Will this hike lead to better garbage management? Watch this space.
From Chennai to China
The city generates 4,200 tonnes of garbage everyday of which only 200 tonnes is treated and reduced to compost. So what happens to the remaining 4000 tonnes? It is chucked in Pallikarnai marsh which once had 150 hectares of wetlands, and at Kodungaiyur where cattle used to graze once. On June 9, a huge fire broke out at Pallikarnai and spread fast as garbage, including plastic and chemical wastes fed the fire. Traffic was disrupted for several hours because the white smoke emanating from the fire led to almost zero visibility – there was even a minor accident – on the road. Residents of the area had to move out temporarily because the noxious fumes made breathing difficult.
This city expanded last October without a clue about how to manage waste. So in areas like Manali, Madhavaram, Ambattur and Sholinganallur, the corporation’s idea of waste management is to dump garbage on the city’s outskirts. And what was the solution of our city fathers? A “study” trip to China, Singapore and Hong Kong to learn first hand how garbage is handled there. Some months ago, Jayalalitha took an aerial view of the Perungudi dumping yard and as a result allocated Rs 50 crore to improve waste management in Chennai. No results as yet.
A Cheeky Talent
Kruthiga Udayanidhi, wife of actor-director Udayanidhi and daughter-in-law of DMK leader M K Stalin is not amused but one has to give full marks to 21-year-old R Dinesh for cheekiness and audacity. Dinesh mimicked Kruthiga’s voice and conned aspiring director Kumaresan of Rs 50,000 before he landed in the police net.
In fact Dinesh got the idea to mimic Kruthiga’s voice when someone told him that his imitation of her was excellent. Dinesh's did not even bother to do any homework because he would first speak in his own voice and pretend to be her brother Inbanidhi, which actually happens to be the name of Kruthika’s little son instead. Luckily for him, the people he conned too were not aware of all this minutiae about Karunanidhi’s large clan.
On June 12, Kruthika took out a public notice in the DMK mouthpiece, Murasoli , that she was being impersonated by a conman. That notice alerted all potential victims that Dinesh was taking them for a ride. Kumaresan contacted Kruthiga’s lawyers who had published the notice, discovered Dinesh was a fraud and went to the police. Dinesh, who was arrested from a lodge in Triplicane along with his accomplice Mani, had earlier put his “talent” to good use by mimicking a range of politicians and cheating people.
It turns out that a Dindigul-based woman member of the DMK was the mastermind behind all of Dinesh’s cons. She employed Dinesh and Mani for Rs 7000 and Rs 5000 respectively and unleashed the former’s talent on unsuspecting DMK leaders for whom Karunanidhi’s family’s wish is their command. “She would ask Dinesh to talk to DMK leaders in the voice of Kruthika. At least four ministers granted favours thinking it was for Stalin’s daughter-in-law,” said the police about the woman who is yet to be arrested.
Jesus H Christ!
In a country which has become infamous for bans because something “hurts the religious sentiments” of a community, M Illyas has got away projecting himself as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. No wonder his filing his nomination for the Presidential polls spawned levity and not violence. Illyas, 45, of Mitahalli village about 15 kms from Krishnagiri filed his nomination on June 18 before returning officer, V K Agnihotri.
One would have thought the joke is on him because his nomination was rejected because he did not attach certified copies of electoral rolls. But he is unfazed. “Why bother when I am already the President of the world?” What gives him the right to claim he is a reincarnation of Jesus Christ? He cannot explain, but says, “My work towards creating a world against caste, creed and religion will make people realize that my claim as a reincarnation of Jesus Christ is true.”
Is he a crank? Most definitely as his earlier list of transgressions confirms. He faces charges under section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, after his arrest in December 2011 by Kaveripattinam police for two reasons: for hoisting the flag on a mast painted in black, and for flying the flag at half-mast to show his protest that Ban Ki-Moon was appointed UN Secretary General without elections.