote bank as he visited freedom fighters Maruthu Pandiya brother's memorial on their Jayanthi festival on Oct 27 at Kalaiyarkoil in Sivaganga district and also visited the Muthuramalinga Thevar memorial on Sunday.
(Contributed by Sahaya Novinston Lobo, Subashini Vijayakumar, Harini M, Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam, Vignesh V. Compiled by Jayadev Mukundan)