Within a week of Hindu Munnani party leader Vellaiyan’s murder at Vellore, party secretary Nambu, 55, was murdered in Rameshwaram town in southern Ramanathapuram district. Police said Nambu had reprimanded a group of drunks for disturbing the public. The group’s leader, Shanmughanathan, reportedly cornered Nambu at a tea stall and hacked him to death. Though Shamughanathan escaped, police later arrested him based on eyewitness accounts. Meanwhile, the party’s local office has appealed to Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa to provide assistance to Nambu’s wife and six children.
Four boys drown
Four school students drowned while bathing in the sea at Port Beach in coastal Tuticorin district. The victims were part of a 113-member student group who had come in two buses to the beach. The students reportedly entered the sea without their teachers’ permission. Seeing them struggling, the teachers alerted lifeguards and fire services who rescued most students. However, four drowned. The region’s chief education officer slammed the school management for not taking his permission for the excursion and ordered a detailed probe.
New hockey stadium
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has announced the setting up of a state-of-the-art hockey stadium at Kovilpatti in coastal Tuticorin district. The stadium, to be built at Rs7mn, will be floodlit, with artificial turf and water sprinklers. Jayalalithaa also announced the opening of badminton academies at Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli and Dharmapuri districts. She also granted funds for sports competitions and increased the honorarium for physical instructors.
Leading publisher dead
Veteran book publisher K S Padmanabhan, who founded the Westland Publications and the Madras Book Club, died on July 13. He was 77. He is survived by his wife and son. Padmanabhan began his career five decades ago at the International Book Shop in Mumbai and later shifted to Kolkata and New Delhi. He began the Affiliated East West Press, the Indian arm of Netherlands-based D Van Nostrand Company. He shifted to Chennai in the mid-seventies to set up a branch of East West press and formed Westland in 50-50 partnership with Landmarks book store chain. This group was taken over by the Tatas in 2008. The Madras Book Club is famed for its book launches.
Smart card tenders stopped
The Madras High Court has stayed state government tenders for smart card driving licences and registration certificates. The orders were bagged by a Chennai-based software firm. The court ruling came after suspicion that the contract could result in multi-crore losses to the Tamil Nadu exchequer. The tenders were floated on June 28, 2010, and Bon Ton Software of Chennai reportedly won the bid - with support from the then ruling DMK government - despite a lower quote from New Delhi-based Smart Chip. After the DMK government lost the elections and Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK party came to power, the deal was allowed to go through but at a reduced price. Meanwhile a recent scrutiny by the transport ministry revealed discrepancies in the project report and filed a case in the Madras High Court. Bon Ton has filed a separate petition for another probe.