Tamil Nadu news live: CM MK Stalin calls all-party meet on July 12 to discuss Mekedatu dam

AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran on Friday asked his party functionaries and cadre to gear up for local body polls in nine districts in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Friday presented cash awards and certificates to 21 writers identified by the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Art and Literature Society for their best literary works in the fields of art, culture, literature and research activities.

Minister for finance and human resources P T R Palanivel Thiagarajan on Friday said the state government would bring out a white paper on Tamil Nadu finances, much before he presents the budget for the year in the assembly.

The war of words between the BJP and the DMK in Tamil Nadu is likely to continue over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) after the Union health ministry in its affidavit before the Madras High Court said that the committee is 'neither requisite nor valid'. (IANS)

Southern Railway will operate trains from Rameswaram only till Mandapam as passenger traffic over the Pamban Bridge is suspended due to maintenance work up to July 14. The partially cancelled trains are : No. 02206Rameswaram - Chennai Egmore special scheduled to depart Rameswaram at 8.25pm, will depart from Mandapam at 8.52pm on July 9.

With the second wave of Covid-19 claiming lives and livelihoods of thousands in the state, more parents seem eager to admit their wards under the 25% seats reserved in private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act this academic year. In the four days since the online application process began, around 20,000 applications have been uploaded on the state government’s portal for RTE admissions. As many as 1,03,330 seats in LKG and Class I are available in 8,300 private schools for 2021-22. Parents can apply online rte.tnschools.gov.in till August 3.

Land sharks in collusion with officials are exploiting a weakness in the registration department’s software to grab prime plots belonging to various government agencies. This came to light with the recent expose of the sale in 2017 of three acres belonging to the Tamil Nadu Housing Board at Mogappair, with a market value of Rs 150 crore. Land belonging to the government shows a guideline value of zero in Tamil Nadu’s official portal for registrations, STAR 2.0 (Simplified and Transparent Administration of Registration), a sign that it is public property and not to be sold. However, officials in the subregistrar offices can assign a guideline value based on that of private property in the vicinity. This is how the scam works.

Several children in the city have been left behind in the schedule for routine vaccinations since March 20 when Covid-19 cases overwhelmed hospitals, say doctors. Vaccinations given free in schools have been delayed and VHNs who carry vaccines to villages have been busy administering Covid vaccines. Senior virologists warn that the lag among children can lead to outbreaks of vaccinepreventable illnesses such as diphtheria, measles and whooping cough when students get back to school. “Doctors have noticed that shots for children and teens during the pandemic months were substantially lower across all age groups,” said senior virologist Dr T Jacob John. “This has happened in the state and across the country.”

If you are getting your vaccine shot at a Greater Chennai Corporation health centre, make sure that you get a vaccination card and carry it while getting your second dose as well. Many residents from different parts of the city are in a quandary as their first vaccine shot has not been registered on the CoWin portal. Due to this, when they register for the second dose, the system does not accept their application.

As star hotels reopen dine-in, room service and banquets, shortage of staff is making it tough for them to meet customer expectations. Many hotels had either cut staff or had allowed them to return home during the second wave of the pandemic. Less hands on the deck began to affect quality of service when several hotel customers are returning after easing of lockdown restrictions.

With all districts except Coimbatore reporting less than 300 new Covid-19 infections, Tamil Nadu on Thursday saw 3,211 fresh cases and 57 deaths. This took the cumulative case tally to 25.10 lakh and toll to 33,253. As many as 3,565 people recovered from the infection and were discharged leaving 33,665 people still undergoing treatment for Covid. Meanwhile, on Thursday, the number of people who took the vaccine jumped to 1.25 lakhs after it dropped to 28,270 on Wednesday. The vaccination numbers increased after the Centre permitted the state immunisation wing to pick up 1.5 lakh doses from the general medicine stores depot in Periamet.

Tamil Nadu continued to record a decline in daily coronavirus cases as the state added only 3,211 infections in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall tally to 25.10 lakh. The toll mounted to 33,253 with 57 deaths. As many as 3,565 people got discharged today, aggregating to 24,43,141 leaving 33,665 active infections, a health bulletin said. As many as 29 districts reported new infections in double digits while there were no fresh deaths in 13 districts, it said. (PTI)