Chennai news live: Tamilisai Soundararajan sworn in as Puducherry LG

A 52-year-old man died and a fellow labourer fell unconscious after inhaling noxious gas while cleaning a ringwell near Maduravoyal on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Ravi. His friend Kasi, 50, has been hospitalized.

The cricket Tests ended just in time for the city to be treated to some showers. Weathermen have forecast light rain at the end of this week because of the easterlies strengthening in the presence of a cyclonic circulation. While IMD has forecast light to moderate spells over a few places across the state, private forecasters and bloggers said Chennai and its suburbs may receive some spells at least for two days.

In January 2020, the Centre awarded Tamil Nadu for the ‘best performance in road safety’. Road accident deaths in 2019 had fallen by 32% compared to the previous year and coordination among departments and strict enforcement were cited as reasons for the achievement.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has informed the Madras high court that physically challenged voters and those aged above 80 will get five days’ time after the Tamil Nadu assembly election is notified to apply for voting through postal ballot.

The Class XII state board exam schedule took many schools by surprise as they were expecting the exams to be held by the end of May or early June. According to the time-table announced by the directorate of government exams (DGE) on Wednesday, the exams will begin on May 3 and end on May 21. Read full story

A day after Puducherry Congress government led by V Narayanaswamy lost its majority in the 33-member assembly, leader of opposition N Rangasamy on Wednesday asked the CM to prove his majority on the floor of the house and submitted a memorandum to the Lt Governor’s office seeking immediate convening of the Puducherry legislative assembly for a trust vote. N Rangasamy, president of All India N R Congress, met G Theva Neethi Dhas, OSD to the Lt Governor, at Raj Nivas with a delegation of 14 MLAs belonging to opposition parties and submitted a letter. Read full story

Notorious ganja peddler Krishnaveni, who initiated youngsters into the illegal trade, died of oral cancer at the Government Stanley Hospital on Tuesday. She was 78. T P Chathiram police had arrested Krishnaveni for smuggling ganja in a 2019 case, and a court convicted her in March 2020 following which she was sent to women’s campus of Puzhal jail.

Police in the state have rescued 1,883 children including 435 in Chennai, most of them either forced into begging or stranded on roads for various reasons, as part of ‘Operation Smile’ conducted across the country from February 1to 15. Read full story