Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj visited Srirangapatnam yesterday to pay floral tributes to the tomb of Tipu Sultan. He addressed the crowd about the greatness and patriotic traits of Tipu. Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha has been celebrating Tipu jayanthi for more than 10-12 years regularly. They demanded that Tipu statue be installed outside Parliament house. Tipu’s B’day be celebrated by state and nation both, and his B’day should be declared as national holiday. The devanahalli main road be named after Tipu.

Los Angeles: National Award-winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran’s Tamil drama “Visaranai” has been winnowed out of the Best Foreign Language Film category of the upcoming 89th Academy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday announced the nine films that will advance to the next round of voting.

As many as 85 films had originally been considered in the category. The shortlist will be further trimmed down to the final five nominations, to be announced on January 24, next year.

Based on the novel “Lock Up” by auto-rickshaw driver-turned-writer M. Chandrakumar, the film is about organised crime within the police force. It also focuses the spotlight on police brutality. “Visaranai” features Dinesh, Samuthirakani, Ajay Ghosh and Kishore in the lead.

(Agencies)

Chennai: The ruling AIADMK today strongly backed late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala to succeed her as party General Secretary, saying she qualifies to be elected “automatically” and “unanimously” to the post by virtue of being the departed leader’s “conscience” for long.

Party spokesperson C Ponnaiyan said while Jayalalithaa was the “conscience” of AIADMK founder and her mentor M G Ramachandran, Sasikala was, likewise, her “conscience.”

“Chinnamma (as Sasikala is addressed by party workers), had been with Amma through her good and bad times for 33 years. She had been Amma’s conscience and continues to be so. She has played a vital role in keeping the party intact for long. Therefore, Chinnamma will be elected as General Secretary automatically and unanimously. There is no doubt or fear in that,” he told reporters here.

He expressed confidence that the party’s decision-making bodies, General Council and Executive Council, have powers to elect Sasikala to lead the party and that the “aspirations will be met” in this regard.

Indicating their proximity, he said Sasikala was Jayalalithaa’s ‘udanpirava sagothari’ (surrogate sister).

Ponnaiyan said an online campaign on WhatsApp and Facebook to “defame Sasikala” and “finish off AIADMK” by “opposition parties” will not succeed.

Ponnaiyan recalled that whenever the party functionaries would want to discuss an issue with Jayalalithaa, she would “affectionately” refer them to Sasikala and “gave so much of importance to her”.

Sasikala “cared for and protected” Jayalalithaa, he said, adding, she had been a “shadow” and “conscience” of the late leader.

Meanwhile, scores of senior party functionaries thronged the Poes Garden residence of Jayalalithaa and urged Sasikala to take over the reins of AIADMK and lead the party.

Senior leaders, including Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, had earlier voiced their support for Sasikala’s elevation.

(PTI)

Bengaluru: Hit by an alleged sex CD scandal, Karnataka Excise Minister H Y Meti resigned today, saying he has quit to avoid embarrassment to the Siddaramaiah government while denying any wrongdoing on his part.

As the controversy snowballed with the Opposition demanding his exit, Meti met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and submitted his resignation.

“Excise Minister H Y Meti has resigned. I have recommended to Hon’ble Governor to accept the resignation. I have also ordered a probe,” Siddaramaiah tweeted.

“I have resigned on my own volition to avoid any embarrassment to the government and the chief minister,” Meti told reporters after he met the Chief Minister.

“I have done nothing wrong. I have requested the Chief Minister to hold an inquiry,” said 71-year-old Meti, who has been rubbishing the allegations against him.

The minister landed in a row after an RTI activist Rajashekar Mulali claimed that he was in possession of a CD containing Meti’s alleged indecent act with a woman who approached him for a favour.

The activist had also claimed that some supporters of Meti had threatened him over the CD, which had not been released till the minister’s exit.

However, an audio tape had surfaced in connection with the alleged sex CD, where a man claiming to be a supporter of Meti is heard threatening the RTI activist.

“…All the reports that are coming on TV channels are false. I don’t know who that RTI activist is, I only saw him on TV today. Also none of my supporters have threatened anyone, the language they are using is not the one spoken in north Karnataka,” Meti had said earlier after the row erupted.

Meti had also said he did not know who was behind the CD

as “I don’t have any enemies..” but added that he did not intend to lodge a police complaint, saying, “let them produce the video and prove the allegations first, after that I will take required action, whether to file a police complaint or whatever needs to be done.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is in the eye of a storm with the Congress accusing him of involvement in a Rs 450-crore “scam” over payments to sub-contractors, including his “cousin”, working for a 600MW hydel project in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Congress sought the resignation of Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, after releasing an audio tape on Tuesday purportedly featuring his “cousin” and a top vigilance officer. The tape includes a purported conversation the minister’s “cousin” and a sub-contractor for the project Goboi Rijiju had with Satish Verma, Chief Vigilance Officer of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO).

Goboi is heard dropping the name of his minister “cousin” and assuring Verma of a promotion if he cleared the hurdles in payment of bills for supply of boulders to the Kameng Hydro-electric Power Project.

Verma, an IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, had submitted a 129-page report to the CBI, the CVC and the Ministry of Power in July alleging an “elaborate conspiracy” involving contractors, NEEPCO officials and the district administration to dupe the government to the tune of Rs 450 crore.

In a late-night statement, the power ministry said Verma had filed the “back-dated” reports after being “relieved of duties” on July 5, 2016. It said he was charge-sheeted for continued violation of the Central Vigilance Commission instructions and violation of conduct rules for “not performing his duties with due diligence and care”.
Rijiju had written a letter to Power Minister Piyush Goyal in November last year urging him to look into the matter “sympathetically on priority”.

“Kiren Rijiju has no right to continue in office,” Randeep Singh Surjewala, in charge of the Congress’ communications department, said.

Rijiju refutes corruption charges

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju refuted the Congress’ charges involving him and a contractor in a hydro-electric project in Arunachal Pradesh. Denying that he had written to Power Minister Piyush Goyal last November to help his “brother”, he said he had intervened after the local people had told him that their payments had been held up for two months.

(Agencies)