Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa has announced a Rs20mn cash prize for Mariyappan Thangavelu, a 21-year-old para athlete from Tamil Nadu who won the gold medal in high jump at the ongoing Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There has been public discontent at the failure of the central government to congratulate or announce an award for Mariyappan.
Mariyappan, whose leg was amputated when he was five-years-old, hails from a poor family in Periyavadagampatti village in Salem district. He was raised by his mother who is a vegetable vendor. “I will train and jump higher for the World Championships in London next,” Mariyappan said.

Four set up fake bank
Four persons were arrested for opening a fake branch of a nationalised private bank at Dharmapuri, about 304kms from Chennai last week. The gang rented a building, put up a board of Yes ABS Bank, and began ‘operations’ with minimal staff. They had managed to collect Rs1.60 lakhs from 83 customers in current accounts and fixed deposits.  Somasundaram, the prime accused, learnt about banking operations as a trainee for Yes Bank at its Salem city branch. He used this knowledge to open a branch complete with a fake logo. Intrigued by customer reports, officials of Yes Bank’s Salem branch visited Dharmapuri, detected the fraud and informed police. Yes Bank is India’s fifth largest private bank. It has 700 branches.

Student dies during excursion

A 20-year-old student of a private music academy died at a beach resort in Mamallapuram, about 40kms from Chennai last week. Niloy Sengupta, a second year student of the Swarnabhumi Academy of Music had gone with 70 students and teachers to the Blue Bay resort. Sengupta went missing after a swim in the sea and the school informed police. Sengupta’s family, who arrived from Guwahati, Assam, claimed he had been murdered. They said injuries to Niloy’s face and hands suggested a fight with his classmates. Police are probing the surveillance camera footage and interrogating resort staff.
In a separate incident, a 23-year-old youth drowned in the river Amaravathi at Kadathur, Coimbatore, while participating in a religious function. Senthil Kumar was reportedly swept away by strong currents even as his friends swam back to shore. His body was later retrieved by life guards.

Fever outbreak claims seven lives
Seven people including four children have died from an outbreak of fever reportedly caused by water and airborne viruses in Tiruvallur in the past month. The patients mostly died from internal haemorrhage, viral fever and other ailments. Government hospitals have been providing emergency care and door-to-door checks for dengue, leptospirosis and typhoid. Similarly, Chennai hospitals have also set up triage systems to prevent further infections. Doctors said open sumps, ditches and stagnant water bodies in Tiruvallur that bred mosquitoes and other vector bearing flies were the reason for the deadly outbreak.

Dhanush turns film director
Multi-talented actor Dhanush, who has won awards as actor, producer, playback singer and choreographer, debuts as film director with the Tamil film Power Pandi that has senior actor Raj Kiran in a lead role. The film’s cast also includes actors Prasanna and Chaya Singh with music composed by Sean Roldan.
Dhanush’s production house Wunderbar Films has distributed and produced about 13 films.