Land grab cells in Tamil Nadu

State action by AIADMK government led to the formation of special cells with 410 police personnel and a budgetary allocation of Rs 20 crore. Similarly 25 special courts (2 in Chennai and the rest – one each in the districts) were set up by a separate order on August 11, 2011.

So far the special cells for the land grab cases received nearly 17000 complaints but 700 and odd FIRs only could be registered.

Such an action on the part of the state government received a setback when the Madras High Court stopped filing of charge sheets in the matter on the basis of a PIL filed by advocate P.Ganesan alleging lot of infirmities and illegalities in the state action. One defect is that the word ‘land grab’ has not been properly defined in the order leading to lot of confusion and enabling all sorts of complaints being reported to the police.

One has to wait and watch the fate of those complaints filed by the private parties not only against the leading party leaders including former ministers in the former DMK ministry but also those between two private individuals or families with the police.

(Times of India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012)

How many Engineering colleges are needed for Tamil Nadu?

As per the report received from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), as many as 56 colleges were sanctioned by it as against the total number of applications received from Tamil Nadu in the year 2011-12 . This year the applicaions would be somewhere around 200 by Jan 15, 2013 and about 50% would be cleared by April 15, 2013 as usual. As on date there are about 525 engineering colleges already giving technical education in the state.

There is no ostensible interest or enthusiasm for starting ITIs, polytechnics, nor arts and science colleges. The reason is obvious. Standard of technical education in the state is already known to everyone - with less infrastructure and less trained teachers all over.

It seems to be nobody' business to prepare man-power planning and estimate the need and potential in the employment market for the engineers along with diploma holders and craftsmen both within the country and abroad. Neither the State Government, nor the Central Government or their Planning Commissions are prepared to take up this exercise and regulate the number of institutions before we waste our precious resources and end up in lopsided growth.

13 holidays in January for TN government staff

The New Year's good news to the Tamil Nadu government's staff is that they can enjoy as much as 13 days' holidays in January, 2013. The year itself starts on a holiday mood.

With the Chief Minister and almost all the ministers being away from the Headquarters (St. George Fort) for more than two weeks and the staff enjoying several week-ends with the C.L combined, the work seems to suffer a lot. Even otherwise our staff is very efficient as we are aware. God help this state in its march to golden era!

Life's Inspiration

On November 22, 2012, I happened to see the exhibition of 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore on wheels arranged by Indian Railways that was stationed for three days in Chennai Central Railway Station for the public view. A great effort in memory of the great legend of India!

His was a saga of personal losses on the family life-front but the Guru lived a long life and guided the country for a few decades apart from establishing a world-renowned institution "Santhi Nikethan". He tried to live with and enjoy 'Nature' from close quarters. Hence a number of poems linking nature with the Almighty.

After leaving the platform (No. 11) my mind was engrossed with the Tagore days and asking myself:

"Where did I come from and what for ?

& 

 Where do I go from here now in this life?"

US Air Force Fails to Protect the Fair Sex

The latest news from Washington is disheartening and demoralizing. It is reported that some 50 women-trainees have been raped by the men officers in charge of training at the training Academy of US Air Force in Lakeland of Texas State. About 23 officials have been dismissed from service due to this misconduct and criminal activity. Out of this lot one person named Louis Walker seems to have raped as many as 35 women for which he has been sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, as indicated by the Training-in-charge General Edward Rice who conducted the enquiry into this affair.

Where is the human being proceeding to? A disciplined and organized force is committing such an inhuman activity?

Sex feeling enhanced by the current avalanche of literature and video shows on sex both in print, digital and website is playing a prominent role in shaping the unfortunate behavior of male adults. Any remedy? Society and the leaders are to take a note of this and find immediate and practical solution to this malady.

Residential Apartments in Multi-storeyed Buildings

A two-storey building collapsed in Triplicane area of Chennai city on October 3, 2012 resulting in the death of two persons. Despite the complaint of the tenants the owners failed to repair the building. It is reportedly a 50 year-old building. I have the feeling that it is just a starting point and such a calamity is likely to recur routinely in every major city like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata where such old apartments are in plenty. A drive through those cities will reveal such a possibility in the near future. Unless a serious note is taken of these occurrences and a massive renovation and rebuilding of those old apartments is taken up in a systematic way many more lives are likely to be lost unfortunately. Who is to do this?

Gandhi Jayanthi

Today is 143rd Birth anniversary of Mohandas.K.Gandhi, the popular and powerful Mahatma of Indian politics. I saw the movie 'Gandhi' today on a local T.V channel in Chennai made on his life by Richard Attenborough. It is certainly a thought-provoking and inspiring life-story of a leader adored and venerated by millions of people not only in India but overseas as well. Two facts of his life were little twisted in the film: One- He sacrificed costly dress material and upper garment altogether near Madurai in South India during his study tour of the country but it was not depicted so in the film: Two- The title 'Mahatma' was given by Poet Rabindranath Tagore but in the film it was shown as given by Jawaharlal Nehru.

The great leader met with a violent death although he was a messiah of non-violence and lived & preached truth and non-violence throughout his life. It is a paradox of human life.

He died a disappointed and broken man with India being partitioned and people put to lot of hardships. He and his followers fought for one and united India accommodating all religions and communities. His social reforms and economic thoughts were not totally approved by his political followers in Congress Party after independence in 1947. Communal harmony and national allegiance are not strictly adhered to and ensured by certain groups of people in India even today.

As an administrator I used to celebrate the Gandhi Jayanthi wherever possible while in service - as Sub Divisional Officer, as Collector, as Divisional Commissioner, as Secretary to the government or Managing Director of a Corporation / Board / Society. Bur after retirement from active service I am finding difficult to repeat the same activity nowadays. For today (October 2, 2012) esp. I tried at four places:- 1) South Venganallur Panchayat in Rajapalayam Panchayat Union in Virudhunagar district, 2) Kisan Vikas Kendra at Krishnagiri district. 3) A village near Avadi in Tiruvallur District. 4) Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai. But the authorities concerned were not very enthusiastic about the idea and naturally some action programme on the occasion.

We are more formal these days in laying wreaths on the Samadhi of Gandhiji at Rajghat in New Delhi.