Tamil Nadu news: State reports 1,658 new Covid-19 cases, 29 deaths
THE TIMES OF INDIA | Sep 16, 2021, 08:38:23 IST

Tamil Nadu news: State reports 1,658 new Covid-19 cases, 29 deaths

The rural police launched a 24x7 suicide prevention helpline named ‘Vidiyal’ during an event at the district police office (DPO) on SBI Road here on Tuesday. The people who have suicidal thoughts can contact 0422-2300999 to get help. Stay with TOI for all the latest updates.Read Less

22:28 (IST) Sep 15

Chennai, Coimbatore leads in new Covid-19 infections as TN adds 1,658 cases, 29 deaths

Tamil Nadu on Wednesday added 1,658 new Covid-19 infections pushing the overall caseload to 26,38,668 till date, while 29 people succumbed to the virus, taking the toll to 35,246. Recoveries were less when compared to the new infections with 1,542 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 25,86,786 leaving 16,636 active infections, a medical bulletin said. A total of 1,50,740 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 4,46,77,820. The majority of new infections were recorded in four districts-- Chennai leading with 226 cases, Coimbatore 224, Erode 130, Chengalpet 126. Perambalur recorded the least number of new infections with five.

20:57 (IST) Sep 15

Court directs police to arrest encroachers of temple property under Goondas Act

The Madras high court on Wednesday said authorities concerned should not hesitate to arrest encroachers of temple lands under the stringent Goondas Act, saying such fraudulent act was a crime against the society. Passing final orders on a writ petition pertaining to Sri Audikesava Perumal Peyazhwar Devasthanam temple in Mylapore, the court also directed the State government to effect publication of advertisements in respect of all the temples across the state, calling upon the encroachers/illegal occupants to surrender the possession of all such properties voluntarily before the competent authorities within a stipulated period, failing which, stern action should be taken against them under the relevant provisions of the Act and Penal laws, howsoever high they are.

20:56 (IST) Sep 15

High court upholds orders acquiring of land for road project in TN

The Madras high court has upheld the orders of the authorities concerned to acquire lands owned by private persons and bodies in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts in Tamil Nadu for laying an outer ring road and providing various amenities. Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan upheld the acquisition orders on Tuesday, while dismissing a batch of writ petitions from Dr D Anand and others challenging the government move. "Overall, the respondents had duly followed the procedures as contemplated under the Tamil Nadu Highways Act, 2001 and the Rules for acquiring lands for the purpose of the Chennai outer ring road development work including project facilities such as interchanges, bus bays, truck lay byes, junction improvements, wayside amenities, major and minor junction improvements etc. These facilities are only part and parcel of the project road amenities and it is one of the facilities provided for the outer ring road phase-I," the judge said and dismissed the petitions as without merits. (PTI)

19:08 (IST) Sep 15

Another NEET aspirant commits suicide

A National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) aspirant, Soundharya. T was found dead at her house in Katpadi in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. She had written the NEET on Sunday and told her friends that she had not performed well in the exam. The police suspect that she took her life as she had not done well in the NEET examination. However, no suicide note has been recovered.

14:40 (IST) Sep 15

24X7 suicide prevention helpline starts in Coimbatore

The rural police launched a 24x7 suicide prevention helpline named ‘Vidiyal’ during an event at the district police office (DPO) on SBI Road here on Tuesday. The people who have suicidal thoughts can contact 0422-2300999 to get help. District superintendent of police S Selvanagarathinam said 680 suicide cases were reported in 2020. “About 480 suicide cases have been registered since January 2021.

14:35 (IST) Sep 15

Stalin offers homage to Annadurai on his birth anniversary

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin including his cabinet as well as DMK legislators on Wednesday paid floral tribute to former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai on his 112th birth anniversary. Stalin led a silent march from Chepauk Wallajah Road to Anna Square at Marina beach. Senior DMK leaders and Ministers, S. Duraimurugan, P.K. Sekar Babu, former Union minister T.R. Baalu, A. Raja, among others were present along with Chief Minister Stalin. DMK legislators, functionaries and large number of cadres were present during the silent march led by Stalin to the Anna Square.

13:41 (IST) Sep 15

TN CM to take a call on reopening of schools for junior classes

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin will take a final decision on the reopening of schools for children from 1 to 8 classes after taking expert opinion from the doctors and medical experts. Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamaohi in a statement said that the state school education department will present a report on the reopening of classes for junior students. The report after proper studies conducted at the grassroots levels across the state will be presented to the Chief Minister on Wednesday.

12:02 (IST) Sep 15

DMDK will contest alone in local body polls in nine districts, says party chief Vijayakant

12:01 (IST) Sep 15

Local body polls in 9 districts spur parties to pull up socks

With the assembly session out of the way, the DMK and its allies are gearing up to face the rural local body polls, scheduled for October 6th and October 9th, in nine districts including seven in northern Tamil Nadu. On the last day of the assembly session on Monday, the DMK government had announced waiver of gold loans of less than five sovereigns in cooperative banks in the state. On its part, the DMK has directed its district secretaries, where local body polls are scheduled, to handle seat requirements of allies.

10:42 (IST) Sep 15

Trichy loadman’s son among 13 with 200 in engg list

S Sarathivasan, son of a loadman from Trichy, was among 13 students who bagged the perfect cut-off mark of 200 in the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission rank list released on Tuesday. J Nithyasree of Srirangam in Trichy and P L Uma Shwetha of Thirumayam in Pudukottai district ranked first, while Sarathivasan ranked eighth. Different rankings were awarded based on various factors including maths and physics scores and date of birth. Sarathivasan of Thuvakudi Malai in Trichy completed Class VII at Boiler Plant Higher Secondary School, a government-aided school, and then to Bengaluru. Sarathivasan said he plans to pursue engineering at the main campus of Anna University in Guindy, Chennai. “I am thinking of opting for BE computer science or B Tech Information Technology. I wish to become a software developer.”

09:31 (IST) Sep 15

HC asks if moving education to Concurrent List was legal

A day after the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a bill to circumvent NEET for admissions to medical courses, the Madras high court wondered if the Emergency-era transfer of education as a subject from the State List to the Concurrent List amounted to tinkering with the basic structure of the Constitution. The court also remarked that the 42nd constitutional amendment of 1976 had not taken education out of the state’s purview entirely, as it is still on the Concurrent List and not under the Union List. “Even though the matter was taken away from one list to another, there was no complete takeover of the subject as such,” said the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu on Tuesday.

08:45 (IST) Sep 15

State mulling physical classes for younger kids

The Tamil Nadu school education department will submit a report on Wednesday to CM M K Stalin on reopening schools for students of Classes I to VIII, school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi told reporters on Tuesday. The CM will take a call on reopening after consulting with medical experts, he added.

08:44 (IST) Sep 15

No additional seats as NMC won’t inspect colleges due to Covid

Increase of 100 additional seats sought for a government medical college in Coimbatore and nearly 300 additional seats sought by at least three self-financing colleges and deemed universities will not be added to the seat matrix this year as the National Medical Council’s medical assessment and rating board (MARB) has said it will not be able to send teams to inspect these colleges due to Covid-19. The directorate of medical education had sought to increase seats in Coimbatore Medical College from 150 to 250 as part of the plan to increase strength in existing medical colleges. Others including SRM Medical College and Chennai Medical College Trichy had applied for an increase of at least 100 seats each. Approval for additional seats is granted after a detailed inspection by the NMCappointed committee.

08:43 (IST) Sep 15

New lab to help track SARS-CoV-2 variants

Tamil Nadu now has a new whole genome sequencing lab which will help authorities identify and track variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Chief minister M K Stalin on Tuesday inaugurated the lab at the state public health laboratory in Chennai. As the virus multiplies, tiny changes or mutations accumulate in the genetic code. Though prevention and treatment of Covid-19 has remained the same across variants, changes in the genetic structures can sometimes expedite the spread.

08:42 (IST) Sep 15

Thunderstorms likely from tomorrow, weathermen say

You may soon have to bring out your raincoats and umbrellas as weathermen say the city and neighbouring districts are likely to receive thunderstorms starting Thursday The IMD forecast spells over coastal Tamil Nadu between Thursday and Saturday while weatherbloggers said the city may experience a round of good and intense rainfall from September 20. IMD has not forecast rain over the city and the suburbs for the next 48 hours. But the sky condition over the region would be partly cloudy, while the maximum and minimum temperatures may hover at 36°C and 27°C.

08:41 (IST) Sep 15

State engg cut-off may go up this year

The cut-offs for engineering admissions in TN this year may go up by 2 marks to 70 marks as more than one lakh students have secured 150 marks and above as per the rank list released on Tuesday. Experts said it will be extremely tough for students to give preferences of choices due to such a huge variation compared to previous years. Of the 1,39,033 applicants on the list released by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee J Nithyasree of Trichy, S Sarvajit Visagan of Salem and Sreenithi A of Arani stood first with 200 of 200 marks. They were among the 13 who got the perfect score.

23:05 (IST) Sep 14

AIADMK's ally in Assembly polls, PMK to go it alone in rural civic polls

The Pattali Makkal Katchi, which aligned with the AIADMK for the Assembly polls on Tuesday announced that it would be facing the rural civic polls to nine districts on October 6 and 9 all alone, considering the party's growth. The decision to contest alone was taken unanimously following a virtual meeting of party functionaries held Tuesday evening, PMK president G K Mani said in a statement.In the meeting presided by party founder-leader S Ramadoss and the party's youth wing chief Anbumani Ramadoss, office-bearers expressed a view that the party should go it alone considering growth prospects, he added."Based on this, a decision was taken unanimously to contest polls all alone for rural local bodies in nine districts." (PTI)

22:58 (IST) Sep 14

Tamil Nadu reports 1,591 fresh Covid-19 cases, 1,537 recoveries and 27 deaths.

20:47 (IST) Sep 14

CM MK Stalin tweets on death by suicide of student

20:42 (IST) Sep 14

There must be an end to suicides, CM MK Stalin expresses anguish and sorrow over girl's death

The Chief Minister said that a slew of incidents, including impersonation, sale of question papers and dishonest practices in coaching centres continued to expose that NEET is not a test to judge eligibility. "Our government is continuing to take all steps to remove NEET, which is ruining equality in education," he said. Expressing anguish and sorrow over the death of the girl, Stalin appealed to students and the parents, saying "there must be an end to suicides." Main opposition AIADMK demanded that the ruling DMK stop its 'political drama' over NEET.

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