Even as the euphoric TNCC president, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, expressed the hope that the Congress would return to power in 2016, he acknowledged that the wave was in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Even my granddaughter is harping on his name,” he said at a function to mark the 125 birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, where all factional leaders of the Congress came together. These mutually antagonistic leaders seemed to agree that the person who had united them this time was not the first Prime Minister, but the former Union Minister, G.K. Vasan, who quit the Congress recently to launch a new party.
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The sudden shifting of D.V. Sadananda Gowda from the Railway Ministry to the Ministry of Law and Justice in the recent Union Cabinet shuffle has sent shock waves among the rail-users associations in Tamil Nadu. They feel this will affect the railway projects in the State.
As Mr. Gowda hailed from the neighbouring Karnataka, the rail-users associations from Kumbakonam and Nagercoil called on him at his Bangalore residence to place their demands.
In particular, the Thanjavur District Rail Users Association pleaded for facilities in the Kumbakonam and neighbouring stations in view of the Mahamaham festival.
Taking their cue from these associations, many others planned to meet Mr. Gowda in Bangalore. “Mr. Sadananda Gowda was accessible; hence, we had planned to meet him soon. It is a bad luck that he has been shifted,” says M. Giriraj, a consumer activist of Salem.
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At the syndicate meeting of the University of Madras in September, four professors vehemently protested the appointment of a professor as head of the Department of Vaishnavism as they considered him less qualified than a senior, better qualified contender.
Normally, the proceedings are recorded in the minutes but the members who had expressed their dissent were in for a shock when they found that the minutes, which they received a few days later, had recorded the dissent of only two members. The names of the other two were left out. The chagrined members took up the matter with the Vice-Chancellor. They said they could not accept the tampering of records.
The Vice-Chancellor asked officials to issue the corrected minutes, including the names of all the four dissenters.
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It appears to be musical chairs at the top of the Coimbatore Corporation as there have been too many changes in the recent past. It started with the exit of S.M. Velusamy as Mayor after the Lok Sabha elections. For a few months, it was the then Commissioner, G. Latha, who ran the day-to-day affairs and Deputy Mayor Leelavathy Unni officiated as Mayor.
After the State Election Commission announced the dates for the local bodies by-polls, it was Ms. Latha’s turn to move out. In came S. Ganesh, who conducted the election and then chaired an emergency meeting. Meanwhile, P. Rajkumar, former North Zone Chairman, was elected Mayor.
Now the State government has transferred Mr. Ganesh and brought in K. Vijayakarthikeyan. Most officials of the civic body wish that the frequent changes at the top stopped at least for a while so that works would get the required attention.
( B. Kolappan, Syed Muthahar Saqaf, R. Sujatha and Karthik Madhavan )
