The presence of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and former Union Minister S.S. Palanimanickam at the reception accorded to the President Pranab Mukherjee at the Air Force Station in Thanjavur on Saturday made many raise their eyebrows.
As per the protocol, Mr. Palanimanickam does not stand a chance to be in the list of the VIPs to receive the President, as he is not holding any office at present. Official sources said, as Mr. Palanimanickam had served as Union Minister of State for Finance under Mr. Pranab Mukherjee for a few years in the United Progressive Alliance regime, the local authorities received a special message from the Rashtrapathi Bhavan to include him in the list. Mr. Palanimanickam received the President and also saw him off.
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The appointment of P. Rajkumar, Chairman, North Zone, Coimbatore Corporation, as the party’s Coimbatore Urban District Secretary has put an end to the speculation as to who would be the next district secretary. But the rumour mills are working over time as to who will be the next Coimbatore Mayor.
Initially, the talk was that AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa was likely to pick Mr. Rajkumar for the Mayorship as he was known to be close to State Minister for Municipal Administration and Water Supply S.P. Velumani, who until recently held the additional charge as the Coimbatore Urban District Secretary. Now it looks the floor is wide open. The party sources say that the Chief Minister will try to bring in a caste balance by appointing a person from outside the Gounder community, as both Mr. Rajkumar and Mr. Velumani are from the community. The present Deputy Mayor Leelavathi Unni, who holds additional charge as the Mayor in-charge, is a native of Kerala.
Meanwhile, AIADMK sources say that the former Mayor and urban district secretary S.M. Velusamy is planning a comeback as he is busy collecting details about the present office bearers and faxing allegations against them to the party chief.
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The controversy over the National Democratic Alliance Government’s move to promote the use of Hindi in official social media communications may have died down, but the issue is still causing headache to many officers in Central government departments and agencies. For, many of these officers, including those hailing from other States, are finding it difficult to comply with this order.
A senior officer of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), posted at the Coimbatore International Airport, says they now make entries in the official log book in Hindi.
However, the official says that finding the accurate Hindi word for certain official functions was so difficult that they are now spending a lot of time on the Hindi dictionary every day.
(Reporting by Syed Muthahar Saqaf, Karthik Madhavan and R. Sairam)
