CHENNAI: A paltry 55 000 has been collected for illegal manufacturing and sale of gutka - which triggered a huge political controversy in the state with the opposition alleging kickbacks being paid to several top ministers - in the last one year in Chennai shows data provided by the state food safety department. While more than 3 crore-worth gutka products were seized from retailers in Chennai only a few of them have been held guilty by court shows an RTI reply by the department. A letter allegedly written by the then Chennai police commissioner S George to the principal secretary claiming that health minister C Vijayabaskar and other top cops had received huge sums of money to allow the sale of tobacco products in the state has kicked up a huge furor in the state assembly and the government imposed a complete ban on the sale of gutka products. Only 5 retailers convicted no manufacturers nailed by state food safety dept since 2016 From 2016 Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration department has lifted 43 samples of chewable tobacco and gutka from retailers across the city. Of these legal proceedings have been initiated against 26. Only five ended in conviction. Those found guilty were let off with a fine of Rs 10 000. In the same period 970 cases were registered in police stations across Chennai under various sections of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act (COPTA). Of this only 245 ended in conviction and ?50 400 collected as fine all in the range of around Rs100-Rs 500. The outcome of the leniency: Almost all the vendors we initiate action against are habitual offenders. The fine means nothing. Their profit is much more said a senior food safety official. According to Section 59 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 any person who manufactures sells stores or distributes food for human consumption which is unsafe causing non-grievous injury --can be imprisoned for a term of up to a year and be fined a sum of up to Rs 3 lakh. If the injury is grievous the jail sentence may extend to six years and up to Rs 5 lakh in fine. However when D Kumar an activist in Coimbatore filed an RTI to source the actiontaken details his intention wasn t to find how many retailers were prosecuted. They are only the small fish. I wanted to find out how many manufacturers have been nailed. The reply said none he said. Officials said initiating action against the manufacturers is tough as all of them are based outside Tamil Nadu. Food safety commissioner P Amudha recently wrote to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) urging officials to take action in the source states. Most of the manufacturers are either based out of Delhi or Haryana. Every time we have a seizure here we intimate FSSAI she said. In 2013 Tamil Nadu had joined several other states in banning the manufacture storage and sale of gutka paan masala and other carcinogenic chewable forms of tobacco by invoking the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Despite the ban the banned products continue to find their way into the state through its porous borders mostly by rail or road. Last month the food safety department had received a tip-off on a consignment of gutka arriving at Madurai railway station. We wrote to the Railway police asking them to intercept the contraband. They were reluctant said Amudha who had to seek FSSAI s intervention. It turned out that the officials were not aware of gutka being banned in the state she said. The RTI is not the only document reflecting the rampant sale of tobacco products. A study released by Adyar Cancer Institute in 2017 based on interviews with over a lakh people found that that more than 90% of smokeless tobacco users in the state have no difficulty in procuring banned gutka products although they pay double the price to buy it. The products have just moved from the shelves to beneath the vendors clothes said R Kathiravan designated food safety officer Chennai. Tobacco control advocate Cyril Alexander said manufacturers and distributors of banned tobacco products often slip through the state s radar owing to poor coordination between various departments.
Erode: Makkal Neethi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan today alleged that the law and order in Tamil Nadu was deteriorating and asked the government to take steps for the safety of women.The actor-turned-politician was apparently referring to the recent incidents of assault on women in the state including the murder of a college student in Chennai a couple of days ago. The way women are treated here currently is shameful and they are facing lot of threats and problems on the roads he told reporters in Erode adding the government should to take steps to provide safety to women. The MNM founder also dismissed allegations that he was receiving funds from Christian missionaries saying All I can do is laugh it off. On the Cauvery issue Mr Haasan appealed to the centre to form the Cauvery Management Board.He condemned the defacement of statues of leaders in Tamil Nadu and other parts of the country but said he was against erection of such statues. No one should be allowed to disfigure the statues once they are erected and I condemn the same he added.Mr Haasan visited Periyar Anna Memorial House here run by the government where rationalist leader E V Ramasamy fondly called Periyar was born. CommentsThe MNM leader who is on a state-wide tour addressed meetings at various places in Erode district.Mr Haasan took the political plunge by launching the Makkal Needhi Mayyam at Madurai on February 21 saying his outfit was committed to politics free from games of caste and religion and would focus on good governance.
Indian actor and politician Kamal Haasan on Friday made a bold statement saying that he will not let casteism come back into his home state Tamil Nadu. I will not let casteism come back to Tamil Nadu. This is Citizen Kane speaking not the politician Haasan said speaking at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Elaborating further on the futility of caste system in the current age the 63-year old actor said Caste was like a number plate during Kautilya s time to identify people. It was like a car number - nothing more nothing less. Haasan made his full-fledged foray into Indian politics recently by launching his own political party by the name of Makkal Needhi Maiam (which translates into People s Justice Centre). On being questioned on why he chose politics Haasan said Why not! No system works by itself; we have to be on constant vigil he said. Urging the youth to join politics Haasan said that politics should not be considered a career but a duty. How far you immerse in it is up to you and your finances. If you can afford to you must. Often a dilemma that the youth faces is about the timing of joining politics. Many feel one should take the plunge after being settled in a different career. Haasan begged to differ and used his theatrical flair with some help from his mother-tongue to explain this. Translating a Tamil saying Haasan said You can t wait for the waves to subside and then have a dip in the sea.
CHENNAI: For long Tamil Nadu has been waging a war with Karnataka to secure its due share of Cauvery water. Now the fight if the state goes by the report of the Central Pollution Control Board may not just be about the quantity of water. It would also be about quality. Karnataka is polluting the river before it enters Tamil Nadu says a report filed by the board in the Supreme Court on Friday. The board said the Thenpennaiyar and Arkavathi both tributaries of the Cauvery were being polluted before they flow into Tamil Nadu. The report was submitted in the apex court in connection with a case filed by Tamil Nadu in 2015 to restrain Karnataka from letting untreated sewage and industrial effluents into the river. The river is the lifeline for people in western central northern and southern parts of the state. Also read: Put forth strong case on Cauvery says Tamil Nadu About 1 200 million litres of sub-surface Cauvery water from wells along the banks of the river are tapped by the state government every day to provide drinking water to about 20% of the state s population in 19 districts. In all 127 combined drinking water supply schemes in the state are fed by the river. The water samples from the three rivers were tested jointly by the CPCB and the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu pollution control boards between September and December last year. The samples were lifted from Ajjibore (river Cauvery) Chokkarasanapalli (river Thenpennaiar) and from the Arkavathi river near Sangama before it joins the Cauvery river for four months. Read also: No management board in Supreme Court verdict says Centre in line with Karnataka scheme River Thenpennaiyar is polluted and comprehensive plan of action is required for restoration of its water quality. The Arkavathi and Cauvery rivers were found to be polluted due to higher count of faecal coliform attributed to open defecation and requires vigilance from the concerned organisations in the state to prevent further pollution the CPCB report said. The joint monitoring and analysis of samples revealed that river Arkavathi before Sangama and river Cauvery at Ajjibore met the desired water quality criteria for the first three rounds in September October and November with respect to presence of organic pollution measured as Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). However it exceeded limits in December. Total coliform and faecal coliform an indicator of bacteriological pollution exceeded the limits during September and October in the Arkavathi river. Same was the case in the Cauvery in October. In the case of Thenpennaiyar the samples did not meet the criteria with respect to all parameters in all four rounds of monitoring. The sampling locations were identified after CPCB held elaborate discussions with the two states. CPCB also pointed out that Karnataka raised objections to monitoring the Arkavathi river even as Tamil Nadu maintained that the river was the source of pollution. The meeting decided that CPCB would collect the samples only from the river near Sangama for assessing the pollution load contributed by the river. No state should let polluted water into another state. Tamil Nadu will submit its remarks to the apex court for stringent action during the next hearing scheduled after two weeks said a senior TN official. Arkavathi river joins Cauvery at Sangama about 55kms from Bengaluru and passes through Mekedatu four kms away from Sangama before entering Tamil Nadu near Hogenakkal. Tamil Nadu s contention is that untreated sewage and industrial effluents are let into the river in and around Bengaluru. Thenpennaiyar river originates at Nandidurg Hills in Karnataka and enters Chokkarasanapalli village in Tamil Nadu 25 kms from Hosur and passes through five northern districts Krishnagiri Dharmapuri Tiruvannamalai Villupuram and Cuddalore. Tamil Nadu argued that the river received untreated sewage and industrial effluents from Belandur Lake and Vardhur Lake in Karnataka. About one-third of Bengaluru city falls in the Cauvery basin and twothirds of the area falls in the Thenpennaiyar basin. The rainfall runoff from Bengaluru in the Cauvery basin drains through Arkavathi river and joins Cauvery while rainfall from the other two-thirds drains into a tributary of Thenpennaiyar and reaches Kelavarapalli reservoir in Hosur. It is unfortunate that Karnataka has not taken efforts to ensure proper sewage treatment in and around Bengaluru the official said.
The Cauvery river enters Tamil Nadu already polluted and Karnataka needs vigilance to counter further pollution the Central Pollution Control Board told the Supreme Court this week. In a report submitted to the court on Friday the pollution body cited the results of water quality tests it conducted over four months last year The Times of India reported on Sunday.The Tamil Nadu government had in 2015 filed a plea in the Supreme Court to stop Karnataka from allowing untreated sewage and effluents into the Cauvery river. In July 2017 the court asked the central pollution body to file a report in response to the plea. The CPCB and the two state pollution control boards together tested water samples from the Cauvery and its tributaries Thenpennaiyar and Arkavathi between September and December 2017. The samples were taken near the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.Samples from the river Thenpennaiyar failed in all parameters they were tested on in all four months. Levels of coliform and faecal coliform which indicate bacteriological pollution exceeded safe limits in September and October in the Arkavathi and in October in the Cauvery the report said. Organic pollution was at unsafe levels in December in the Arkavathi and the Cauvery. River Thenpennaiyar is polluted and comprehensive plan of action is required for restoration of its water quality the report said. The Arkavathi and Cauvery rivers were found to be polluted due to higher count of faecal coliform attributed to open defecation and requires vigilance from the concerned organisations in the state to prevent further pollution. No state should let polluted water into another state an unidentified senior official of the Tamil Nadu government was quoted as saying. Tamil Nadu will submit its remarks to the apex court for stringent action during the next hearing scheduled after two weeks. On February 16 the Supreme Court ordered that the Centre set up a Cauvery Management Board within six weeks to ensure that its ruling to allocate the river water to the two states is implemented. Karnataka voters worried about water supply quality Meanwhile a survey released on Saturday said that improving the quality and supply of water in Karnataka were the most important concerns for voters. The state will have Assembly elections later this year. The Karnataka Voter Survey 2018 by nonprofits Daksh and Association for Democratic Reforms showed water supply and quality topped the list of concerns ahead of electricity schools and roads.
The murder on Friday of a 19-year-old BCom student by a 26-year-old man who had reportedly been stalking her for weeks has rattled Chennai and sparked another round of discussions on the safety of women in public spaces.Alagesan a sanitation worker doused himself with petrol before accosting M Aswini outside her college in KK Nagar asking her to set him on fire media reports said. When she refused he demanded that she stab him. When Aswini tried to run away he chased her and slit her throat with a knife. Ashwini was taken to hospital but died of her injuries. Alagesan was caught by a crowd and beaten up before being handed over to the police.The crime bears a striking resemblance to the murder in 2016 of 24-year-old engineer M Swathi by Ramkumar who had been stalking her for months. Ramkumar had hacked Swathi to death in full public view at the Nungambakkam railway station. A few weeks before she was murdered Aswini had filed a police complaint against Alagesan accusing him of gagging her tying her hands and putting a thaali or holy chain around her neck and declaring them married. She told the police she had been friends with Alagesan for two years and had accepted his proposal of marriage but later broken it off with him. She said that he started stalking and harassing her after this.At the time Aswini s mother requested the police not to file a first information report as she felt this might cause her daughter trouble and hamper her studies. The police left off Alagesan with a warning.Aswini s killing like that of Swathi has made headlines and set off intense discussions on stalking and other crimes against women across Tamil Nadu. But it also raises the question of whether discussions alone will help curb such crimes. Between the murders of Swathi and Aswini and all the cases in between has anything changed at all?Language of stalkingOf the many discussions after Swathi s murder one took the form of an online campaign Calling Out Stalking that spoke out against the alleged glorification of stalking in Tamil cinema and pop culture. Cinema is taken way too seriously in Tamil Nadu and influences politics and everyday casual conversations said V Iswarya a PhD student at the Madras Christian College who started the campaign. It seems to have set an example that you can pester a woman into admitting that she loves you. Iswarya drafted a Change.org petition asking filmmakers not to depict stalking in such a manner and actors not to accept such roles. The petition received more than 3 000 signatures. We were able to reach out to filmmakers through social media some of whom actually pledged their support and spoke out against this said Iswarya.In the past two years the campaign has also sought to change the language used by the Tamil media while reporting gender violence. Tamil newpapers and TV channels consistently use the word love while reporting these incidents she said. But the words that translate to jilted spurned or rejected lover tend to provide validation for this kind of behaviour. All of this is being used by media who should insist on calling him only a stalker murderer or harasser. Iswarya realised this may perhaps be because there was no Tamil word for stalking. So she and a few others consulted Tamil scholars and came up with the word van thodargal which translates to forcibly following someone. We are trying to change perception said Iswarya. We need to make it more crime-centric and not centred on the feelings of the perpetrator. A demonstration after M Swathi s murder in 2016. (Credit: Vinita Govindarajan)Victim blamingActivists also pointed to an insensitive media. Gender rights activist Archanaa Seker said that after Swathi s murder several media outlets had speculated on whether she was to blame in some way for Ramkumar s actions. In the case of Aswini a Tamil newspaper carried a headline that drew a parallel between her murder and the 2002 film Unnai Ninaithu starring actors Suriya and Laila. In the film Suriya is depicted as a caring man who is deeply in love with Laila and helps her family financially. But she leaves him for a rich man. The media is supposed to be unbiased said Seker. By comparing the movie with Aswini s case the media has been extremely biased. The movie has a deeply problematic story line. Comparing the movie to Aswini s murder is almost like blaming her. Changing attitudesAccording to criminal lawyer Geetha Ramaseshan only a change in attitude can make a real difference. She said that criminal law can only react to a situation as in the case of the gangrape and murder of a young woman in Delhi in 2012. The incident led to amendments to the country s sexual violence laws. Stalking and acid attacks were introduced as crimes under this category.Archanaa Seker said that Aswini s name will join a long list of names that come up during discussions on gender violence. The solutions discussed will always boil down to self-defence for women more cameras in place more streetlights and so on she said. We are constantly talking about infrastructure with regard to safety but until we begin to talk about mindsets for safer cultures nothing is going to change.
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government kick-started the second phase of the pulse polio immunisation campaign on Sunday with close to 65 lakh children below five years receiving the oral form of the vaccine on the first day. Health minister C Vijayabaskar inaugurated the campaign at Kamarajapuram in Pudukottai. Director of public health K Kolandaswamy said the drive would go on for a week. On Monday and Tuesday we will be conducting door-to-door campaigns to ensure no child is missed he said adding that PHCs would be offering the drops round the clock. The health department set up 43 051 booths in all primary health http://www.memonic.com/user/261fd2c6-bac4-451a-83e3-f70ef3d5b4cd/gp/fe16939899/id/1GFfK care centres government hospitals integrated child development services centres noon meal centres and schools across the state. The booths will function from 7am to 5pm. All children in the 0-5 years age group including those who were given oral drops of the vaccine in the first phase are required to be brought to these booths. To identify missed out children officials will mark the fingers of vaccinated children with indelible ink. Private paediatricians also will administer polio drops in their clinics as part of the nationwide intensified pulse polio immunisation campaign. In addition to the regular booths in institutions the department has set up 1 652 transit booths at major bus stands railway stations toll plazas check-posts and airports. Around 1 000 mobile teams have also been formed to administer polio drops to children living in remote inaccessible and migrant areas. The government has mobilised two lakh personnel for the drive. Tamil Nadu is entering its 14th polio-free year. Kolandaswamy said around 70.41 lakh children were covered in the first phase of the drive that began on January 28.
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