Saravanan's Blog

G Saravanan 17 Apr 2009 CHENNAI: Unlike the previous Lok Sabha Election in 2004, when there were nil presence of language-based blogs (except English) to either register or to debate certain poll-related issues online, this time, Tamil blogs hog the limelight among ‘namma bloggers’ as it become the most sought-after avenue to ‘express’ their views on political developments. Though the Tamil blogs started making inroads among the Tamilians living across the globe only three years ago, its importance being now felt among the bloggers who preferred to find solutions to some burning issues to their logical end via this mode. While there are thousands of Tamil blogs in the cyberspace, blogs related to Lankan Tamils, Lok Sabha elections and about Tamil political leaders record maximum hits and the trend itself shows that cyberspaceenabled people in the state believes in ‘disseminating’ their thoughts about the elections. Besides putting lots of information on the Lankan Tamils on the cybersp...

Published Date: 15/4/2009 - (NIE) G Saravanan Chennai, April 14: WITH the campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections now shifting to next gear all across the State, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) seems to be facing difficult times in North Chennai constituency where its organising secretary T K S Elangovan is taking on CPI State secretary D Pandian. The problems of the DMK are multiple in nature — its own inner-party rivalry between Fisheries Minister K P P Samy and Tiruvallur district secretary EAP Shivaji as well as non-cooperation from a section of the Congress party. Both the DMK heavyweights’ differences came to the fore during election workers meet organised by the party in Thiruvotriyur on April 13, where Samy and Shivaji preferred to keep a ‘healthy distance.’ On the other hand, the Congress party also held its poll workers meet close to the DMK’s venue on the same day. Minister Samy attended the Congress meet, before arriving at the DMK’s meet which was hel...

Repro: 14/4/2009 G Saravanan Chennai, April 13: THE round table conference of Dalit Panchayat Presidents, organised by Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation (HRFDL) on Monday went into an eerie silence, when a woman Dalit leader burst into tears while describing how she was victimised by dominant cast after being elected to the top post. It took several minutes to console P Chinnammal, Jegathabi panchayat president in Karur district, by fellow leaders at the auditorium. Besides, facing severe humiliation in her home turf for being a Dalit woman leader by dominant caste people, Chinnammal was now served with dismissal order under Section 205 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act of 1994, which allows the removal of a panchayat president by the district Collector. After winning the election, the vice-president of the Jegathabi Panchayat Sakthivel (from dominant community) did not allow Chinnammal to sit in the chair since she belongs to Dalit community. Though she filed complaint against Sak...

Published Date: 14/4/2009 G Saravanan Chennai, April 13: THE All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), a united body of truckers, is likely to announce a candidate against DMK strong man and Union Surface Transport Minister T R Baalu in Sriperambudur for the Lok Sabha election. This, they said, was to register their “collective anguish and ill-treatment meted against truckers in the past five years.” According to sources, R Sukumar, president of Chennai-Kancheepuram Tiruvallur district lorry, tanker, tipper-trailer, van, bus owner’s association welfare committee and spokesperson of the AIMTC, could be named to contest against Baalu. Speaking to Express, Sukumar confirmed that the talks for fielding a candidate ag ainst Baalu were going on, and an announcement on the candidature could be expected in the next two or three days. During the last five years, AIMTC had called for nationwide strike three times, that too, on the diesel price issue only, but Baalu never tried to meet the agit...

Fishing villages near Pulicat Lake ban entry of politicians Published Date: 8/4/2009 - (NIE) G Saravanan Chennai, April 7: MORE than 25,000 traditional fishermen living in 17 different fishing hamlets along the Pazhaverkadu (Pulicat lake) stretch near the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border, have resolved on Tuesday, not to allow any politicians to visit their areas for votes until and unless their perennial problem of monetary compensation is solved. For the last four decades, whenever the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launches its rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, these fishermen were restrained from going to sea citing security reasons. However, they never received any compensation from the government for the losses they incurred. “As such orders from district authorities force us to stay home during the rocket launch periods, we have been demanding that the state government fix a compensation of Rs 200 per day to help us make both ends to meet during...

Advantage CPI in North Chennai Published Date: 7/4/2009 - (NIE) G Saravanan Chennai, April 6: THE poll arithmetic seems to be turning the CPI’s way in North Chennai following the DMK’s announcement that they will be fielding a relatively unknown face for the seat, replacing four-time winner C Kuppusamy. D Pandian, a stalwart of the party and the most likely candidate for the constituency, has a good rapport among the voters of North Chennai and it may be noted that he had represented the constituency twice, winning on both occasions in 1989 and 91. Moreover, the delimitation exercise has changed the whole dynamic of the constituency and strengthened the AIADMK-led front’s bid to wrest the DMK stronghold this time. Areas like Madhavaram, Ambattur and Puzhal, well-known DMK pockets which were earlier with North Chennai are now with the newly created Tiruvallur (reserved) and adjoining Sriperambudur Parliamentary constituencies. Besides electricity problems, the Sri Lankan Tamil genocid...

Cooperative sugar mills across State face closure Published Date: 3/1/2009 - (NIE) G Saravanan Chennai, February 28: WITH the private-run sugar mills eating into their designated command areas and the State Government’s failure to conduct election for cooperative (sugar) societies for the past 42 years, remaining 14 out of 16 cooperativerun sugar mills in the state are facing imminent closure, according to sugarcane farmers. These cooperative mills were just running to show that they are indeed active, but in reality, they were surviving with a ventilator support, C Nallasamy, president of Lower Bhavani Project Farmers’ Association and field coordinator for Tamil Nadu Toddy Movement told Express. Out of 16 mills, two mills -- Madurantakam Cooperative Sugar Mills Ltd and National Cooperative Sugar Mills Ltd were not working since 2001-02. “Even after four decades and recommendation by the Vaidyanathan Committee few years ago to conduct elections in such cooperative societies to revita...

A beacon of hope for seafarers Published Date: 3/29/2009 - (NIE) G Saravanan Chennai, March 28: THE Maritime Labour Convention-2006, which has been designed to become a global legal instrument once it comes into force by 2011, will be the ‘Fourth Pillar’ of the international regulatory regime for quality shipping, Partha Basu, a maritime expert has said. He was addressing the members of the marine fraternity during a seminar organised in connection with the National Maritime Day. By consolidating the key Conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, (SOLAS), the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping, 1978, (STCW) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 73/78 (MARPOL), the proposed MLC- 2006 is expected to become a comprehensive set of global standards based on the already existing 68 maritime labour instruments (Con...

 Written by புதிய ஜனநாயகம் இந்தியத் தரகு முதலாளிகளுக்கு பொன்முட்டையிடும் வாத்து, தகவல் தொடர்புத் துறையாகும். கடந்த பத்தாண்டுகளில் இந்தத் துறையில் முதலாளிகள் அடித்த கொள்ளை பல ஆயிரம் கோடிகளைத் தாண்டும். அதே அளவு கோடிகளை அரசும், பொதுத்துறையும் இழந்திருக்கிறது. இந்த இழப்பிற்கும், அந்தக் கொள்ளைக்கும் காங்கிரசு, பா.ஜ.க. இரு கட்சிகளும், அதிகார வர்க்கமும் காரணமாயிருக்கின்றன. இந்த அணிவகுப்பில் சமீபத்திய வரவு ஸ்பெக்ட்ரம் ஊழல். இதில் கொள்ளையடிக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் மக்கள் பணம் ரூ. 60,000 கோடி என மதிப்பிடப்பட்டிருக்கிறது. 1991ஆம் ஆண்டிலேயே உலக வங்கி தொலைபேசித் துறையில் தனியார் முதலாளிகளை அனுமதிக்க வேண்டுமென இந்தியாவிற்கு உத்தரவிட்டிருந்தது. அப்போதிருந்த நரசிம்ம ராவ் அரசும் இதைச் சிரமேற்கொண்டு அமல்படுத்தியது. எல்லா பகாசுரக் கம்பெனிகளும் களத்தில் குதித்து, அரசிடமிருந்த தொலைபேசித் துறையின் வளத்தை ஊழல் உதவியுடன் முழுங்க ஆரம்பித்தன. அப்பொது தகவல் தொடர்பு அமைச்சராக இருந்த சுக்ராம் வீட்டில் சி.பி.ஐ கட்டுக்கட்டாய்ப் பல கோடி பணத்தைக் கைப்பற்றியது வாசகர்களுக்கு நினைவிருக்கலாம். பின்னர் வந்த வாஜ்பாய் அரசி...