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CHENNAI’S No.1 ENGLISH EVENING DAILY SINCE 1982CHENNAI � SUNDAY 6.1.2019 (EVENING) � OTHER STATIONS MONDAY 7.1.2019 (MORNING)

VOL. XXXVII NO. 31 � 8 PAGES � Rs. 4.00 ���Regd. No., TN/CC(S)DN/223/ 18-20, RNI No: 33810 / 82 Licensed to post without prepayment under WPP. No. TN / PMG / (CCR) / WPP-470 / 18-20

Girl harassed in lift at

Taramani station| NT Bureau |

Chennai, Jan 6:

Two persons were arrested fol-lowing complaints that they tried to sexually harass a 19-year-old girl at Taramani MRTS railway station last night. Search is on for a third culprit who was also involved, the police said.

According to sources, the girl, a native of Kerala, was at Taramani station with her boyfriend last night near the lift. Three persons approached the couple and forci-bly took them to the ticket issuing offi ce in the pretext of enquiry. They introduced themselves as staff at the station and demanded money not to inform their parents of their affair. When the couple said they have no money to pay, they took the girl to the lift and tried to abuse her sexually. Hear-ing her alarm, passengers rushed and rescued her.

Following a complaint by the girl with Thiruvanmiyur railway police, enquiries began. When police tried to arrest the trio, one of them manged to escape from the place. Police said two per-sons arrested were identifi ed as Lucas and Lokesh, who work as lift operators. Search is on for the absconding station booking clerk.

|NT Bureau|

Chennai, Jan 6:

After representatives of promi-nent political parties stressed on the need to postpone by-poll in Tiruvarur Assembly constituency scheduled for 28 January, the Election Commission is expected to announce its fi nal decision later today. The EC has empowered State Chief Election Offi cer Satya-brata Sahoo to take a fi nal call.

Tiruvarur Collector and District Election Offi cer (DEO) L Nirmal Raj convened an all-party meet Saturday. Members of farmers association and general public attended the meeting. Expressing their views, the participants at the meeting said holding elections on 28 January would affect Cy-clone relief works in the constitu-ency. Also people have lost their identity cards and they are not in a mood to cast their votes. There will be a number of restrictions.

As a result, people in Thiruvarur constituency will not be able to get the benefi t of the ongoing re-lief work and celebrate Pongal fes-tival in a free manner, they said. Nirmal Raj prepared a report and sent it to Satyabrata Sahoo on Saturday. After studying the report, State Chief Election Of-fi cer is expected to announce his decision in a day or two. Supreme Court will hear a petition fi led by Communist leader D Raja seeking to postpone by-election to Tiru-varur tomorrow.

The by-poll was necessitated following the demise of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on

7 August last year. The Election Commission last week announced by-poll for Tiruvarur Assembly constituency on 28 January. The counting of votes is scheduled for 31 January. AMMK deputy gen-eral secretary TTV Dhinakaran fi elded party’s Thiruvarur district secretary S Kamaraj as the can-didate. He urged the party cadre to prove that Thiruvarur was the fort of Amma (late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa).

Taking an indirect jibe at the ruling AIADMK and DMK, Dhi-nakaran said, ‘Just after the noti-fi cation of the by-election, AMMK

cadre are rushing to Thiruvarur for engaging themselves in the election campaign. But on the other side, people have rushed to the court.’ The DMK has named Poondi Kalaivanan, the Tiruvarur District secretary of the party, as their candidate.

Meanwhile, Naam Thamizhar Katchi led by Seeman announced Tamil Muzhakkam Sahul Hameed as its candidate. Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan has said he would make an announcement in two days whether his party Makkal Needhi Maiam would be contesting in the by-poll.

AIADMK TO ANNOUNCE CANDIDATE TOMORROW

AIADMK Co-Ordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneersel-vam today said that their candidate for Tiruvarur by-poll would be announced tomorrow.

Taking part in an event in Theni, Panneerselvam, said, ‘We are ready to face election and we are confi dent of victory. The candi-date would be announced tomorow morning’.

WILL TIRUVARUR BY-POLL BE CANCELLED?

� EC officials to announce decision soon � District Collector holds all-party meet

India on course for historic series win � Rain plays spoilsport on day four � Five wickets for Kuldeep

Sydney, Jan 6 (PTI):

Fickle weather on day four prevented India from closing in on a big win in the fourth Test but they were well on course for their maiden series victory in Australia after forcing the hosts to follow-on at home for the fi rst time since 1988. Bad light and intermitted rain led to substantial loss of play with only 25.2 overs bowled on day four.

Australia were placed at 6-0 in 4 overs after Kuldeep Yadav’s fi ve-wicket haul in his maiden Test Down Under helped India bowl the home team out for 300 in the fi rst innings. Umpires took players off the fi eld with eight minutes remaining in the belated afternoon session. Marcus Harris (2) and Usman Khawaja (4) were the unbeaten batsmen with Australia still trail-ing by 316 runs. But play didn’t resume at all once the scheduled tea break was over, as bad light hampered proceedings once again. The umpires waited for nearly

an hour, coming out for inspection in between, before making a decision at 5 pm local time. The match offi -cials were ready to wait until 6 pm for light to improve, but a slight drizzle put paid to the wait and the day was called off at 5.20 pm local time.

This was after Australia were bowled out for 300 runs (104.5 overs) in their fi rst innings and were asked to follow on, surrendering a lead of 322 runs. Kuldeep Yadav took 5-99, making instant impact in his fi rst game of the series. After the morning session was washed out, play resumed at 1.50 pm local time with 230 minutes lost to bad light and rain since day three. India took the second new ball immediately and made quick inroads. Mohammed Shami (2-58) bowled Pat Cummins (25) with a ball that kept low on the sixth ball after resumption of play. At the other end, Jasprit Bumrah (1-62) set up Peter Handscomb (37)

who played on after a resilient innings facing 111 balls. Yadav then trapped Nathan Lyon (0) lbw as Australia lost three wickets for 22 runs in the space of 44 balls.

And he could have immediately completed his fi ve-wicket haul, but Hanuma Vihari put down a skier from Josh Hazlewood (21) at mid on. In the process, Vihari hurt his left shoulder whilst fi elding and didn’t take the fi eld later on in the session, with Hardik Pandya coming on as a substitute fi elder. Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc (29 not out) then added 42 runs for the 10th wicket as Australia reached 300 despite another pitiful batting display. Yadav got his reward thereafter with Hazlewood trapped lbw on a close umpire’s call, and the decision stayed in the wrist-spinner’s favour despite DRS. Australia were then forced to follow on for the fi rst time in Test cricket since 2005 when Eng-land had enforced the same in Nottingham. On their home soil, this was the fi rst instance of Australia fol-lowing on since 1988, again in Sydney, versus England.

AAP leader quits party, hits out at Kejri

Delhi, Jan 6:

Over two months after the Aam Aadmi Party suspended rebel leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities, the MLA resigned from the primary membership of the party. Khaira in his resignation alleged that the AAP has ‘totally deviated’ from the ideol-ogy and principles on which it was formed.‘Unfortunately after joining the party I realised that the hierarchy of AAP was no different from the tra-ditional centralised political parties.’

Fake notes found in cash remitted to

banksPuducherry, Jan 6:

Counterfeit currencies of Rs 100 denomination were found in the cash remitted to two banks in Reddiyar-palayam area here.

According to the police, when the bank offi cials conducted audit in September last year, they found eight counterfeit currencies of Rs 100 denomination in one bank and 11 in another bank. The authorites informed the Reserve bank of India, Chennai about this and the RBI Manager Senathipathi lodged a complaint with the CB-CID police. A case has been registered.

Port Blair, Jan 6:

Cyclone Pabuk is now over the Andaman sea and its neighbour-hood and it has moved north-northwestwards at a speed of 20 kmph in the last six hours.

The Centre has sounded an Orange alert for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which is fac-ing a cyclonic storm, offi cials said Sunday. Cyclonic storm Pabuk is approaching the archipelago and currently hovering over the

Andaman sea and the neighbour-hood, they added. An Orange warning had been issued for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a home ministry offi cial said, quot-ing from a weather bulletin. An orange weather warning means people should be prepared and there is an increased likelihood of bad or extreme weather, which may disrupt road and air travel and threaten life and property.

It lays centred about 310 km east-southeast of Port Blair, the

capital of the Andaman and Nico-bar Islands. The cyclonic storm is very likely to continue to move north-northwestwards and cross the Andaman islands by Sunday night with a wind speed of 65-75 kmph, gusting to 85 kmph, the offi cial said. Thereafter, it is very likely to move north-northwest-wards and then recurve north-eastwards, towards the Myanmar coast, and weaken gradually thereafter, he added, quoting from the bulletin.

Cyclone Pabuk: ‘Orange’ alert issued 3 arrested for selling ganja

Puducherry, Jan 6:

Police arrested three youths on charges of selling ganja at Gorimedu here on Friday evening. According to the police, the three youths rented a house and were residing there.

The neighbours got suspicious of their activities and lodged a complaint with the police. Police watched them for an entire day on Friday and barged into their house in the evening.

Aussies were forced to follow on for the fi rst

time in Test cricket since 2005 when England

had enforced the same in Nottingham

|NT Bureau|Chennai, Jan 6:

BJP leader and Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan and State unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan called on Chief Min-ister and co-cordinator of AIADMK Edappadi K Palaniswami here.

Speculations are rife that they discussed forging alliance for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

With general elections round the corner, political parties are busy fi nalising alliances. DMK president M K Stalin announced recently that he would face elections in UPA alliance.

Meanwhile reports say that State Minister Thangamani and Ve-lumani fl ew to Delhi last week and met Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to initiate discussion on forging alliance between the AIADMK and BJP.

On Saturday, Pon Radhakrishnan and Tamilisai met Palaniswami separately at his residence in Greeenways Road and held discus-sions. Sources say they spoke about seat sharing between two parties.

On 27 January when Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi visits Madurai to lay the foundation stone for AIIMS, he would begin their cam-paign in Tamilnadu for Lok Sabha elections.

Modi addressed booth committee members of the BJP through video conferencing recently.

BJP leaders meet CM

Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan calling on Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in Chennai.

On 27 January when Modi visits Madurai, he would begin BJP’s campaign in Tamilnadu for Lok Sabha elections

Indians celebrate fall of a wicketIndians celebrate fall of a wicket

HOWZZATHOWZZAT

Works are on at hectic pace to get things ready for Tamilnadu Tourism Trade Fair Exhibition at Island Grounds in Chennai.Photo: VM SRINIVASAN

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