Masjid in Kerala sanctifies a mangalasutra

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Alappuzha:20.01.2020

The over 100-year-old Cheravally Jamaat Masjid in Kayamkulam on Sunday hosted a Hindu wedding on its premises, complete with a vegetarian feast — including two payasam — for 4,000 people. People cutting across religions attended the event, while the jamaat committee met all its expenses.

Sarath Sasi of Kappil Kizhakku, Kayamkulam, and Anju Ashok Kumar tied the knot on the mosque premises, with a Hindu priest leading the rituals. The couple later entered the mosque and sought the blessings of chief imam Riyasudeen Faizy.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the wedding was an example of unity from Kerala. “Congratulations to the newlyweds, families, mosque authorities and people of Cheravally,” he said in a tweet.

“The committee also gave Anju 10 sovereign gold and ₹2 lakh as wedding gift, besides home equipment like TV and fridge,” said Nujumudeen Alummoottil, secretary of Cheravally Muslim Jamaat Committee.

Nujumudeen said Anju is also the first woman to enter the mosque. “All religions teach people to love and care for others. Those lessons led to this wedding,” he said.

He had received an application from Bindu, wife of late Ashok Kumar, seeking help to conduct the wedding of her 24-year-old daughter Anju in October last. “When I shared the application with committee members, all of them came forward to arrange facilities for the wedding. Bindu is staying in a rented house with her three children. We decided to conduct the wedding as per Hindu rituals on the mosque premises,” he said.

Full report on www.toi.in

HINDU WEDDING IN MOSQUE: Sarath and Anju tie the knot on the premises of the Cheravally Jamaat Masjid in Kayamkulam on Sunday

WhatsApp faces outage in India, Twitter abuzz

New Delhi:20.01.2020

WhatsApp users in several parts of the world, including in India, on Sunday took to Twitter to report several issues with the mobile messaging platform.

Millions of users were unable to share videos, photos and GIFs, audio and stickers and several of those said they were even unable to view WhatsApp status feature.

According to Downdetetector.com, the problem started in the evening around 4pm and alive outage map showed users in India, Europe, Brazil and in Southeast Asia were affected by the outage.

“WhatsApp is restoring the service. The server issue should be fixed now,” said WABetainfo-.com, a fan website that tracks WhatsApp. “2 min silence for the peoples who talked about the updates on last post,” tweeted one user. “Stickers can be sent now, the service should be restored completely soon,” tweeted another.

WhatsApp was yet to notify users about how the problem began. People rushed to Twitter to report the issue. “Me waiting for my WhatsApp status update to actually upload. #whatsappdown,” tweeted a user.

Another joined: “RIP WhatsApp. Impossible mandate file multimedia.”

#whatsappdown trended on twitter with 8,246 Tweets as a large number of reports from users stated that WhatsApp is currently down or not working. IANS

Man murders 60-yr-old dad over property

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Salem:20.01.2020

A 26-year-old man murdered his 60-year-old father by slitting his throat near Sivadhapuram here on Sunday after the latter refused to give him his share of property.

The Kondalampatty police arrested Boopathy, son of P Seddu alias Palanisamy, of Andipatty Melkadu.

According to an investigation officer, Boopathy had married against the wishes of his father about six months ago. “He then moved to a different house in the village. An upset Palanisamy refused to share his property with his son,” the officer said.

Afarmer, Palanisamy was in possession of two acres land. On Saturday night, Boopathy came to his father’s house in an inebriated state and demanded his share of property. “When Palanisamy refused, Boopathy slit his father’s throat using a knife and then stabbed him indiscriminately,” the officer said.

Boopathy left the house on Sunday morning. When neighbours went to the house, they found Palanisamy in a pool of blood and alerted police, who sent the body to the Salem government hospital for postmortem.

During inquiry, Boopathy confessed to the crime. Police also recovered the knife that he used to murder his father. Boopathy was produced before a local court and lodged in the Salem Central Prison.

Lost in translation: Madras University cancels four exams

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.01.2020

The first semester exams for distance mode BA and MA (Historical studies and Economics in Tamil medium) scheduled to begin from February 2 were cancelled due to a delay in translation of course materials.

The Institute of Distance Education of Madras University announced that the first-semester exams will be conducted along with second-semester exams in May/June 2020.

It also said that the exam fee paid by students will be refunded in due course.

More than 500 students had enrolled in these two courses offered in the varsity.

Sources said there is a prolonged delay in the preparation of course materials because the writers missed several deadlines.

The university has upgraded the syllabus for IDE courses on par with affiliated colleges and introduced a semester pattern of exams from 2018-19.

Due to this, the course materials for distance mode programmes had to be prepared afresh.

“Affiliated college staff members have been carrying out lesson writing and translation works. Some of them were not able to give the materials on time and there was a delay in translation. The study materials for Tamil medium were ready only a few days before the exam. Keeping students’ interest in mind, we have cancelled the exam,” an official from Madras University said.

BA and MA Historical studies and Economics are being offered for the first time in Tamil medium in the distance mode.

IDE has sent text messages to all the students to avoid confusion during the exams.

Pongal cheers: Tasmac sales touch ₹610 crore in 3 days

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.01.2020

It wasn’t just the Pongal pot that frothed over in Tamil Nadu last week when tipplers opened the bottle, taking Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) revenue to ₹610 crore in three days. This was a 10% jump in revenue compared to the 2019 Pongal season.

The state-owned marketing corporation registered record sales on January 14 and 17; January 16 was a dry day on account of Tiruvalluvar Day. Officials said Wednesday (January 15) registered the peak sale with liquor outlets across the state collecting ₹250 crore. Tamil Nadu has about 5,200 Tasmac shops, 300 of them in Chennai. On Friday (Kaanum Pongal), Tasmac sold ₹175 crore worth of liquor and on Tuesday (Bhogi) it garnered ₹180 crore. It is higher than the usual weekend per day sales, which is between ₹90 crore and ₹100 crore. The value of weekday sale all over Tamil Nadu is pegged at ₹60 crore.

Districts in Madurai and Trichy regions collectively recorded sales of ₹250 crore in three days. The share of Chennai region comprising Chennai, Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts was only ₹105 crore during the period. “Sales and revenue increased at least by 10% his Pongal season over the last. Chennai registered lower sales probably because people travelled from the city to their native towns and villages during the festival,” said a Tasmac official.

The collective sale during this Pongal was higher than last year’s Diwali season as well. The corporation recorded a sale of ₹455 crore between October 25 and 27 in 2019.


FLYING OFF THE SHELVES: Tasmac sold liquor worth ₹175 crore on Kaanum Pongal

Where is the daily bus pass you had promised, minister?

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:20.01.2020

It has been two years since the government scrapped the ₹50 daily passes for travelling on Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses. When complaints poured in, transport minister M R Vijayabaskar soon promised that the scheme would be revived soon after fixing security issues (by adding QR code on printed passes), but nothing has materialised.

According to official data, around eight lakh passengers bought the daily and monthly passes (₹300-₹1,000) every month. This was almost one-fourth of MTC’ss daily footfall. Distribution of both these passes was suspended after the bus fare hike in January 2018. But ₹1,000 worth monthly pass scheme was revived a month later and since then it's average monthly sale increased from 50,000 to 80,000 per month.

Sale of other monthly concession passes (₹320 for 10km and ₹370 for 15km) was also on the rise as it helped people save on commute expense. And then the government scrapped it. V Baskar, a collection agent from Nanganallur, said the pass was a great relief for him. “My job is to collect dues and clear orders from customers in Tambaram, Guindy and Vadapalani. Given the nature of my job, I can’t commute by train and I have to depend on buses and autorickshaws. Instead of spending ₹50, I end up spending double the amount every day and this is one-third of what I earn,” he said.

MTC also reduced the frequency of buses plying along some suburban routes on which daily ticket collection was below par. T Sadagopan, a civic activist from Avadi, complained that MTC has stopped operating buses along B70 (Pattabiram-Guindy) route, and passengers from Avadi have to get a bus to either Ambattur or Vadapalani to reach Guindy. Without daily passes, passengers spend ₹80-₹100 per day. That too none of these buses (plying towards Tambaram) enter Guindy Industrial Estate to drop passengers at the Ekkaduthangal CIPET traffic signal. One has to walk at least a kilometre to reach the estate from this bus stop, he said.

When the matter was taken to him an MTC official said the daily pass was suspended after they found out many started misusing it by sharing it with friends. “It hasn't affected our patronage much,” he said.

MTC reduced the frequency of buses along some suburban routes on which daily ticket collection was below par

பொங்கல் பண்டிகையை கொண்டாட சொந்த ஊருக்கு 15.02 லட்சம் பேர் சென்று திரும்பினர்

Added : ஜன 19, 2020 01:44

சேலம்:பொங்கல் பண்டிகையை கொண்டாட, சொந்த ஊருக்கு பஸ், ரயில்களில், ஒரு வாரத்தில், 20 லட்சம் பேர்பயணித்துள்ளனர்.கடந்த, 2018ம் ஆண்டு பொங்கல் பண்டிகையையொட்டி, சென்னையில் இருந்து, 4.92 லட்சம் பேர்; 2019ல், 7.10 லட்சம் பேர், ரயில், அரசு மற்றும் ஆம்னி பஸ்களில், சொந்த ஊர்களுக்கு சென்றனர்.தொடர் விடுமுறைபிற நகரங்களில் இருந்து, 2018ல், 3.75 லட்சம் பேர்; 2019ல், 4.74 லட்சம் பேர், சொந்த ஊருக்கு பயணித்தனர்.

மொத்தமாக, 2018ல், 9.75 லட்சம் பேர்; 2019ல், 15.02 லட்சம் பேர், சொந்த ஊருக்கு சென்று, மீண்டும் பணியிடங்களுக்கு திரும்பினர்.நடப்பாண்டு பொங்கல் பண்டிகையையொட்டி, 11ம் தேதி முதல், இன்று வரை, தொடர் விடுமுறை விடப்பட்டிருந்தது.இதனால், 10ம் தேதி முதல், சென்னை உள்ளிட்ட முக்கிய நகரங்களிலிருந்து பலர், தங்கள் சொந்த ஊர்களுக்கு படையெடுத்தனர்.ரயில்களில் கூட்டம்சென்னையில் இருந்து, 10ம் தேதி முதல், 14ம் தேதி வரை, 9.10 லட்சம் பேர்; கோவை, திருப்பூர், சேலம் உள்ளிட்ட பிற நகரங்களிலிருந்து, 11.39 லட்சம் பேர், சொந்த ஊர்களுக்கு பயணித்தனர்.இதன்மூலம், நடப்பாண்டில், 20 லட்சத்து, 50 ஆயிரத்து, 440 பேர், சொந்த ஊர்களுக்கு சென்று, நேற்று முன்தினம் முதல், மீண்டும் பணியிடங்களுக்கு திரும்பி வருகின்றனர்.இதனால், தென் மாவட்டங்களில் இருந்து, சென்னை உள்ளிட்ட தொழில் நகரங்களுக்கு இயக்கப்படும் பஸ்கள்,ரயில்கள் பயணியர் கூட்டத்தால் நிரம்பி வழிகின்றன.

இத்தகவல், போக்கு வரத்துக்கழக வணிக பிரிவு அதிகாரிகள் கணக்கீட்டின்படி தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.ரூ.120 கோடி வருவாய்போக்குவரத்துக்கழக வணிக பிரிவு அதிகாரிகள் கூறியதாவது:தொடர் விடுமுறையால், 10 நாட்களாக, அரசு பஸ்கள் கூட்டத்தால் நிரம்பி வழிந்தன. சொந்த ஊருக்கு சென்ற பலர், சுற்றுலா தலங்களுக்கும் சென்றனர். தொடர்ந்து, பஸ்கள், 'ஹவுஸ்புல்' ஆகவே இயக்கப்பட்டு வருகின்றன. 10 நாட்களில், அரசு போக்குவரத்துக்கழகங்களுக்கு, 120 கோடி ரூபாய் வரை வருவாய் கிடைத்துள்ளது. இவ்வாறு, அவர்கள் கூறினர்.