School teacher among 7 held for kidnapping industrialist

Krishnagiri (TN), Nov 18 (PTI) Seven persons, including a schoolteacher, were arrested today for allegedly abducting an industrialist from the district, police said. Durai Selvam (57), an industrialist running multiple businesses including real estate and transport in the district, was abducted yesterday night when on his way home from office, police said. 

Selvam's wife later received a ransom call from his kidnappers, demanding Rs 5 crore to release her husband. 

They threatened to kill him if the ransom was not paid, police said. When the victim's family approached the police, a special team to investigate the case was secretly set up. Three of the accused were arrested earlier in the day when they were interrogated during a vehicle check in the district. 

When they confessed that Selvam was being held captive in the remote K V Kuppam village in neighbouring Vellore district, the industrialist was rescued and rest of the accused were arrested, police said. 

Among the seven accused was Selvakumar (46), a teacher in the Higher Secondary School in Sigaranapalli near Krishnagiri, police said. While Selvam's car was rescued, a Tata Sumo and two motor cycles were seized.

Website for Basic Amenity Reporting System launched in Krishnagiri

With a view to improve the basic amenities in rural and urban areas in the district and to know the status of the amenities and grievances, a dedicated website called Basic Amenity Reporting System (BARS) was launched in Krishnagiri on Tuesday.

Collector C.N. Maheshwaran launched the website at the meeting adjoining his chambers in the presence of the Assistant Director (Panchayat) Veerabadran and other officials from National Informatics Centre. He also claimed that this is first of its kind in the state.

Launching the programme as part of the e-Governance, Mr. Maheshwaran the development of villages is of paramount important for the overall development of the nation. Keeping this in mind, BARS, a monitoring system is being implemented in a phased manner to cover the entire 333 village panchayats and urban local bodies in the district.

Under the BARS system, every streetlamp, bore well pumps and motors for pumping drinking water would be given a unique identification number. Public can inform the local panchayat about the defect or damage in any one of the system. In turn it would be entered into the website by the concerned panchayat clerk. The complaints recorded in the website would be accessed by the Block Level Officials, the Assistant Director (Panchayat) and the District Collector to know the status of the grievances redressal etc. It is a centralized communication system which connects every panchayat to the collectorate, the collector adds.

An official from the NIC said that the BARS system was introduced in 10 to 15 villages initially, the required training for BDOs and other low level officials were given. All the electric pumps used for pumping drinking water, street light poles and bore wells in seven villages were given a unique identification number.

After the success of the trial, it would be extended to all the 333 village panchayats in the district in a phased manner. Anybody can access the features of the new website at the http://www.krishnagiri.tn.nic.in In future, the BARS system would be upgraded in such a way that even the public can access the website and enter their grievances pertaining to water supply motors, street lights and bore wells.

Mr. Maheshwaran also stated that the district has 10227 bore well hand pumps, 5862 electric motors for pumping drinking water and 50440 street lights. Assistant Director (Panchayats) Mr. Veerabadran and Mr. Sathiq, District Officials at National Informatics Centre accompanied the collector during the press briefing.