In 2 hours, temple town Puri turned into a ghost town

Debabrata.Mohapatra@timesgroup.com

Puri:5.5.2019

The pilgrim town of Puri in Odisha was unnaturally still at 6am on Friday. The servitors of the Jagannath Temple had opened the main doors of the shrine as usual but the normal crowd was missing. Puri — a ghost town minus its tourists — was waiting for its tryst with Cyclone Fani.

In two hours, the town was tossed up and down like a plaything. As the nightmare continued till noon, TOI saw from close range the fury nature wreaked on this seaside town.

On Friday, it was possible to step out on the beach till about 7am. Soon after, a strong wind triggered a sand storm. Within minutes, everything turned hazy as the cyclone inched closer to the beach.

At a beachfront hotel’s entrance on the ground floor, the shrill whistling sound of the gale was the only thing that was audible. In minutes, the wind smashed the glass windowpanes of the hotel’s rooms.

As the wind speed started easing around 12.30pm, scenes of destruction were everywhere. In the absence of cabs and auto-rickshaws, people had no choice but to walk across the town.

While thatched shanties were completely blown away, the residences of even the collector, the SP and other government officials could not escape damage.

Full report on www.toi.in

Train services to Puri unlikely before May 10

New Delhi:The railways will resume all train services from Bhubaneswar on Sunday, except two, and it has already cleared the Howrah-Chennai mainline, officials said.

Two trains originating from Bhubaneshwar will remain cancelled and all services to Puri are unlikely to begin before May 10. Bhubaneshwar-Tirupati and Visakhapatnam Intercity have been cancelled due to non-availability of pairing trains, J P Mishra, a spokesperson of the East Coast Railway, said. PTI

I-T unearths ₹595cr in unaccounted income
Tax Lens On Investments By ‘Lottery King’, His Kin

Sivakumar.B@timesgroup.com

Chennai:5.5.2019

Searches on the premises of ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin, his relatives and associates have unearthed ₹595 crore of unaccounted income, said I-T investigation officials on Saturday. The searches, which started on Tuesday, were partially completed on Saturday, said officials.

The officials found ₹8.25 crore in cash at various premises, of which ₹5.8 crore was seized. The department is scrutinising investments worth several hundred crores of rupees made by Martin and his relatives. “We have found unaccounted receipts and payments running into a few hundred crores of rupees. We are in the process of verifying records to ascertain their sources,” said an official.

The search commenced on April 30 across 70 premises in Coimbatore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Siliguri, Gangtok, Ranchi and Ludhiana. The group is particularly active in lotteries of West Bengal and Northeastern states where it has monopoly. The group also has dealings in real estate and finance business in a big way, said a senior I-T investigation wing official.

Martin’s companies have been under the department’s radar for quite some time due to steady fall in its advance tax payments in the last few years. “The advance tax payments started coming down from 2016-17. When confronted, Martin said he was incurring losses after the introduction of GST. While the tax was 4% before the introduction of GST, it is 28% now. Our probe further confirmed he was evading tax,” said the official.

The searches yielded unaccounted gold and diamond jewellery worth ₹24.57 crore. They have been frozen. “Martin’s lottery business comprises printing lotteries, selling them and appointing agents and sub-agents. We are probing whether there is any fraud in the prize distribution. We have some specific information. Only further probe will reveal details. Much of the unaccounted income was invested in realty in Coimbatore,” said the official.

“Prohibitory orders have been clamped on several premises where documents and electronic evidences and digital documents were found. They are yet to be examined,” said the official.

Attempts to contact Martin and his family members in Coimbatore were in vain

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BIG MONEY: Bundles of cash found during searches in a property of ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin on Saturday

MKU seeks ₹2cr from Centre
Madurai:5.5.2019

Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has sought ₹2 crore fund from the central government under the Nirbhaya fund to introduce several new initiatives. As part of this, a control room exclusively for the campus and introduction of mandatory self-defence as part of the academics have been planned. University officials told TOI that they had prepared a detailed proposal for the funds and had recently submitted it to the state higher education department, which would be sending it to the ministry of women and child development, government of India. TNN

NEWS DIGEST

8 new courses at med college soon

Chennai 5.5.2019

As many as eight new super-specialty courses are likely to be introduced from the upcoming academic year at Madurai Medical College (MMC). Besides these, seats for two existing super-specialty courses are also being increased. According to officials from the MMC, the Medical Council of India (MCI) had conducted and inspection of all courses which got over last week. “We’re hoping to get the approval as soon as possible,” a source from the MMC said.

Sexual abuse victim facing threats, says NGO:

A five-year-old dalit girl, who was sexually abused, and her family members are facing life threats from the abuser and his supporters at Kumizhiyam village in Ariyalur district, allege Evidence, an NGO, in a fact-finding committee report recently. The visit by the committee to the village also revealed that the villagers had covered up sexual abuse on the same girl child by a 21-year-old in February 2018 on the pretext of a compromise.

Out on bail, advocate arrested again: Soon after getting bail in a case of atrocities against dalits, advocate P Arul was arrested on charges of spreading malicious content against a ruling party politician in Perambalur on Friday. Arul was arrested on charges of creating and spreading a derogatory audio about sexual abuse to women against a ruling party politician in the district.


BEACH CLEANING TO HONOUR THAI KING:Members of the Thai community take part in a clean-up drive at Elliot's beach in Besant Nagar, Chennai, along with locals, on the occassion of the coronation of King Rama X in Thailand

Without single window, arts admission a wild goose chase

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:5.5.2019

The demand for arts and science courses in Tamil Nadu is growing, but colleges continue to flout rules and guidelines as the state government has not implemented a proposal for single-window counselling for these seats.

Not just private self-financing colleges, even government-aided colleges don’t follow rules. Instead of selling a common application for all courses offered by a college (including BSc, BCom and BA) as per the norms, colleges insist that applicants buy separate forms for courses.

Though the government has fixed ₹50 as the maximum fee for application, parents and students are forced to pay ₹200 - ₹500 at colleges which sell multiple forms. Mani, a Chennai student seeking admission to a science course, said, “I’ve applied in six colleges so far. Each college collects ₹100 for BSc (physics) and another ₹100 for chemistry.”

Many colleges don’t follow the government rule that no application fee should be taken from candidates belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Colleges were told not to admit students in self-financing stream (evening course) before completing admission for aided sections (morning course). “Though the application fee might look like a small amount, colleges are making lakhs of rupees out of it,” said S Eswaran, who has been campaigning for single-window counselling for arts and science admissions.

There is no standard procedure to ensure transparency in the admission process that involves 3.5 lakh students from 740-odd colleges. “Students, who are not sure about admission prospects, end up paying fees at the college which offers them the seat first. Finally, when they get a seat in a college of their choice, they aren’t in a position to quit as colleges don’t refund the fees. The government authorities haven’t done anything about this,” Eswaran said.

Higher education minister K P Anbalagan, in September 2018, said the government was reviewing a proposal to conduct single-widow system, but there has been no move in this direction. A senior official of the higher education department said the government is busy fixing fees for colleges, and the single-window counselling proposal would be taken up for discussion after that.

There has also been a demand for a university-level counselling as an adhoc arrangement with available resources so that it can be expanded into a state-wide initiative in the coming years.

SYMBIOSIS SCHOOL OF PLANNING ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN NAGPUR

Case on I-T sleuths over ‘lottery king’ staffer death

A Subburaj & B Sivakumar TNN

Coimbatore/Chennai:  5.5.2019

The Coimbatore rural police on Saturday registered a case against income tax officials for abetting to suicide of an employee of ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin.

The deceased, T Palanisamy, 45, of Urumandampalayam, was working as a cashier at Future Gaming and Hotel Service Private Limited at GN Mills in Coimbatore. The firm belongs to Martin with whom Palanisamy was associated for more than 25 years.

Palanisamy was questioned by I-T officials after they started searches on Martin’s premises, numbering about 70, on April 30. Palanisamy was questioned first at his home and later at his office. As per a complaint filed by his son P Rohin Kumar, Palanisamy had left home for office at 7am on Friday.

Kin allege I-T officials physically tortured employee of Martin

Around10.30am, Rohin Kumar was informed that his father did not reach office. Their searches did not yield any result. Around 3pm, Rohin Kumar got a call from the Karamadai police saying Palanisamy’s body was found in a pond at Velliankadu.

Rohin Kumar’s complaint said his father was tortured by I-T sleuths and that was the reason for his suicide. Kumar said an I-T official had beaten Palanisamy at their residence.

Based on the complaint, the Karamadai police registered a case against unidentified I-T sleuths under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

“The complainant did not mention the I-T officials’ names. We will have to conduct further investigation for more details,” said a police officer.

A senior I-T official, however, claimed his colleagues had not physically tortured Palanisamy. He said CCTV camera footage of Palanisamy’s questioning was available to verify his claims. “We have a statement from Palanisamy to prove there was no torture,” said the official.

He said I-T officials had asked 15 questions to Palanisamy and his answers were corroborated with the statement given by his senior Kennedy. “When Palanisamy came to our office on the second day, he had blood stains on his hand. We asked him about the injury. His reply was that he had injured himself in a fall. All these are recorded,” said the official.

The official said nothing was found in Palanisamy’s residence but there were loose sheets at his office, which had details of accounts for three years.