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* THE TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAI | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2019

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Chennai: The PedestrianPlaza pulsated with the beatof drums on Friday eveningas Master Sha took the stagefor a pop-up concert thatwithin minutes caught theattention of passersby.

As he got the shopaholicsand selfiholics grooving tohis beat, Master Sha also setthe pace for Pondy Bazaar’snewly christened plaza toturn into one of the more cul-turally happening hotspotsin the city.

At least it’s what Smart

City CEO Raj Cherubalhopes.

The coming days, he says,will see musicians — young

and old, classical and con-temporary — rock the pave-ment on weekends. “Peoplehave suddenly realized the

into a great space to show-case talent.”

On Saturday, for instance,Madras Inherited is invitingartists to the plaza to “inter-pret the heritage of T Na-gar”. Artists will be given anhour each to express them-selves on the canvas provid-ed as well as paints, brushesand spray paint cans. At theend of the hour, another art-ist will take over from theprevious one and will get anhour to respond or react tothe work,” says AnirudhVenkat of Madras Inherited.All the work will also be dis-played at a later date, he adds.

“People are warming upto the idea of street perform-ances,” says Arjun Madha-van of Unwind Centre, whohosted the Drums Circle.

“We had everyone fromchildren to an 80-year-old trytheir hand at drumming onFriday. Our idea is to present

‘clean’ events with no profan-ity or vulgarity,” says Mad-havan.

Upcoming events will in-clude jam sessions, poetryreadings, open mics, break-dancing and B-boying.

“The local police stationis being constantly informedof the events. We are workingon streamlining the applica-tion process for the perform-ances as we are getting ahuge amount of interest,”says Cherubal. He adds thatplogging events are also be-ing planned.

“We want citizens to takeownership of the plaza,” hesays.

Feeder services from met-ro stations to the wi-fi en-abled plaza are also up andrunning.

As the December musicseasons rolls in, rasikas, itmay be time to look out forkutcheris at the plaza.

potential of the plaza,” saysCherubal. “We’ve been flood-ed with requests to perform.We’re hoping this turns

Jam Sessions,B-boying AmongThe UpcomingPerformances

Pedestrian plaza turns a culture hotspot

ADDING TO ZING: Drums Circle hosted by Unwind Centre at Pedestrian Plaza on Friday

R Ramesh Shankar

Kamini.Mathai@timesgroup.com

Chennai: Scheduled Caste(SC) and Scheduled Tribe(ST) employees at Indian In-stitute of Technology Madrasface discrimination and men-tal harassment, said SwarajVidwaan, member, NationalCommission for ScheduledCastes (NCSC), on Friday.

“Situation of SC/ST stu-dents too is grave and deeplyconcerning as those who metme clandestinely on Thurs-day were afraid to even raisetheir concerns through pro-per channels fearing reper-cussions. In this background,it is unfortunate that SC/STcell hasn’t been formed yet toaddress their grievances,”she told reporters after atten-ding Federation of All IITs SCST Employees Associations'coordination committee mee-ting on Thursday and Friday.

Referring to data collectedfrom students and faculty, shesaid of the 3,846 PhD admis-sions in the last 10 years, only234 were from SC/ST commu-nities. Also, only 53 SC/STstudents joined the MS pro-gramme. “This is alarming.Data available with us indica-tes that reservation normswere not followed by IITM ad-ministration not only duringstudent admissions but alsofaculty recruitment and pro-motions,” she added.

Corroborating her claim,several news reports have co-me out in the past stating thatless than 13% of faculty mem-bers belonged to SC/ST com-munities. It was unjustifiablethat IIT-M hasn’t recognisedthe SC/ST Employees Welfa-re Association. Several falseaccusations have been madeagainst them in the past. Also,

the present liaison officerisn't discharging the dutiesproperly, she added, reques-ting a change in official.

A notice will be issued onbehalf of the NCSC to IIT-Mseeking an explanation and itwill be brought to the notice ofPrime Minister’s Office andUnion human resources deve-lopment ministry (MHRD),an official press release said.

Responding to questionsabout student suicides on theIIT campus, she said the insti-tute hasn't looked into whatcaused 15-odd deaths in thelast decade and not much hasbeen done to prevent them.NCSC has also sought detailsabout how many among themwere SC/ST students.

At IIT-M, SC/STfaculty, studentsharassed: NCSC

GREEN POWER ON THREE WHEELSB A Raju

DRIVING CHANGE: A fleet of e-autos that chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami flagged off at theSecretariat on Friday. The environment-friendly vehicles mostly driven by women and transsexuals can bebooked using Mauto Pride app

PONGAL LARGESSEB A Raju

HAPPY HARVEST: Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam distributePongal gift hamper, a financial support of `̀1,000 each and free dhotis and saris to a family of cardholdersat the Secretariat on Friday. Earlier in the day, the chief minister inaugurated Chengalpet district andannounced a slew of development projects for improving irrigation and groundwater level for the newdistrict. These include check dams across Palar river near Irumbulichery village in Madurantakam block, atPanchanthiruthi village in Tiruporur block and one across Kiliyar in Madurantakam block. He also an-nounced housing projects under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) scheme at two places at a cost of`̀308 crore. A Medipark in Chengalpet to boost the pharma industry will take off in six months

Chennai: If your housing orcommercial complex gener-ates more than 100kg of gar-bage every day, don’t expect thecity corporation to collect orclear it. Instead, the civic bodyhas added 11 firms to its list of30 others who would collecttrash from bulk garbage gener-ators.

The move comes afterGreater Chennai Corporationreceived several complaints ofvast amounts of garbage beingburned on vacant land, oftenby the side of national high-ways. Bulk trash generatorscan contact these 41firms, 30 ofwhich were enlisted by the cor-poration on July 19.

The corporation has decid-ed not to collect garbage fromsuch places while its conser-vancy workers will continue totake segregated waste fromsmaller complexes. This, offi-cials said, is part of the civicbody’s zero waste plan. Inmany residential localities,common bins have disap-peared as segregated waste iscollected at the doorstep.

From Friday, 26 firms canbe contacted for biodegradablesolid waste processing servic-es, while 15 firms can be con-tacted for dry waste recycling.The details of the firms can befound on the corporation’swebsite www.chennaicorpora-tion.gov.in .

Officials said these compa-nies would either set up a bio-

degradable waste compostplant on the premises of theresidential or commercialcomplex or collect garbagefrom the doorstep. In case ofplants on the site, biogas gener-ated from the garbage can berouted to a common kitchenfor cooking. The waste genera-tors will have to bear the cost ofthe services. The corporationhas only empanelled thesefirms to be held accountable toresidents, but has not fixed thecost.

Sources said many non-em-panelled firms have been col-lecting garbage from residentsfor a fee and either dumping iton the roadside or burning thesame. “Soon, residents com-plain of their neighbourhoodstinking,” said an official, ex-plaining the rationale behindempanelling the firms. Theempanelled service providershave to comply with Tamil Na-du Pollution Control Boardand Central Pollution ControlBoard norms related to solidwaste management and otherapplicable laws.

Firms charge differentrates and have flexible ways ofengagement. The rates for gar-bage may range from `̀4to `̀8per kg.

Kern Agrawal, director ofCarbon Loops, which was em-panelled on Thursday, told TOIthat the company collects wetwaste, including cooked anduncooked food and gardenwaste, from residential apart-ments on a weekly basis.

41 firms to collect,treat trash from bulkgarbage generators

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: You can soon bo-ok through an app and ziparound the city in an envi-ronment-friendly vehicle.Around 100 M-electric auto-rickshaws, mostly drivenby women and transsexualsand fitted with CCTV came-ras, GPS devices, panic but-tons and television, are setto hit the roads. Chief mini-ster Edappadi K Palaniswa-mi on Friday launched thecountry’s “first retrofitelectric auto”.

Made by Mauto ElectricMobility, it can be booked af-ter downloading the MautoPride app on smartphones.The firm has also launchedconventional diesel-basedautos, for which the base fa-re is `̀30 for the first 1.8 kmand `̀14 per km after that.The fare chart for e-autos isyet to be made available inthe app.

Once charged for threehours, the vehicle can runup to 100 km. “The aim is tointroduce 4,000 electricrickshaws in the city, 100 by

a month to reduce air pollu-tion...,” said Mansoor Alik-han, chairman, Mauto gro-up of companies.

During the chief mini-ster’s visit to Dubai in Sep-tember, an MoU was signedbetween Dubai-based KMCgroup and Mauto ElectricMobility and TN recentlygave the nod for the ventureaimed at converting petrol-run autorickshaws intoelectric vehicles with an in-vestment of `̀100 crore, offe-ring job opportunities to5,000.

100 e-autos mostly driven by women to hit roads soon TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: Customs offi-cials at the Chennai airportseized gold worth `̀1.18crore on Friday and Thurs-day.

On Friday, FaeizalAhamed Bin Ashraf Ali,40, a Malaysian nationalwho arrived here from Kua-la Lumpur on an AirAsiaflight, was intercepted byofficials.

The passenger, who waswearing cycling shorts, ap-peared to be nervous. Theofficials recovered twopouches weighing 650g,which were concealed in-side his shorts. On extrac-tion, 547g of gold worth`̀18.5 lakh was recovered.

On Thursday, based onintelligence that gold waslikely to be smuggled by apassenger who would con-ceal it in the SpiceJet flightSG 02 arriving from Colom-bo which would later fly toHyderabad in its domesticleg, customs officials main-tained a special watch tocatch the smuggler and re-cover the gold

A search of the aircraftled to the recovery of 23gold bars weighing 2.67kgvalued at `̀1 crore from theunderneath one of theseats.

The passenger who wassitting on the seat fromwhere the gold was reco-vered was questioned buthe informed that he had noconnection with the sameand the gold did not belongto him. The recovered goldbars were seized as un-claimed.

`̀1.18 croregold seizedat airportTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: The city’s secondplant to treat grey water withreverse osmosis was commis-sioned by chief ministerEdappadi K Palaniswami atKoyambedu on Friday.

The `̀486.21-crore plantwill treat up to 45 million lit-res of grey water a day andsupply it to nearly 800 indust-rial units at Irungattukottai,Sriperumbudur and Oraga-dam. While Irungattukottaiwill get 10 million litres, unitsin Sriperumbudur will get 13million litres and those atOragadam will get the maxi-mum of 22 million litres. Met-rowater had signed a memo-randum of understandingwith these industries for buy-ing the treated water.

The treated water is supp-lied through pipes laid for ne-arly 60 km from Koyambedu,which were used so far by thePWD to supply about 25 mil-lion litres to water storage fa-cilities in the three SIPCOTindustrial parks. The com-missioning of this plant freesup 25 million litres of waterfrom Chembarambakkam re-servoir for supply to the city’sresidents, said Metrowaterofficials.

Two more tertiary treatment plants will come up in the next six months, atPerungudi and Nesappak-kam. The treated water fromthese units will be released in-to water bodies, Metrowatersaid. TNN

City’s second TTRO plantcommissioned at Koyambedu

Three women diverted theattention of a 70-year-old

woman identified as Glory, aresident of Washermenpet, whileshe was travelling in a shareautorickshaw and escaped witha two-sovereign gold chain worth`̀50,000 from her. Glory boardedthe auto at Kannan roundaboutand was headed to the Govern-ment Stanley Hospital. One of

the gang members told Glorythat her chain was broken andthe other two women assistedher in packing the jewellery in asachet and handed it over to her.The chain was missing whenGlory opened the sachet aftershe reached the hospital. Basedon her complaint, a case hasbeen registered.

Burglary at Thiruvottiyurhouse: Burglars struck the houseof Nagaraj and decamped with atleast 12 sovereigns of gold at

Thiruvottiyur on Thursday. Thefamily members had gone to atemple near Tiruvallur when theburglary occurred. A case hasbeen registered.

Man kills friend duringdrunken brawl: Aman stabbedhis friend to death with a beerbottle during a drunken brawl atKK Nagar on Thursday. Thedeceased was identified asRobert, 40, who worked as aconstruction worker. He wasdrinking with Sivakumar, also a

construction worker, fromVillupuram, on Thursday. Sivaku-mar owed Robert `̀250. Robertreturned only `̀125. Police saidSivakumar picked up quarrelwith Robert over the rest of theamount. Then, in a fit of rage heattacked Robert with an emptybeer bottle killing him on thespot. A case has been registeredand Sivakumar arrested.

Man arrested over bombthreat: Police arrested a man onThursday for making a hoax

bomb call to Anna Arivalayam,Teynampet. Police said Ganesh,37, of T Nagar, called the policecontrol room and claimed that abomb would go off at AnnaArivalayam. He is said to haveconveyed the message in Hindi.Following this, a bomb detectionand disposal squad (BDDS) andsniffer dogs combed the campusbut could not find anything. TheTeynamept police registered acase and traced Ganesh. Ganeshwanted to play a prank so hemade the call, police said.

NEWS DIGEST

Three women robsenior citizen

Chennai:Loktantrik Janata Dal’syouth wing has approached theMadras high court seeking a CBIprobe into all ‘14 suicides’ reportedat IIT-Madras since 2006. “So far 14students, including five fromAndhra Pradesh, three from Keralaand two from Tamil Nadu, twofrom Uttar Pradesh and one eachfrom Puducherry and Jharkhandhave reportedly committedsuicide in the institution since 2006as they faced discrimination onthe basis of religion, caste andlanguage. But so far, the head ofthe institution has not taken anysteps to ascertain the reason forthe suicides," Saleem Madavoor,national president of the party'sYuva Janathadal said. The recentcase is that of Fathima Latheef,who committed suicide due toreligious discrimination at thehands of some faculty members,he added. The PIL is likely to betaken up on Monday. TNN

PIL seeks CBI probeinto IIT-M suicides

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: A three-member gang robbed a marineengineer and his friend on Neelankarai beach onWednesday. The robbers snatched a mobile and `̀5,000from them. Police team apprehended one of the threeand launched a hunt for the other two suspects.Pradeep, 26, and a native of Kerala, and his friendSundar visited the beach after watching a movie at atheatre in the city. Pradeep who is a marine engineerand Sundar were riding a bike down to the beach whenthe gang intercepted and robbed them. The two wentthe Neelankarai police and lodged a complaint. A policeteam traced one of the suspects identified as Kumar,30, of MGR Nagar near Akkarai. TNN

2 robbed at Neelankarai beach, 1 held

Chennai: A fortnight after a 14-year-old boy was electrocuted after hestepped on a live wire hidden in a pud-dle in Mugalivakkam, his fathermoved the Madras high court seeking

`̀50 lakh compensation. Deena, a Class IX student, was play-

ing with his friends when he acciden-tally came in contact with the stagnantwater and suffered electric shock nearDhanam Nagar old post office onSeptember 15.

His father G Senthil claimed thatnegligence on part of the authoritiesled to his son’s death and sought thecourt to direct the state government toprovide compensation. “The author-ities of Tangedco are required to en-

sure that electricity lines along roadsare properly maintained and it doesnot cause any harm to anyone. Howev-er, lackadaisical attitude of the au-thorities in maintaining the cableshas led to the tragic and untimelydeath of my young son,” Senthil said.

Despite repeated complaints, offi-cials did not properly lay electricity ca-bles and bury it under the surface ofthe road. They should have foreseenthe grave danger, more so during rainyseason when water gets stagnated onroads, he added. He further assertedthat his son lost his life only due to thegross negligence of Tangedco andChennai corporation.

“We were given to understand thatthe chief minister announced `̀3 lakhto be paid to us for our son’s death.However, no such amount has beenpaid to us so far,” the petitioner said.

The plea is likely to be taken up forhearing on Monday.

Father of boy who waselectrocuted demands`̀50lakh compensation

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

BLAMES NEGLIGENCE OFOFFICIALS CONCERNED

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