Dear reader, hope the passing year was kind to you. For TNIE, it was a period of restless and exciting ground work. With a promise to serve you even better in ’25, we recall some of our reports that echoed loud in the corridors of power and forced the hands of the establishment this year
UGC’s bid to de-reserve vacancies derailed
The ineffective implementation of reservation policies in higher education institutions, especially the ones run by the Government of India, has remained a long-pending concern. The draft guidelines of the UGC that vacancies meant for SC, ST and OBC can be de-reserved to allow general category candidates when “enough eligible” candidates from reserved categories are not available was exposed by Subashini Vijayakumar. The story, carried in TNIE across the country, led to widespread outcry from the majority of the opposition parties, which eventually forced UGC to withdraw the guidelines
Saving local bodies from a body blow
The panchayats across the state were put under severe financial stress for over six months after the rural development department’s adoption of TNPASS, meant to simplify account maintenance. M Saravanan produced a deeply reported article on the issue. A day later, the government released the tax revenue to all panchayats, with several panchayat chiefs informing Saravanan as soon as the money was credited
When we froze I-T dept’s action against farmers
Based on D Vincent Arockiaraj’s report on the struggles of paddy farmers in delta districts after the I-T department froze their accounts at PACCS, J Radhakrishnan, Additional Chief Secretary, Cooperation, Food and Consumer Protection Department, Government of Tamil Nadu took the matter to the notice of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. The I-T department soon de-froze the accounts
Ban on morning-after pills? Not on our watch
With the availability of emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) already a concern in many parts of India, Sinduja Jane got a whiff that Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation was mulling a ban on over-the-counter sale of hormonal contraceptives, including ECPs. The gestational period of this story was more than a month as Sinduja, a stickler for verification as all journalists should be, had to confirm the information with multiple sources while hoping with bated breath that other media would not get the story first. TNIE reported first and other news outlets followed. It led to a nation-wide discussion. The centre then assured, through a vague statement, that it would not be introducing such a ban
Gold mine of an exposé
Six jewellers imported over 2,000 kg of pure gold without import duty under pretext of exporting them back to Dubai and Malaysia as finished products. They, however, sent back only 10% and sold the remaining in India. Siddharth Prabhakar, who is developing a sharp nose for sniffing out stories on smuggling, put together the jigsaw puzzle of this industrial-scale scam
Some IAS officers in Chennai not so civil after all
When workers at the already short-staffed Urban Primary Health Centres in Greater Chennai Corporation were asked to report for duty in shifts at the homes of two top IAS officers, they felt that they had had enough. Among the first persons they called was Nirupama, whose sources run deep and wide in the GCC. Over the next two days, Nirupama Viswanathan and Praveena S A worked tirelessly to establish without doubt the veracity of the information while ensuring workers’ identities — and jobs — would be protected at any cost
Those behind the bars also flesh and blood
Reporting on issues faced by prisoners is not common in media, owing to the widespread notion that all those inside are “criminals” whose problems don’t matter much and because of difficulties in accessing information. Rajalakshmi Sampath is among the handful of reporters in TN, who have consistently beaten this trend, to expose issues inside prisons. This year, when she was alerted about inadequate toilets in Vellore Central Prison, she spoke to sources and realised how inmates are queuing up from 2 am to get access to toilets. Once TNIE published the story, the authorities swiftly began repairing the non-functional toilets
How the govt silently slashed beneficiary list
Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai is the flagship programme of the DMK government. While the government was upfront in saying that the eligibility of beneficiaries would be periodically reviewed, it remained tight-lipped on which criteria were being actively monitored. B Anbuselvan, who has a penchant for digging into nitty-gritties in implementation of government schemes, doggedly tried through multiple RTI requests and brought out, for the first time, that the government had silently removed 1.27 lakh beneficiaries based on various criteria
Does this look like a wasteland?
This investigative report by Thinakaran Rajamani exposed rampant dumping of Kerala’s biomedical and other wastes in Tirunelveli villages, forcing authorities of two states to swing into action. Following a delay of 37 days, TN police registered FIR. National Green Tribunal took suo motu cognisance of the issue based on the report and told Kerala to retrieve the waste. In a first-of-its-kind action, Kerala took back 30 truckloads of waste from TN while also getting rapped by the Kerala High Court
Tied up at tender age
Subashini Vijayakumar’s bag usually has a bunch of envelopes with RTI replies, explaining why the requested info can’t be given. So when she got a reply from social welfare department, she did not open it for a few days. But, she was shocked when data showed TN in 2024 saw a sharp rise in child marriages. This was maybe the first time a three-year trend of marriages that “happened” was brought out