Protest against Karnataka dam project
Tamil Nadu observed a statewide semi-curfew to protest against a recent decision by the Karnataka government to build a new dam across the river Cauvery at Mekedatu in the neighbouring state.
The Karnataka government had sanctioned Rs250mn for the project. Many government buses and trucks kept off the road. Shops and other businesses which were closed in the morning opened in the evening.
More than 55 Tamil Nadu parliamentarians cutting across parties met Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to stop the project. They also urged the prime minister to set up the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority to settle the inter-state river dispute.
Modi has promised to consider their request.

National awards for Tamil films and debut actors
Several Tamil debut film artistes including children won awards at the 62nd National Film Awards announced last week.
Tamil film Kaakkaa Muttai won the best children’s film and its actors Vignesh and Ramesh the best child artistes, while Kutram Kadithal directed by Brahma was selected the best Tamil film Jigarthanda won three awards for best editor Vivek Harshan, best supporting actor Bobby Simha and best lyricist Na Muthukumar.  
Ten-year-old Uthara won the best female playback singer award for her song Azhagu in the film Saivam. She is the daughter of noted playback singer Unnikrishnan.
Exploratory filmmaker Nalla Muthu Subbiah has won the national Rajat Kamal award for his documentary on the biodiversity of the Western Ghats.

Dead man’s organs save five lives
Organs harvested from a 39-year-old road accident victim helped save the lives of five patients in Puducherry, about 180km from Chennai last week.
U Anand’s liver, heart and kidneys were flown by air ambulances to hospitals in Chennai and Tiruchi and successfully transplanted.
Anand was on his way to work on his two-wheeler when he met with an accident.
Similarly, a 39-year-old woman’s kidneys and corneas were harvested and transplanted at the Madurai-based Meenakshi Mission hospital. The woman had died of high blood pressure.

Girl writes board exam despite falling into well
A 17-year-old girl fell into a well behind her house but was rescued within an hour and wrote her Class XII board exams at Madipakkam in suburban Chennai last week.
S Supraja fell into the 30ft-deep well while walking up and down studying her textbook early that morning. Her family woke up on hearing her cries and informed the fire service. Since it was a narrow well, only one fire service officer was able to enter. He successfully brought Supraja out.

Cellar found at heritage temple
Archaeologists discovered a 200sq ft cellar inside the eighth century Sri Ranganathasamy temple at Srirangam in Tiruchi district during excavation last week.
The excavation was conducted after a wall behind a heritage stone deity caved in. Archaeologists said that such cellars were used in olden times to store temple jewellery during invasion.
The Srirangam temple is protected by the Archaeological Society of India and is one of the major deities for Hindu devotees in South India.