Suspected Bodo militant caught in TN

A Bodo Militant from the North-Eastern State of Assam and three others were detained at Hosur, a place once known for naxal activities, by the Krishnagiri District Police in Tamil Nadu, early today.

Reports received at the police headquarters here said the arrests were made by Special Police following information from their counterparts in Assam.

The police team raided their hideout and detained them. The suspected Bodo Militant was identified as Lang Dang who was working in an industrial unit in Hosur.

His brother Vinay Kumar Baswa Chari and two others who had given them shelter --Raja Koda and Vinay-- were also detained for interrogation.

Police said the Assam Police were informed of the detention. A team from the North Eastern State was expected to land in Hosur to take them to Assam after obtaining necessary warrants.

CPI (M) demands digging of new canal from South Pennar River

P. Dillibabu, Harur CPI (M) M.L.A. at the demonstration in front of the Shoolagiri Panchayat Union office recently. Photo: N. Bashkaran.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has urged the State Government to bring water to Shoolagiri and Maruthandapalli lakes by digging a new canal from South Pennar River at Gamonthotti area.

Speaking at a demonstration in front of the Panchayat Union Office in Shoolagiri recently, the party's MLA from Harur, P. Dillibabu, appealed to the district administration to review the scheme as it would help farmers to undertake cultivation without depending on rain water.

He also demanded the administration to speed up the process of retrieving the land from encroachers allotted for construction of bus stand abutting Krishnagiri-Bangalore National Highway.

Steps should also be initiated to allot a common burial ground.

The party also urged the administration to set up high mast lamps at important junctions in the town and construction of compound wall for the Shoolagiri Government Higher Secondary School.

Mr. Babu alleged that the State Government was denying patta to poor people.

He also alleged that the Government was silently withdrawing the two-acre free land without any announcement. More than 15 lakh poor people were not given free house site patta. D. Ravindarn, District Secretary, CPI (M) demanded an exclusive market complex for vegetables, green leaves and mint leaves, which is grown in large quantity in and around Shoolagiri. Over 300 party cadres participated in the meeting.

S. Anwar, Shoolagiri Union Member, presided over the demonstration. C. Munusamy, R. Sekar, S.R. Jayaraman among others participated.

e-district programme to be launched on October 15

Collecting details: Collector V. Arun Roy (right) inspecting the Common Service Centre at Bargur on Monday.

The e-district programme will be launched in Krishnagiri on October 15 as part of the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP). As a prelude to this, Collector V. Arun Roy inspected the functioning of the Common Service Centre (CSC) at Bargur town, near here, on Monday.

The Common Service Centres in the district were franchised to the 221 unemployed youths. The nodal agency for CSCs is SREI Sahaj e-Village Limited.

Mr. Roy checked how people send their petitions through CSC, how the rail ticket reservation facility is being utilised and how many people are visiting the centre.

Later, the Collector also gave instructions to the franchisee that the petitions submitted by the general public were sent to the Village Administrative Officers and the concerned official immediately.

The officials should verify the details after the field visit and issue the necessary certificates to the beneficiary as quick as possible.

Among the services that will be offered by the CSCs are booking tickets, recharging accounts, banking transactions, financial inclusion and access to various e-governance initiatives. Each valid user would get a Citizen Account Number that would eventually be replaced with the unique identification number.

A one-time registration would suffice. Currently, a user can obtain certificates of birth, death, community, nativity and solvency.

Rajagopal, Tahsildhar, E. Dwarka Prasad, District Manager, SREI Sahaj e-Village Limited and T. Manoharan, Public Relations Officer accompanied the Collector.

Confederation of Private Schools formed

A Confederation of Private Schools in Krishnagiri district was formed recently. V. Chandrasekaran, Correspondent of Sri Vidya Mandir School, Uthangarai was elected district president.

Mr. Chandrasekaran told reporters here that the new organisation was formed to bring unity among private schools in the district in fighting for their legitimate and genuine demands.

Mr. Chandrasekaran said the school fees fixed by the Justice Govindarajan Committee was against natural justice. The federation demanded that they should be allowed to collect Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 25,000 a student from Standard VI to Plus- Two and Rs.12,000 to Rs. 16,000 from LKG to Standard V in all schools.

The association demanded that a seat be allocated to private education institutions in the coming MLC election in the state. Private institution should announce a common candidate for contesting the elections on their behalf in all the seven Graduates and seven teacher constituencies in the state.

The meeting decided to convene a district conference of confederation on October 9 at Krishnagiri, in which teachers working in all streams and staff working in private schools will participate.

The following are the other office-bearers of the confederation: R. Kongarasan, Nalanda School, Krishnagiri (district secretary); Selvaraj, Selva Matriculation School, Bargur (district deputy secretary); Sridhar, Parimalam Matriculation School, Hosur; A. Noorullah Sherief, Cresent School, Karapattu; and K. Sivaraj, Annai Veilankanni School, Bargur (vice-presidents); S. Annamalai, Rotary School, Krishnagiri (district treasurer).

Private bus operators' fare high

Private bus operators started fleecing the rural passengers with fare hike, without proper permission from the competent authorities. They have increased the fare arbitrarily all of a sudden without any prior information to the public.

Heated arguments between the passengers and crew members have become a common scene in many routes from and to Krishnagiri, such as Tirupathur, Hosur and Dharmapuri and Uthanagarai in the district.

The fare hike by the private bus operators was also raised at the farmers’ grievances meeting by Mr. S. Alagirisamy, District Secretary of the BSNL Employees Union of the combined districts of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri, on Thursday.

While replying to the complaint, Collector Mr. Arun Roy said that he too received some complaints from the public and the Regional Transport Officers were asked to check this menace immediately. Show-cause notice was also issued to one of the operators in this regard.

Further to this, a survey conducted by this correspondent on Friday morning revealed that many private bus operators are fleecing the public despite a severe warning by Mr. N. Palanivelu, Regional Transport Operator, in September.

A private bus plying between Hosur and Krishnagiri was charging Rs. 18 on Friday (original fare was Rs. 15.50). Another operator collected Rs. 11 from Pochampalli to Krishnagiri as against the original fare of Rs. 10. Like wise Rs. 6 was collected from Bargur to Krishnagiri as against the original fare of Rs. 5 and Rs. 8 instead of Rs. 7 from Karimangalam to Krishnagiri. Of the four operators, one issued ticket even without the name of the transport.

Mr. N. Palanivelu told The Hindu that he was asked to take action against the private operators by Collector Mr. V. Arun Roy on September 27. Upon his instruction he had convened a meeting of the private operators the next day and instructed not to increase the fare, failing which, severe action would be initiated. A circular was also issued to all the private operators in this regard, the following day.

The Inspectors attached to the Office of the RTO were conducting surprise checks and slapped fines for overload and other violations etc.

Mr. Palanivelu also assured that he will look into this issue immediately and will take suitable action in this regard.

D. Ravindran, District Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist) told The Hindu that it is an act of injustice to the rural masses. Unofficially the government had given its green signal for hiking the fare to the private operators, he alleged. He said, the party is vehemently opposing the fare hike.

Karunanidhi inaugurates Indian Bank branches through video conferencing

A live feed from the hamlet, beamed into the Chief Minister’s chambers showed him and the top brass of the Indian Bank. "This is the first branch of Indian Bank under its financial inclusion plan," the Bank Chairman and Managing Director T.M.Bhasin told The Hindu, minutes ahead of the inauguration.

The branch meant a lot for the people – Self Help Groups would have better access to credit and all the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme could be channelised through the bank, leaving no scope for any wrong doing on the payment part.

In all, the Chief Minister inaugurated 21 branches and 31 ATMs of the Indian Bank spread across 11 States and two Union Territories. In a short speech after the inauguration, the Chief Minister lauded the Bank for lending to the priority sector and also SHGs in Tamil Nadu.

Of the branches inaugurated on Wednesday, apart from the Kurubarapalli branch, two microsate branches at Kaveripatnam (Krishnagiri) and Usilampatti (Madurai) will focus exclusively on financing to Self Help Groups.

Mr.Bhasin said that with the 52 banking outlets, the number of Indian Bank branches jumped to 1796. It also had 1062 ATMs. Of the total, Tamil Nadu had 768 branches (43 per cent of the total) and 532 ATMs.

Anup Sankar Bhattacharya, Executive Director of Indian Bank said that the Bank will continue to focus on priority sector in the coming years.

Heavy rush at District Employment Exchange

A total of 1,190 people, including 660 women, registered their B.Ed qualifications with the District Employment Office here on Monday, said K. Gandhi, Employment Officer on Tuesday.

He said four special counters, two each for men and women, were opened at the exchange to clear the mad rush to ensure the seniority in government postings.

Men and women thronged the exchange at the cooperative colony from early morning. Most of them came with their spouses and children and parents.

Police personnel were deployed to control the crowd.

Candidates were made to sit on the terrace of the building for certificate verifications prior to the registration.

Candidates who have finished their B.Ed in other districts and native of Krishnagiri district were allowed to register their names.