Jayalalithaa sues news portal over report on health
Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa has filed defamation suit against online portal Rediff.com for publishing a news article about her ill-health.
Jayalalithaa’s lawyer said that the portal’s July 10 article carried false reports that threatened to damage her public image.
Ironically her rival DMK party leader M Karunanidhi, who is also not keeping well, started the first rumours.
He said that Jayalalithaa missed several public functions despite a rousing victory in the June 30 R K Nagar by-elections. She did not greet the public or her cabinet and spent only 30 minutes for her oath taking ceremony on July 4. The article indicated that Jayalalithaa had renal failure, high blood pressure and diabetes.
However Jayalalithaa’s spokesmen said she was only suffering from diabetes and knee pain.
Six women burnt to death in Virudhunagar
Six women working in a fireworks unit were burnt to death when a van crash at Naranampatti village in Sivakasi town of southern Virudhunagar district.
The driver reportedly lost control and the vehicle fell into an 8ft deep roadside gorge.
The diesel tank of the van ruptured triggering a fire claiming the lives of the six women.
Seven others were seriously injured.
In another incident four members of a family were found charred inside their hut at Poovanthi in Madurai district. A woman, her daughter and two grandsons were discovered by relatives who visited the isolated spot when they could not contact them on phone. Police suspect a suicide pact or an accidental fire caused by an electrical short circuit.
Villagers also claimed that the family had not socialised for 15 years.
Most senior police officer dies aged 90
C V Narasimhan, considered the most senior police officer in India, died at the age of 90 after a brief illness.
Narasimhan, who served the Indian Police Service for 38 years, was the topper in the qualifying exam in 1948.
Winner of the President’s Revolver Prize for the ‘best cadet’ at the National Police Academy in Mount Abu, Narasimhan served in various capacities, including as Central Bureau of Investigation chief, member of the National Police Commission and head of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption department.
In a rare honour, he was the first police official to be appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1974, a post previously open only to senior civil servants.
His Handbook on Law remains the essential text for all police stations in India.
Heritage rail service marks anniversary
The Nilgiris Mountain Railway (NMR), which first made the mountain district accessible by rail up to Coonoor in 1897 and later up to Ooty in 1908, marked its 10th anniversary this week as a UN World Heritage Site earlier this week.
The three-coach train service, said to be Asia’s steepest mountain railway, has a capacity of 104 passengers, and starts from Mettuppalayam, chugs through scenic locations crossing Kallar, Runneymede, Adderly, Hillgrove, Coonoor, Wellington, Aravankadu, Ketti, Lovedale and Ooty covering a distance of 46.6km.
Four oil-fuelled locomotives are used between Coonoor and Mettupalayam, while the journey up to Ooty is done using a diesel locomotive. A solitary coal-fuelled back-up engine lurks as a reminder of the olden days.
The railway was given heritage status by the Unesco on July 15, 2005.
