Married off at 13, girl delivers girl a year later

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Tirupur:08.02.2019

A 14-year-old girl gave birth to a baby girl at the Tirupur government hospital on Monday raising the possibility of action under the Pocso Act against her 22-year-old husband. Inquiries by the authorities revealed the girl had been married off at 13 to a relative last April.

Officials from the Tirupur district child protection unit and social welfare department have visited the hospital and interviewed the girl, her husband, her parents and her in-laws.

The girl and her child are doing well; the hospital administration has decided to prolong their stay to monitor them.

Child protection unit sources said the girl’s parents who hailed from Madurai migrated to Tirupur district six years ago for work. They went to work in a copra drying unit in Kangeyam while the girl attended a government school nearby.

After she completed Class VIII, the parents pulled the girl out of school and made her work with them in the copra unit.

In April last year, the minor girl was married off to her relative who worked in the same unit. Three months ago, the family and the young couple moved to another copra drying unit in Uthukuli.

“Along with the social welfare department, we conducted an inquiry. The husband may be booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, and Justice Juvenile (Care and Protection of children) Act,” said D Vasanth Kumar, Tirupur district child protection officer.

“We will submit a report on the issue before the child welfare committee, which will take a call on legal procedures and rehabilitation programmes if needed,” he said.

“If the mother and her family are found to be unfit or unwilling to raise the newborn, the baby will be sent to a government-recognized children home,” Vasanth added.

In April last year, the minor girl was married to a 22-year-old relative. The husband is likely to face charges under the Pocso Act, Prohibition of Child marriage Act, and Justice Juvenile (Care and Protection of children) Act

Pay ₹3L relief or get 3-yr RI, HC tells man who cheated woman

Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com

Madurai:08.02.2019

An accused, who was sentenced to one year in jail by a Thanjavur court in 2007 for refusing to marry the woman he impregnated had his appeal turned down by the Madurai bench of the Madras high court. The court also directed the man to pay ₹3 lakh to the woman, failing which he would have to undergo three years rigorous imprisonment, in addition to the trial court’s sentence.

Justice J Nisha Banu dismissed the appeal by the accused, Senthil Kumar, who was initially booked under sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act along with Section 417 (cheating) for refusing to marry a lower caste woman after impregnating her. The trial court found him guilty under Section 417 and acquitted him of other charges. The DNA report submitted before the trial court also proved the accused is the biological father of the child.

In the appeal, the accused’s counsel contended that there is no evidence to show that he promised to marry her and there was no deception involved and the woman, an adult, wilfully entered into the relationship with the man. To this, the court responded that in these cases, court cannot expect evidence from other aspects and that without the assurance of marriage, it could not have been possible for a woman to have sexual intercourse with a man.

“No prudent girl would allow a man to have sexual intercourse just for lust, that too, in Indian culture. It has its own values from time immemorial,” the court observed. The court also dismissed other contentions by the accused as means to escape from the clutches of law. The accused has to be held responsible for the stigma attached and directed him to pay ₹3 lakh to the victim, failing which, the district collector of Thanjavur is directed to recover the sum from the accused and pay the victim.

Minister chides Stalin for remark on GIM investors
Chennai:08.02.2019

Tamil Nadu Industries minister M C Sampath on Thursday chided DMK president M K Stalin for questioning the status of investors, who had entered into MoUs with the state government in the recently concluded Global Investors Meet (GIM). Stalin on Wednesday had said the state government had dragged people from roadside and defaulters in receipt of notices from banks to sign MoUs during GIM.

“Several leading Indian companies like TVS, MRF, Adani and Birla as well as several multinationals including Hyundai and Yamaha among others had entered into MoUs during the GIM, which was also attended by several delegates representing various embassies. Stalin is unable to digest the success of GIM,” Sampath said. He said, in any industrial investment, money required for a project is borrowed from banks. “It is surprising that Stalin, who had handled the industries portfolio, was not aware of this,” he said. TNN

Tejas Express to Madurai not to roll on Sunday, likely on Feb 27
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:08.02.2019

The Railway Board on Wednesday night gave the green signal to Southern Railway to run the Tejas Express from Chennai to Madurai. Top railway sources said, however, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not inaugurate the train on February 10 as was decided earlier. He is likely to inaugurate the train on February 27 when he visits Nagercoil and Kanyakumari.

“Tejas has been ready to be flagged off for a month. It has been waiting at the Basin Bridge yard,” said a railways official. Once operational, the train will leave Chennai Egmore at 6am and roll into Madurai station six hours and 30 minutes later. It will only stop at Trichy and Kodai Road. In the return direction, it will start from Madurai at 3pm and reach Chennai at 9:30pm.

Travellers are disappointed with the delay. “We were expecting it during Pongal holidays,” said J Mahendran, a frequent traveller between Chennai and Madurai.

The journey time of four hours and 23 minutes and four hours and 38 minutes between Chennai and Trichy is aimed at giving a tough fight to airlines, said senior officials. From Chennai, the train will reach Kodai Road at 11:38am, which means tourists from the state capital can reach Kodaikanal by noon. In the return direction, the train will reach Kodai Road at 3:28pm.

Tejas Express has onboard wifi, a CCTV system, modular toilets and better seats. It will be the first premier train linking Chennai Egmore with southern districts. Tickets may cost around ₹1,000 for a chair-car seat if the dynamic pricing is taken into account. An executive class seat will cost around ₹2,000.

WILL HAVE TO WAIT

Sloppy road repairs leave Chromepet residents unhappy

Shruti.Suresh@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  08.02.2019

Residents in Chromepet and Pallavaram are apprehensive about the Pallavaram municipality’s plans to relay several roads saying they won’t be milled properly, which could lead to flooding when it rains. Milling is the process of removing previous layers so that the height of the road does not rise with every relaying.

The fears were sparked by the way VOC Street and Hanumar Koil Street were relaid over six days ago. While VOC Street was milled and relaid, Hanumar Koil Street, which was in good shape to begin with, just got a fresh layer of bitumen that is already coming off in patches.

“We were informed that only patchwork will be carried out to fill road cuts as the rest of the Hanumar Koil Street was in a good condition. But in two nights, the entire stretch was laid,” said David Manohar, a civic activist.

Shops and houses along Hanumar Koil Stree are already low-lying with water entering the premises every rainy season. Now, the height of the road has increased by more than an inch. “We have put a concrete strip to prevent rainwater from entering, but each time the road is relaid our houses end up even lower compared to the street level,” said a hardware store owner.

Madras HC had ordered that road height should be maintained and that none can be re-laid without milling the existing road.

Chromepet residents’ fears that the roads won’t be milled appear justified. Tender documents accessed by TOI for package seven, which includes relaying of more than ten roads in wards 19, 21 and 22 of Chromepet show that only one (Mageswari Nagar 1st Street) was to be milled. “Krishna Nagar 1st , 2nd , and 3rd streets have not been relaid in 10 years. Even now, if milling is not done, it will lead to heavy inundation during rains,” said Udaya, a resident. He added that gravel was laid in patches to cover road cuts, which had led to bumpy stretches.

Officials in the municipality said that only in the case of extremely worn out roads, was milling done before relaying then. “VOC Street was completely worn out and was milled and relaid. But the rest of the roads had only minor damage. If milling was done, then the entire base would have had to be removed. So, the top layer of bitumen was alone provided,” said the municipal engineer, Karuppiah Raja. He added that when the roads are relaid again, all four needed layers will be milled and relaid.

INADEQUATE WORK: Newly-laid Hanumar Koil Street near Hasthinapauram in Chromepet

Owner leaves keys behind, house burgled

Chennai:08.02.2019

Around 28 sovereigns of gold jewellery worth ₹7 lakh and ₹3,000 were stolen from a house in Triplicane on Wednesday.

The incident came to light on Thursday morning when the owner of the house, Thiruvengadam, who works for an ITcompany, returnedfrom a relative’s house along with his family members.

Thiruvengadam approached the Anna Square police station and lodged a complaint.

Police said the residents had locked the door and kept the keys, including those of the safe, near the window. “The thieves used the keys to open the door. There was no forced entry,” the officer said. “Besides the gold, some foreign currency is also missing,” he said.

Police are scanning CCTV camera footage from the area to trace the suspects. “They might have kept an eye on the family to learn about their ways before targeting the house” said an investigating officer. TNN

Brookfield eyes Jio’s ₹1.07L cr telecom assets in mega deal

Reeba Zachariah & Boby Kurian

Mumbai:08.02.2019

Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world’s top infrastructure and private equity investors, is in early talks to buy controlling shares in Reliance Jio’s telecom towers and fibre assets valued at over $15 billion (₹1.07 lakh crore), people directly aware of the matter said. The deal, if it happens, would be one of the largest M&As in India.

Jio, the telecom arm of India’s most valued company Reliance Industries (RIL), recently said it was spinning off tower and fibre into two separate entities, as part of an anticipated deleveraging exercise. RIL is keen on retiring and refinancing a chunk of its ₹3 lakh crore, or $40 billion, debt mostly soaked up to finance Jio’s disruptive roll-out.

Brookfield may become largest telecom infra player

Jio operates with a network of over 2.2 lakh towers, including third party ones, and around three lakh route kilometre of optic fibre, in serving a subscriber base fast approaching 300 million. Canada-based Brookfield, managing assets worth more than $330 billion globally, has been eyeing telecom infrastructure assets in Asia’s third largest economy for a while. Brookfield had purchased the loss-making East West Pipeline—a 1,400km pipeline connecting Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat—entity owned by Mukesh Ambani and family for $2 billion last year.

“Jio plans to take certain infrastructure assets out of the balance sheet as part of the de-leveraging exercise. It is exploring a deal with Brookfield to spin off assets which has the ability to carry huge debt when backed by long-term operating agreements,” aid a person familiar with the matter. Brookfield, which has built a rapport with RIL, along with its global sponsors are keen on a full acquisition, but details would be flushed out only as talks move forward. A potential stake buy in Jio’s assets could make Brookfield the largest telecom infrastructure player in the country. Brookfield was unavailable for comment. RIL didn’t respond to an email query sent on Wednesday till the time of going to press. Indus Towers, majorityowned by rival telcos Vodafone and Airtel, is merging with Bharti Infratel creating a $14 billion combine with 1.63 lakh towers. Private equity investor KKR and one of its sponsors Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board will hold 6% in the combined entity. KKR had bought into Bharti Infratel to trigger a $5 billion share purchase in the eventual combine, but the deal-making hasn’t progressed.

Jio’s infra assets could be valued anywhere between $12-15 billion depending on how it consolidates towers spread between its own, third party and those of the bankrupt Reliance Communications (RCom), which it was expected to buyout. Incidentally, Brookfield was close to acquiring Anil Ambani-owned RCom’s tower unit before the deal collapsed.

If the transaction with Brookfield gets completed, it will be a rare private equity deal within the broader RIL. In the past, the group has had a joint venture with New York-based DE Shaw for financial services.