3CHENNAI AAROUND ROUND TTOWNOWN TUESDAY19 MARCH 2019

M KE TESTING

Opportunities cannot be denied just because the candidate belongs to the same dynasty. Chances have been given to cadres who have been associated with DMK for a long time.

KANIMOZHIDMK Thoothukudi

candidate�����

Deputy Chief Minister, O Panneerselvam’s son, S Ravindranath Kumar has been serving for several years and there is noth-ing wrong in giving him a ticket to contest in LS polls.

K C VEERAMANIAIADMK Minister

�����

Kamal Haasan has a great vision, but the mem-bers are guiding him in the wrong path. I have been associated with Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) for over a year, yet I do not even have Kamal’s mobile number. Problems have increased following the ap-pointment of Mahendran as vice-president.

C K KUMARAVELFormer MNM

executive member

Racing against time� Deadline to complete Medavakkam fl yover work extended

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Chennai, Mar 19:

Known as ‘Silk City’, Kanchipuram Lok Sabha constituency came into existence after 2008. Indian National Congress’ Pe-rumal, Viswanathan was the fi rst MP of the constituency, he was succeeded by AIADMK’s Maragatham.

At present the constituency has 14,79,856 voters out of which 7,36,808 are men, 7,42,874 are women and 174 are transpersons.

In the past fi ve years 1,39,473 new voters have enrolled in the voters list in which 58,031 are men and 81,442 are women.

The Assembly Constituencies that fall in Kanchipuram parlia-mentary constituency are Chengalpattu, Thiruporur, Cheyyur (SC), Maduranthakam (SC), Uthiramerur, Kanchipuram.

AIADMK and DMK will be in straight contest in Kan-chipuram. AIADMK has once again fi elded Maragatham and will take on last election runner DMK’s G Selvam.

S Rly to run girivalamspecial trains

|NT Bureau|Chennai, Mar 19 :

In view of pournami girivalam festival at Tiruvannamalai, the Southern Railway has decided to run MEMU special trains between Vellore cantonment to Tiruvan-namalai. According to a press release, the Vellore cantonment to Tiruvannamalai MEMU special train will leave from Vellore on 20 March at 9.45 pm and reach Tiruvannamalai at 11.25 pm, the same day. In the return direction, the Tiruvannamalai to Vellore can-tonment MEMU special train will leave from Tiruvannamalai on 21 March at 4 am and reach Vellore at 5.55 am, the same day.

Guide for senior residents

|NT Bureau|Chennai, Mar 19 :

Greater Chennai City Police with Jeevathma Kainkarya Trust, West Mambalam will release a senior citizen safety g u i d e l i n e book at VMA Hall, Srinivasa Iyer Street, West Mambalam, 23 March at 4.30 pm.

A press release said the book will contain important contact numbers of nearby police stations, hospitals and other helplines. For details, contact 98410 12779.

Old rivalary to continue� AIADMK and DMK

fi eld 2014 contestantsat Kanchipuram again

15 new partiesregistered in Tamilnadu

� India currently has 2,293 political outfi ts

| NT Bureau |Chennai, Mar 19:

Considered as the Detroit of south east Asia, Oragadam gets a new 30-bed-ded multi-specialty Hiranandani Parks Hospital to meet the medical needs of people residing in Oragadam - Sriperumbudur region and other peripheral areas. A press release stated, ‘It is Nursing Home Board (NHB) Certifi ed and has commenced operations in association with secretary of State academy of medical sciences, IMA Dr C Anbarasu. The hospital is being run in two loca-tions, both are mixed-use township projects of the Hiranandani Group - Powai, Mumbai and in Thane. Oragadam is the third such location.’

‘It is our endeavor to provide the fi nest health care facilities with the ex-pert health care professionals and latest types of equipment. The hospital is going to be the best multi-specialty hospital in and around Oragadam, Chennai,’ said Anbarasu in the press release. In addition, the hospital would be initiating telemedicine department support, which will help to overcome distance barriers and to improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities.

A few of the facilties are- 24*7 accident, emergency and trauma care, out-patient and in-patient wings, ICU with ventilator, operation theatre, 24 hrs functional pharmacy and the like. ‘At present, the hospital is equipped to conduct minor operations,’ added the release.

Hiranandani Parks Hospital comes to Oragadam

� 30-bedded facility to meet the medical needs of peripheral areas

KANCHIPURAM

NEED OF THE HOUR� Government urged to shift from linear economy model to circular method

|NT Bureau|Chennai, Mar 19:

Local NGOs and organisations have urged the government and corporates to make a shift from the linear economy model of ‘take, make, use, and dispose(litter)’ to the circular economic model, backed by the recycling industry.

On the Global Recycling Day which was ob-served yesterday, Namma Ooru Foundation, founder P Natarajan, said,’To address the challenge of plastic waste, our nation needs to incorporate a two-pronged approach. First, the government needs to place stringent policies

to eradicate single-use plastics. Secondly, the government, large companies and other stake-holders need to incorporate a mechanism to reintroduce multi-use plastics like PET bottles.’

The circular economy model is designed to eliminate waste, it is a model which ensures that one company’s waste is another company’s resource.

According to Central Pollution Control Board data, Chennai generates 429 tonnes of plastic waste per day, of which 80 per cent gets dumped without any treatment and lost to the recycling industry. On an average, Tamilnadu generates 15,437 metric tonnes of waste every day.

ExNora International founder M B Nirmal

said,’If people want to know the value of waste, they need to understand the value of Oxygen, which is technically waste/by-product generated in the photosynthesis process. India is struggling to manage waste, especially plastics because we are following a linear economic model, which is inadequately designed to generate waste. We need a shift towards circular economy which sub-stitutes the ‘end-of-life’ concept with renovation.’

It is said the Indian recycle industry employees close to 4 million people, directly or indirectly. Since plastic, especially PET bottles attract high recycling price, it is one of the best ways of in-come generation for a variety of people attached to the industry from rag pickers to the recyclers.

| NT Bureau |Chennai, Mar 19:

After a minor hiccup in the progress of Medavakkam fl yover, work has once again resumed, but it is feared that the project may not be completed on time. Nearly 50 per cent construction work on Medavakkam fl yover has been completed now. The project com-menced in February 2016 at an estimated cost of Rs 146.41 crore.

Offi cials said there were minor hiccups in the progress of the work as the previous contractor abandoned the work mid-way. ‘However, a new tender was fl oated and a new contractor has been roped in now. Work has resumed and is happening on a war-footing. Initially, we wanted to complete the project in the fi rst few months of 2019; however, now we are targetting to fi nish the work before the end of 2019 or early 2020,’ he said.

Sources said of the 81 pillars that have to be erected on the Tambaram-Velacheri stretch, work on 76 have been completed. Similarly, work on 10 of the 31 pillars on the other side is also over. Once completed, the entire stretch will be a 10-lane road with six lanes on the bridge and four lanes on the ground. The

Pallikaranai-Medavakkam fl yover is being constructed to ease traffi c at the junction. For this purpose, the road was widened by 150 feet starting from Pallikaranai and only 500 metres of road expansion was completed.

The Medavakkam Koot Road acts as the junction to connect the road leading to St Thomas Mount via Madipakkam.

The traffi c jams at the junc-tion were a regular affair before construction work on the fl yover began. Things got worse after con-struction on the fl yover began and barricades were placed on the road

restricting fl ow of traffi c. The traffi c signal at the junction also made it diffi cult for the fl ow of vehicles; however, now they are not in use.

A few motorists have also re-quested the authorities to ensure that proper refl ectors are stuck on the drums placed as dividers to ensure that they are visible at night. The 2.38-km fl yover, once completed, will allow traffi c to cross three junctions: Sholin-ganallur - Medavakkam, Meda-vakkam - Mambakkam and Madi-pakkam. The width of the bridge is 24 m while the service road will be 7.5 m on both sides.

FROM TN• Tamilnadu Ilaingar Katchi (Porur)• Makkal Vidudhalai Katchi (Mugappair)• Akila Indiya Pasumpon Munnetra Kazhagam (Tirunelveli)• Anna, MGR, Jayalalithaa Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

(Kumbakonam)• Tamil Telugu Desiya Katchi (Vilupuram)• Makkal Munnetra Seyal Katchi (Kodambakkam)• Makkal Masodha Katchi (Nagapattinam)• Oozhal Edhirpu Iyakka Katchi (Tiruvallur)• Tamil Maanila Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (Vellore)• Anaithindiya Makkal Sakthi Kazhagam (Ernavoor)• Swathanthira Katchi(Makkal) (Alwarpet)• Vivasayigal Makkal Munnetra Katchi (Salem)• Anaithindiya Makkal Katchi (Krishnagiri)• Desiya Uzhavar Uzhaipalargal Kazhagam (Vellore) • New Generation Makkal Katchi (Coimbatore)

SOME OF THE AVAILABLE SYMBOLS ARE :

• CCTV• Computer mouse• Computer• Helicopter• Spanner• Switch board• Tubelight• Water tank• Pen drive• Robot• Ship• Rubber Stamp

|NT Bureau|Chennai, Mar 19:

Anna, MGR, Jayalalithaa Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, New Generation Makkal Katchi, Tamil Telugu Desiya Katchi are among the fi fteen parties that registered with the Election Commission of India between February and March.

A recent data from the Election Commission of India has stated that the country at present has 2,293 parties which include the seven rec-ognised national parties and 59 recognised state parties.

Till February this year, the

country had 2,143 politi-cal parties registered with the Commission, with 58 of them getting registered ahead of the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajas-than, Telangana, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh during November-December last year.

It is said around 150 par-ties including the 15 from Tamilnadu were registered in the poll panel between February and March on the eve of the announcement of the poll schedule.

These parties will be recognised based on the vote

and 2015.There have been fears that

most of such parties are used to ‘round trip’ the black money into white.

The EC had found that some of the parties were ‘no longer in existence or functioning’.

While the poll watchdog has the mandate to register a political party, the elector-al laws denies it the power to deregister any party.

With its demand to get power to deregister a party being pending with the Law Ministry, the Commission had used its powers under Article 324 of the Constitu-tion to ‘unlist’ parties for being dormant and not contesting elections for a long time.

percentage that they get in the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

These registered but un-recognised political parties cannot contest elections on a fi xed symbol of their own. They have to choose from a list of free symbols issued by the poll panel. According to the latest EC circular, there are 84 such free symbols available currently.

Fearing misuse of the pro-visions for fi nancial contri-butions to political parties, the Election Commission had in 2016 asked the Cen-tral Board of Direct Taxes to look into the fi nances of 255 registered but unrecog-nised political parties it had ‘unlisted’ that year for not contesting polls in the last one decade between 2005

Construction of FOB at Alandur Metro station is progressing at a rapid pace, as a part of which both sides of the road is now connected. Photo: C SANTHOSH

ONE STEP CLOSER

As canvassing is gaining steam, towels and veshtis with party colour borders at DMK head offi ce Anna Arivalayam are selling like hot cakes.

Photo: A R JAYAKUMAR

BORDER SALES

Medavakkam fl yover