Tamil Nadu RoundupBy Umaima Shafiq
Educationist Manisundaram dies aged 87Veteran educationist P S Manisundaram, who fine-tuned engineering syllabus in South India, died at Trichy last week.He was 87 and is survived by wife and six children. Manisundaram was born in Burma (now Myanmar) and qualified as a civil engineer from the Nova Scotia University Canada in 1958. He began as a lecturer at the Alagappa University in Karaikudi town in Sivaganga district where he became the youngest principal at the age of 33.In 1963, he joined the Regional Engineering College (REC) when it was set up in Trichy and soon became its principal, a post he held for 18 years. He also became the vice-chancellor of the Bharathidasan University in Trichy set up in 1982.During his tenure he updated the syllabus, improved teaching standards and set a record for entering the maximum number of students to write GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and TOEFL ( Test of English and Foreign Languages) that got them careers abroad. In 1984, he set up the Bharathidasan Institute of Management that is today a benchmark in business studies.Protests against Lanka CHOGM meet continuesProtests demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Sri Lanka from November 15 to 17 continued to rock Tamil Nadu.In Chennai some cadres of the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam party were arrested for throwing petrol bombs at post offices in Mylapore and Mandaveli.There were no deaths or injuries as offices were closed.In Salem several members of the same party threw a burning log and some pamphlets inside the Income Tax office. They too were arrested.Two days later, lawyers protested outside the Madras High Court complex by burning pictures and shouting slogans. A mass statewide protest has also been planned on November 6.Tax raids on film producersTax officials recovered about Rs7mn and some incriminating documents during raids on the offices and residences of film producers R B Choudary, Gnavavel Raja, A M Rathnam and comedian Santhanam.The raids were carried out at 29 places at Tiruchi, Salem, Coimbatore, Chennai, Madurai, Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. The film personalities alleged that the raids were a ploy to embarrass them ahead of the crucial Diwali film releases.An Income Tax department official denied the charge.“We cannot help it as the search was conducted based on specific information that unaccounted money was being used for film production.”Man kills self over Facebook rowChandan Kumar Singh, 29, a software engineer working in Chennai, committed suicide allegedly over his wife’s refusal to remove photos of their church wedding service from social networking website Facebook.Kumar, a native of Jharkhand, married Sandhya, a Christian at a church in Chennai in July this year. His parents and cousins were embarrassed to see his wedding photos on Facebook and ordered him to remove them. However Sandhya refused claiming it was a legitimate marriage. The couple argued often and Chandan became depressed.