TN This Week: CM Stalin's 70th Birthday Celebration Turns into Show of Strength Uniting Country's Opposition
Image credit: India Today
DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance’s Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan won the spirited Erode (East) by-poll with 64.58% of the votes on Thursday. He won by a large margin of 66,406 votes defeating AIADMK’s KS Thennarasu, who polled 25.75% of the votes.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) State Secretary K Balakrishnan on Monday urged the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) to cancel the Group-2 mains exam held on February 25 citing various irregularities.
The 150-year-old Dr MGR Ramachandran Central Railway Station in Chennai bid adieu to the public announcement system that has guided passengers for decades, making it the first in India to do so. TARATDAC, an association for the rights of the differently-abled, condemned this move.
Actor-turned-politician and BJP leader Khushbu Sundar has been nominated as a member of the National Commission for Women (NCW).
A mandatory ‘caste category’ entry introduced in point of sale (PoS) machines for getting fertilizer subsidies has enraged Tamil Nadu farmers. As per the new update, the caste details of buyers must be recorded under the sale entry for getting direct benefit transfers.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday announced a relief of Rs 112.72 crore to compensate the farmers in the state for crop loss due to unseasonal heavy rains during the last week of January and the first week of February this year.
CALL FOR OPPOSITION UNITY
The birthday celebrations of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin on Wednesday saw calls for opposition unity with regional parties Samajwadi Party and National Conference urging him to take a larger role in Delhi ahead of the 2024 general elections.
National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are among those who attended the celebrations in Chennai.
Speaking at the event Stalin said, “I am glad that this stage serves as not just [a platform] to celebrate my birthday, but also to launch a new politics that India needs”.
“It is not about who should form the government in the 2024 elections, but it is about who should not end up forming the government,” he said, referring to the BJP.
‘BIHARI WORKERS ATTACKED’ ALLEGATION BASELESS
A BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh and two journalists have been booked by the Tamil Nadu Police for “false and baseless” reports online about attacks on North Indian workers in Tamil Nadu.
The BJP caused a ruckus in the Bihar Assembly over alleged attacks on migrant workers from Bihar in Tamil Nadu. Bihar BJP president said, “It is a pity that at a time when Biharis are being killed in Tamil Nadu, our deputy CM visits that state.”
Officials from both states have warned against spreading rumours about attacks based on two videos that went viral on social media.
A 37-year-old man from Bihar was killed after being hit by a train in Tiruppur on Friday. The incident, which came amidst the spread of rumours, triggered a protest by guest workers alleging murder.
This comes after the call for opposition parties' unity at Stalin’s birthday event.
TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE
Chief Minister MK Stalin implored his ministers to review all new projects with a climate change view in his inaugural address at the first meeting of the Tamil Nadu Governing Council on Climate Change on Friday.
With as many as nine Indian states listed in the 50 states/provinces worldwide susceptible to the highest climate risk, Stalin pointed out that Tamil Nadu is the only Indian state to constitute a climate change council.
Meanwhile, a new joint report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and Ember showed that Tamil Nadu lags in the transition to clean energy.
ON RSS ROUTE MARCHES
The Tamil Nadu government told the Supreme Court on Friday it is not completely opposed to allowing the RSS' route marches and public meetings across the state on March 5. It cited intelligence reports to say these cannot be held in every street or locality.
The state government sought some time to come up with a list of routes for the march.
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