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DMK MP A. Raja’s Assets Worth ₹55 Cr Attached, Land Allegedly Purchased With Bribe Money

By
The Commune
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 45 acres of land in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu worth ₹55 Crore purchased in the name of a Benami Company of incumbent DMK Lok Sabha MP A. Raja.

According to the ED, the land was purchased from the bribe money received from one of the largest real estate company as quid pro quo for environmental clearance granted by A. Raja when he was the Environment Minister during 2004-2007.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a chargesheet against the DMK leader in connection with a disproportionate assets case that was registered in 2015.

In its charge sheet filed before in a special CBI court in Chennai, the CBI alleges that DMK leader A Raja acquired disproportionate assets to the tune of ₹5.53 crore during his tenure as Union Minister.

It has been reported that the CBI’s chargesheet details of business enterprise akin to a “shell” company, by a close associate of the former Union minister, C Krishnamurthy, who had set up a company named Kovai Shelters Promoters, in January, 2007 .

The company received a payment of ₹4.56 crore in the following month, from a Gurugram-based real estate company, citing “commission” for purchase of land in Kanchipuram.

CBI sleuths have alleged that the payment was not for the land deal but instead it was a quid pro quo arrangement for giving the real estate firm the status of an infrastructure company by A. Raja, during his tenure as Union Minister. The charge sheet was filed in August this year with the CBI alleging that the company, Kovai Shelters Promoters, had since not ‘undertaken any other real estate activity’ other than the purported land deal for the real estate firm.

The company appears to have later bought agricultural land in Coimbatore.  The agency has alleged that that the DMK leader and former Union Minister, A. Raja had accumulated assets worth ₹5.53 crore, including the payment of ₹4.56 crore to the “shell” company, in which Raja’s close relatives were directors, which he could not satisfactorily account for.

The CBI has alleged assets in question were disproportionate to the tune of 579% from his known sources of income, they said.  Previous corruption charges against the former union minister, include the UPA’s infamous 2G scam.

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Ashwini Vaishnaw: A Minister With A Mission

By
M Ananth Narayan
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On 18 December 2022, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw visited Bengaluru for an interaction with a cross section of business and media professionals. I had the opportunity to be part of the august gathering at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw came at around 6.30 PM and apologized for being three minutes late! He then started his powerpoint presentation.

It is rare to see politicians who use slides to explain about their work. It shows their seriousness towards reaching out to the public and also shows that they look at public as an important stakeholder in their work. Mr. Ashwini did just that. He started taking us through the plans that he is working on and the progress made. The Minister was basically presenting his progress report to common people like us.

He first started talking about the plans that Prime Minister Narendra Moodi had for building top class railway stations. Everybody in audience were floored looking at some of the pictures of the proposed railway stations for Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Gandhinagar, Chennai Egmore, Ernakulam, Madurai, Bangalore Cantonment, Yeshwantpur, Rani Kamalapati, Gwalior, Prayagraj, New Jalpaiguri and Jammu Tawi. These were not plans for just a railway station but city centers which included roof plaza equipped lavishly with food courts and lounges. One would easily mistake them for airports and that is the level of thinking PM Modi and Mr. Ashwini have for next gen railway stations.

Ashwini narrated his experience with his tough boss, Narendra Modi. He mentioned that when he first took the plan for the railway stations to Modi, he listened very keenly, a great listener that he was. Finally, he rejected the plan saying this was catering to today’s times and he wanted these stations to be catering to the needs 50 years from now. That was the kind of challenge put across by his boss to him. The team then went back to the drawing board and returned to the Prime Minister after 4 months with a fresh plan. The PM eventually was satisfied and gave the green signal. The pictures and blueprint shown by Ashwini were a testimony to the great vision of the leader. This narration left the audience awed.

Ashwini summed it up giving the below data points:

Masterplans under preparation – 134

Design approved – 70

Tenders issued recently – 51

Work in progress – 48

Ashwini then moved on to trains. He showed actual pictures of Vande Bharat trains launched so far, Sabarmati-Ahmedabad-Mumbai (30 Sep 2022), Himachal Vande Bharat (13 Oct 2022), Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai (11 Nov 2022) and Nagpur-Raipur-Bilaspur (11 Dec 2022). He then stressed on the point that easy and usual way would have been to import the train parts but PM Modi was very particular in making this in India. With the excellent engineering skills that we have in India, this feat was accomplished and Ashwini expressed how proud he was of our Indian engineers. He passionately talked about the chassis design as he was an engineer himself and how the noise reduction and quality of ride was ensured for public. He then asked who all have travelled in Vande Bharat and requested one member randomly from audience to share his experience. The answer was – “it was a great experience indeed”. Ashwini then moved to talking about the insfrastructure built for the bullet train and the best in class machinery used in the process.

Ashwini’s next topic was the semi-conductor manufacturing opportunity that India was taking up in a big way. He also noted that India was now the second largest manufacturer of phones in India. He proudly talked about the 5G services launch. He then shifted gears to Indian economy remaining the bright spot in South Asia as reported by The Economist and several others with 7% growth and 6.9% inflation with growth being better than USA, China, Japan, Germany, UK and France. The cost of living is the West is a lot worse compared to India. He noted that India followed an investment strategy and is a preferred partner globally today. Investment has been ramped up to 19-20 lakh Crores per quarter. Investment as a percentage of GDP has grown from 27% to 31. Bank credit growth has been highest in many years. Capacity utilization in factories has increased. Compared to prior Congress governments, the inflation is much better under BJP regime, he noted. He added that the unemployment rate is lower in BJP governed states. Formal employment additions are nearly 15 lakhs per month based on new provident fund enrolments. He ended his 50 minutes presentation with the comment that Indian economy being comfortably within 6-8 growth band, is set for emerging as the world’s economic powerhouse.

Everyone was just blown away with such a sincere reportage by a sitting Minister. This shows the level of professionalism and honesty that is actually existing today in the Center under PM Modi. The fact that he has inducted some great ministers like Jaishankar and Ashwini Vaishnaw as lateral additions speaks volumes of his tireless effort to make India great. It can be confidently said that the Railways, Telecom and IT sectors are in safe hands.

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Srinivasa Ramanujan: The Divine Mathematician Who Credited His Contribution To Divine Intervention

By
The Commune
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Srinivasa Ramanujan: The Self-Taught Mathematical Genius Who Changed Modern Mathematics

Some people attain greatness at a very young age. Some people get recognition after they become old. Some eccentric brilliant minds take ages before their thoughts and postulates gets decoded by people four or five generations after them.

Few people have walked on this earth who have broken the stereotype of academic education being equivalent to intelligence. Some special men have left hallmark of their greatness by being unique and different from other contemporary beings.

In 2001, a movie was made on the great American mathematician and a Noble laureate, John Forbes Nash Jr. titled “A Beautiful Mind”

In 2014, another movie was made on great British mathematician, Alan Turing titled “Imitation Game”

But in 2015, another movie was released, a movie that should be more dearer to us, than the aforementioned ones, about a great mathematical genius of all time, titled “A Man Who Knew Infinity” made on the life history of our very own Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Great men tend to share similarities, if one cares to look closely. Bhagavathpada Adishankara, Swami Vivekananda, Subramaniam Bharathi and Srinivasa Ramanujam, lived for a very short span of time in this world, but the impact that they left behind through their work will remain to touch human lives for times to come.

Persistence under penury can be a characteristics of people who strive to attain perfection in their area of profession. Srinivasa Ramanujam should be hailed as a “mathemagician” who was not recognized during his lifetime for his extraordinary contribution in the field of Mathematics.

He is considered to be a mathematician par excellence only to be compared with greats like Euler and Jacobi. For all his informal education, he became the first Indian to elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He also became one of the youngest fellow of Royals society.

Just mere comments about “Simple Properties” and “Simple Outputs” seem to be profound. He individually compiled an astounding 3900 results such as Ramanujan Prime, Ramanujan Theta functions and mock theta functions. Most of his postulates or hypothesis are now found correct almost after a century of his existence.

But for all the revolutionary strides he made in mathematics, he credited his findings to the divine intervention of Namagiri Thaayar.

The famous Ramanuja number 1729, now fondly known as “taxicab number” is defined as the smallest integer that can be expressed as sum of two positive integer cubes in n distinct ways. Its also known as Hardy-Ramanuja number because when hardy visited Ramanuja in Putney when Ramanuja was taken ill, he quoted the number and states that hope it doesn’t bring bad omen for Ramanuja for which Ramanuja quipped that it is a very interesting number and proposed the postulate of taxicab number.

The state of Tamil Nadu celebrates Ramanuja’s birthday as “State IT day”. International Centre for theoretical Physics have constituted an award in Ramanuja’s name for young mathematicians from developing countries in co-operation with the international Mathematical Union, which nominates members of the prize committee.

He lived as if the only objective of his life was mathematics. He was selfless, sometime he can be considered as naive on his relationship with Hardy, he allowed Hardy to walk away with the credit, just because he never put his effort to win awards or accolades. Till he left this world, it is considered that he kept writing notes on theorems. His passion for mathematics is unmatched so is his resolve to follow strict vegetarianism according to his tradition.

It would be an understatement to say that Srinivasa Ramanujam was neither understood by his contemporaries nor by the generations followed. His pass time, work time even his lifetime can be described in one word, Mathematics! Any other normal human being might have lost their mind, if they were this much obsessed or dedicated to one subject or object, but not Srinivasa Ramanujam! He was an enigma! Yet, he credited his prowess to his family Goddess Namagiri Thayar of Namakkal.

He was unconventional, he ensured all the bare minimum for his existence was taken care of through whatever means available to him, so that he can continue his focus on mathematics. When other mortals would have scared for their life if they had failed in their regular academic subjects and thereby losing the scholarship they were bestowed upon, Ramanuja cared a little and kept looking for avenues to explore the subject deeper.

Srinivasa Ramanuja should have been an inspiration for many but he was not brought to limelight for reasons unknown. Today, the world, understands his contribution and it goes beyond pure mathematics. His contributions have a wide range of application – from data security to rocket science.

A tribute to Ramanuja would be to accept mathematicians around the world to explore the subject in their own way regardless of their academic achievements for that matter any individual who pursues their subject of interest with right earnest. Public institutions should think beyond regular classroom teachings and provide platform for those who are truly focussed on one subject regardless of their shortcomings in others. An overhaul of the education system around the world, can bring about a change, where present day Ramanujas will get avenues to shine.

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Guntur Govt Hospital Staff Make Merry Christmas Making Public Wait, Behave Rudely When Questioned

By
The Commune
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A video shot at the Guntur Government General Hospital (Guntur GGH) in Guntur city, Andhra Pradesh, is attracting wide attention and angry comments online for the wrong reasons.

The video which surfaced on 20 December 2022 shows people waiting in a long queue at one of the hospital window counters, for prescription medicines. In the video shot through the open window counter at the hospital, staff of the government hospital can be seen in a large decorated hall, enjoying conversations and food items, oblivious of the time of day and the number of patients/patient attendees, waiting to avail of the government hospital’s medical services.

After what appears to be an unreasonable wait, a man in the long queue outside the hospital, speaks up and questions the staff on the delay in providing hospital services like dispensing prescription medications, even as the queue outside the window counter, continues to get longer because of the delay in service.

The man beckons to one of the male staff members and brings the staff member’s attention to the long queue outside. He says “Sir, please enjoy yourselves later; first, dispense our medicines and the prescribed tablets for our children and other patients. Look at how long the queue is. Do you realize you have delayed the process and the queue is getting bigger?”.

The male staff member takes a look at the man’s prescription slip and guides him to a different counter, to which the man replies that he should have been given the right advice earlier, rather than being made to wait in a long line, while the staff is celebrating inside. A lady staff member walks over to support her male colleague, questions the man and asks him to stop shooting the video. The man tells her to continue explaining while he is shooting the video.

The lady staff member admits that the staff are enjoying a “semi” Christmas party and replies in an arrogant tone of voice, that the delay is not a very long 2-4 hour wait, implying that a government hospital delay of up to 2 hours of providing essential medical services to the poor and needy patients is a reasonable one, even if it is inconvenient to the weaker sections of society.

The man becomes agitated at this statement and asks her to look at how long the queue has grown because of the delay in service, on account of a Christmas party being held at the government hospital, during working hours. Another man in the queue agrees with the complainant and confirms they have been waiting for about 1.5 hours.

The woman retorts in a high handed manner, asking if there are written, published rules against such parties and celebrations, to which the man is heard asking her, if there are rules permitting such parties in the first place, on government premises and during working hours, causing undue distress to patients.

He replies that celebrations should ideally be held outside the government premises and certainly not during working hours, causing huge inconvenience to patients and their families. The man adds that it would be reasonable and helpful if there was somebody at the counter to, at least guide them to other counters. He mentions that the staff should have at least made them aware of what was going on (the celebrations) and how long it would take.

The woman staff refuses to acknowledge the impropriety of partying during working hours and continues to argue with the common man, already frustrated with a long delay. Both the male and the female staff members raise their voices against the man in a bid to intimidate him and ask him to stop recording the incident. The lady staff member (somebody refers to her as Sujatha) arrogantly asks the man if he is there to pick up his medicines or to argue with the staff.

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Christian Converts Harass Hindu Temple Priest In Andhra

By
The Commune
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A Hindu temple priest from a Scheduled Caste (SC) community in Andhra Pradesh posted a video recently, narrating his alleged harassment at the hands of the converted Christians of his SC community, who now constitute an overwhelming majority in his village.

A video has been doing the rounds on social media in which a man narrates his ordeal pleading for support from the Hindu community.

He says “Jai Sri ram! My name is Addepalli Raghavulu. I am from Sajjalavaripalem village – ‘Madiga’palli (Madiga is an SC community) colony within the larger village  Nagaram Mandal, Bapatla district, Andhra Pradesh. With the help of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD), we built a Rama temple in the Madigapalli locality (the caste area within the larger village). In our village, people from my Madiga community who have converted to Christianity, are pressuring me to convert and give up the Rama temple, which is located within the SC locality of the village. I have resisted and because I have not given in to the pressure of Christian conversion tactics, the christians from my community threatened to file false cases against me, which they eventually did, claiming that I had bad-mouthed women from the Christian community. They have threatened to file more frivolous, false cases against me with the help of the Nagaram Mandal Superintendent of Police (SI)”.

In the video, he further adds “It is disheartening that the local AP police are not only turning a blind eye to this gross injustice but encouraging me to convert, on the grounds that Hindus have now become a minority in my Madiga caste (SC community) and hence what can a few Hindu members do against the much larger Christian numbers!”

“I request all Hindus to save the Sri Kodanda Rama temple in Sajjavaripalem village (Madigapalli/SC colony) from demolition and Pujaris like me who are proudly, happily working for the Hindu Dharma. We need your blessings and help from the leaders of our Hindu organizations”., the priest says.

“Dear Hindus, I am saddened and troubled by the 2-3 FIRs that were filed against me and the threat of another one, on the basis of false charges, simply because I have refused to convert to Christianity. If they succeed in filing these false cases against me with the support of the local police, there will be no more Hindus left in my community and no Pujari for this temple. It will be demolished or converted into a Church by the Christians. I am one of only a handful of Hindus left. I hereby request you to help me save this temple, our Hindu Dharma and my family. I hope I have the blessings and support of the Hindus with the help of this video. Jai Sri Ram! Jai Hind!”

In another recent incident, residents of a village in Andhra stood united in petitioning the local government authorities against the construction of a new church. They were successful with their petition against the church, as the authorities accepted their argument, that the village did not have any christians at present and clearly, a large church was being built, only to conduct a conversion drive among the gullible and vulnerable Hindu SC communities, by falsifying information on the Hindu religion and offering financial incentives to the economically weakers sections of society.

The Hindu Post reported that an activist has since visited the mentioned village and confirmed the information shared by the courageous Raghavalu, in his video. Apparently, only three SC families out of around 500 have remained Hindu. One can imagine the plight of the handful of Hindus among the hundreds of aggresive, fanatic converted Christians. This complaint based on the information shared in the video is being investigated.

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Chennai Corporation To Demolish Century Old Amman Temple For Metro Construction

By
The Commune
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Despite assurances to the court that monuments and temple structure would not be used for the Metro Rail project, Chennai Corporation has issued a demolition notice for the Sri Kaliamman Temple in Virugambakkam.

Arulmigu Sri Sundara Varadaraja Perumal Temple said to be at least 800 years old temple is located in the Virugambakkam suburb of Chennai. The Sunguvar Brahmin community had donated lands in the region for the maintenance of the temple.

As per 1910 records, these lands were shown being under the Taluk Board which over a period of time were encroached on by land sharks. The temple pond however existed which was also gobbled up by encroachments. The erstwhile temple pond is now a garbage dump.

A Muslim party had tried to grab a portion of this land belonging to the temple to build a mosque. The local mosque committee, which planned to build a mosque registered three acres of the illegally occupied land in its name with the help of government officials.

After a long drawn court struggle, the Chennai collector rejected Muslim party’s claims and restored the lands to the Taluk Board. Since these lands are in the name of the Taluk Board, efforts are underway to reclaim the land and the temple pond in the temple’s name.

Adjacent to the Sri Sundara Varadaraja Perumal Temple is a small Kaliamman temple which also has a pond that currently has been encroached and efforts to reclaim this pond are also under way.

Controversy erupted, when the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) attempted to take over the temple and its pond for Metro work in December 2020. According to reports, the Metro work was originally planned on private lands near the temple, but the GCC changed its mind and decided to lay metro lanes through the temple.

In June 2022, the Madras High Court dismissed a writ petition filed against the takeover of the lands of Sri Sundara Varadaraja Perumal Temple and Thirukkachi Nambigal Temple in Poonnamalle, Chennai.

However, the aforementioned order was issued after the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu assured the Madras High Court (WP 12697/2022) that there was no proposal to harm any of the monuments or temple structures and that they would be protected. He also stated that only vacant or acquired commercial land will be used for the Metro Rail project.

It should be noted that the Madras High Court had previously issued an order on November 5, 2020, while hearing a batch of petitions against the encroachment of temple land, stating that the temple land should not be used for other purposes. The court observed that temples in Tamil Nadu are not only a source of identification of the ancient culture but also a testimony to the pride and knowledge of talent in the fields of arts, science, and sculpture. The Madras High Court also rebuked the HR&CE Department, which is the custodian of temple properties, for failing to protect the temple’s interests.

In this situation, the Assistant Executive Engineer of the GCC has written to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Chennai, seeking protection for the removal of encroachments.

The letter states: “According to Greater Chennai Corporation records, the Kaliamman Temple at Kaliammankoil street (Virugambakkam Village Block No.21 T.S No.20.) is encroached upon by the Temple Trust to the extent of 60.80 sq.m, which is vested with the Greater Chennai Corporation. The aforementioned encroachments are interfering with Metro Rail construction and causing inconvenience to the public. On November 23, 2022, a notice was issued to the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments.”

The GCC, which attempted to take over the temple for Metro work, has found another way to demolish the temple by labeling the temple as an encroachment.

Hindu Munnani in a press release condemned the DMK government’s action and urged people to gather to protest the GCC’s decision to demolish the temple. The press release states: “The demolition of Arulmigu Sri Sundara Varadaraja Perumal Temple and Mahakaliamman Temple in Virugambakkam, Chennai is highly condemnable.Despite filing a formal petition to grant a title deed to the temple, no approval was given for years. According to the Supreme Court judgment (Case No. WP 574/2015) dated 07-06-2021, it has been ruled that any ancient temple should not be affected by road expansion in government projects and ancient symbols should not be affected. Archaeologists recently examined the temple and concluded that it is an ancient temple.”

The Greater Chennai Corporation’s Junior Engineer (JE) has stated that the Mahakaliamman temple will be demolished on Friday (23 December 2022).

“It is the primary responsibility of the Hindu community living in this region to protect our deity. Therefore, we kindly request all the residents of the area to come together with their families to protect the temple.”, the Hindu Munnani said.

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PK Iyengar: The Forgotten Atomic Scientist

By
The Commune
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Amongst our Indian scientists who continuously endeavour on placing Bharat in the forefront of using atomic energy for peace time employment and defence time deployment, Dr.P K Iyengar (Padmanabhan Krishnagopala Iyengar) occupies a pride of place. His remembernce day falls on 21st December.

Born in 1931 in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, Dr. PK Iyengar joined the Department of Atomic Energy in his 21st year as a young research scientist. In his career spanning nearly 60 years, he excelled not just in pure research but also in its large scale usage.

In the sixties he turned to the design of India’s first plutonium fast-reactor, PURNIMA, and commissioned it in 1972. In 1974 he conducted the Peaceful Nuclear Explosion code named “Smiling Budhdha” at Pokharan. For these successful efforts, he was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 1975.

His contribution was there in the Pokharan-II nuclear explosion, code named “Shakthi-98”. He was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1984 and later was appointed Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Department of Atomic Energy in 1990.

He was in-charge of the constructed and commisioned India’s first plutonium reactor “DHRUVA” in Trombay. Later under his guidance two new power reactors were commissioned at Narora and Kakrapar.

He continued with the development of new reactor systems, such as liquid-sodium based fast reactors. He also initiated proposals for the export of heavy-water, research reactors, hardware for nuclear applications, etc., to earn precious foreign exchange. He motivated basic research in fields ranging from molecular biology, to chemistry and material science.

He established a “Technology Transfer Centre” for converting research results into large scale Industrial production. He opposed the waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to conduct nuclear commerce because it was more of a victory for the United States than an Indian win.

In his long career Dr. Iyengar has been the recipient of many awards and honours. He founded the “Agastya International Foundation” and was focusing on rural education. As a scientist who worked tirelessly until his demise in his 80th year, the contributions of Dr. PK Iyengar will find a permanent place in the annals of indian Atomic Energy.

Surprsingly, what was proclaimed last fortnight by USA as it having been tested the atomic fusion energy in its laboratories was originally pioneered by Dr PK Iyengar (as cold fusion) in his experiments in the 1980s to prove the hypothesis that nuclear fusion can occur at ordinary temperatures under certain scenarios. The experiments were discontinued after Iyengar’s exit from the nuclear establishment by some conservative scientists.

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TN CM MK Stalin Woos Religious Minorities Promising Scholarship For Minority Studen

By
The Commune
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Chief Minister Stalin assured that if the central government does not step forward to provide educational assistance to religious minority students, the Tamil Nadu government will take the matter into consideration and take appropriate action.

Chief Minister MK Stalin stated at a Christmas function hosted by the Christian Goodwill Movement in Chennai: “A government should treat all people equally and without bias. It should care for all its citizens. DMK government will always treat people equally. The Dravidian model of governance encompasses all these qualities.”

He also stated that he is unable to comment on the petition he received regarding the appointment of school teachers to religious minority schools and Adi-Dravidar Christian reservations because both issues are pending in the court.

CM MK Stalin stated, in an attempt to woo religious minorities and their votes, “Several people asked me about the pre-metric scholarship for religious minorities that was discontinued. It should be done by the central government. We continue to write to the central government regarding this; Let’s wait. If the central government does not come forward to do it properly, I promise that the state government will help in whatever way it can.”

It should be noted that scholarship based on religion is seen as a threat to the country’s secular fabric and the principle of equality. Chief Minister MK Stalin’s promise of scholarship based on religion from the state government is seen as an attempt to appease minorities in order to secure their votes.

On November 25, 2022, the Union government decided to cancel the pre-matric scholarships for students from class 1 to 8 belonging to minority communities from the academic year 2022-23. The government restricted the pre-matric scholarship scheme meant for minority communities to only include students of classes 9 and 10. The government justified its stand by saying that the Right to Education Act (RTE Act) covers compulsory education up to class 8 for all students.

(With inputs from Dinamalar)

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298 Sports Infrastructure Projects Sanctioned Across India Under Khelo India

By
The Commune
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‘Sports’ being a State subject, the responsibility to promote sports rests primarily with the respective State/Union Territory Governments. The Union Government supplements their efforts in this regard. However, this Ministry runs a Central Sector Scheme, namely, ‘Khelo India-National Programme for Development of Sports’ Scheme since dedicated towards promotion of sports

Under the component “Creation and Upgradation of Sports Infrastructure” of Khelo India Scheme, 298 sports infrastructure projects have been sanctioned across the country. Under this Scheme, the Ministry also supports sportspersons in various sports disciplines across the country which cater to development of play fields, community coaching development, establishment of Khelo India Centres at state as well as district levels, conduct of annual national competitions (Khelo India Games), identification of talented sportspersons in priority sports disciplines, establishment of sports academies, promotion of physical fitness through various Fit India programmes, promotion of women’s participation in sports, conduct of sports competitions for positive engagement of youth in extremism and terrorism affected areas, promotion of sports among persons with disabilities and promotion of rural and indigenous games.

The Scheme Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram (RYSK) is an on-going Central Sector Scheme which was formulated, as an umbrella scheme in rationalization exercise undertaken on recommendation of Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on HRD and in consultation with Ministry of Finance and NITI Aayog. The Objective was that the merger of the schemes under an umbrella scheme would effectively leverage the administrative structure of the scheme for effective implementation of the programmes. The 7 sub-schemes under scheme RYSK are:

  1. Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan.
  2. National Youth Corps.
  3. National Programme for Youth and Adolescent Development.
  4. International Cooperation.
  5. Youth Hostels.
  6. Assistance to Scouting and Guiding Organisations.
  7. National Young Leaders Programme.

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) is an autonomous body under the Ministry with headquarters in Delhi spread across the country through 29 State/UT Offices and 623 District level Nehru Yuva Kendras.  Following Sub schemes of RYSK are implemented through NYKS along with schemes of other Ministries with their budgetary support and on voluntary basis.

National Youth Corps (NYC): Two National Youth Volunteers are deployed in each Block of the country to work as an extended arm of NYKS and function as bridge between the NYKS offices and the Youth Clubs in conduct of the programs of NYKS. An amount of Rs.5,000/- per volunteers per month are paid as honorarium.

This information was given by Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Anurag Thakur in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

(Published from PIB)

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DMK MLA And Cadres Accord Grand Welcome To DMK Functionary Who Cheated Court

By
The Commune
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A DMK functionary who was arrested for kidnapping a businessman and was found guilty of cheating the court was accorded a grand welcome by a DMK MLA and the party’s cadres.

Earlier in October 2022, the police charged ten persons, including DMK councilor Vimala and her husband Krishnamurthy, in an incident relating to the kidnapping of a businessman at knifepoint and usurping land worth ₹25 crores.

Amar Ram, 53, of Sholinganallur, Chennai, owns a gold loan shop in the same neighborhood. In 2017, Amar Ram paid ₹60 lakh to DMK circle secretary Krishnamurthy and registered a deed to purchase 58 cents of land in Naavalur. After that, he paid a total of ₹10 crores and registered the land in his name in 2018. However, there was a dispute between Krishnamurthy and his brother Manoharan over the sold land.

Manoharan filed a case against Krishnamurthy and Amar Ram in the Chengalpattu court. On September 17, Amar Ram filed a complaint at the Chennai Marina Police Station.

In his complaint, Amar Ram said, “A lawyer named Sentamizh invited me to come near the Marina Lighthouse on the 16th of last month to talk about the land. Four unidentified individuals tied my eyes and kidnapped me in a car to Tiruporur Sub-Registrar office at knifepoint.”

He went on to say that ten people, including Krishnamurthy and his wife, 124th ward DMK councilor Vimala, attacked him and forced him to sign the cancellation certificate of the purchase agreement, and that he was only paid ₹60 lakh for land worth only ₹25 crores.

“Then, they pushed me out of the car and left. Action should be taken against 10 people including Krishnamurthy, Vimala, Senthamizh, and Manoharan,” the complaint ended.

Preliminary police investigation revealed that as the 58-cent land near AGS theatre in Navalur sold to Amar Ram now sells for more than ₹25 crores. Krishnamurthy and brother Manoharan had together decided to sell the land to the owner of a construction company. In order to modify the ‘power of attorney of the land in the name of the owner of the construction firm, Krishnamurthy abducted Amar Ram and blackmailed him into the registrar’s office.

It was also found that Amar Ram was threatened by showing a video call in which rowdies were seen around their family and threatened to kill them if he did not sign the agreement. In connection with this abduction incident, Marina police filed a case against DMK secretary Krishnamurthy, his wife-DMK councilor Vimala, Senthamizh, Manokaran, and ten others under five sections, including kidnapping and extortion of property.

However, after the Chennai city police filed the FIR, Councilor Vimala and her husband Krishnamurthy both went into hiding.

Both Vimala and her husband Krishnamurthy appeared before Egmore court to submit the Anticipatory Bail order documents, which they claimed to have got from Madras High Court.

However, Egmore Magistrate verified the anticipatory bail order submitted by DMK’s Vimala and Krishnamurthy and found that the Anticipatory Bail order from Madras High Court was fake. Following this, the Egmore police detained DMK councilor Vimala and her husband Krishnamurthy for presenting the magistrate with forged documents.

Though DMK councilor Vimala was granted bail and released in the case, her husband remained in jail because the court denied him bail. In the meantime, DMK Krishnamurthy was removed from all positions, including party membership.

He was later released on bail and was found attending DMK party events. Recently, he was seen along with DMK MLA and Chennai Southwest district secretary Mylai Tha. Velu during the birth anniversary celebration of DMK leader Anbazhagan. The accused Krishnamurthy was given a warm welcome by DMK MLA Mylai Velu, DMK division secretary Murali, and other DMK cadres.

Photos of DMK functionaries giving a grand welcome to an accused who cheated the court and was involved in the kidnapping and assault of a businessman went viral online, drawing criticism from all sections.

(With inputs from NewsJ)

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