Tamil Nadu News Live Updates: Ban on flying of drones in Chennai ahead of PM Modi's visit; security beefed up

A day after former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu wrote a letter to chief minister M K Stalin alleging indiscriminate smuggling of PDS rice from Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu civil supplies-criminal investigation department (CS-CID) on Wednesday listed out its efforts in cracking down on smugglers.

It had registered 937 cases and arrested 836 people in the districts sharing borders with Andhra Pradesh between May 2021 and April 2022 alone, it said. The unit seized 12,541 quintals of rice valued at Rs 71 lakh.

Three more students in Anna University tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday taking the cluster tally on the campus since May 19 to nine but the fresh Covid-19 cases tally decreased to 56 on Wednesday from 59 on Tuesday. The state discharged 39 patients and by the end of the day, and there were 371 active cases.

Health secretary J Radhakrishnan said repeated clusters and plateauing cases in some districts, particularly in the Chennai region (Chennai, Chengalpet, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram), indicate that virus is still in circulation. “Experts tell us that we may soon lose the advantage of delayed vaccination as immunity is likely to wane in many people,” he said.

Dravidian politics, with changing dynamics, is getting more intertwined with religion. Unlike his staunchly atheist father M Karunanidhi, chief minister M K Stalin is at pains to prove that his government is neither antireligion nor anti-spiritual. While the party is keen on making a political statement in Stalin’s Dravidian-style governance, there is politics in his eagerness to appear neutral on religion and sometimes, even pro-Hindutva. READ MORE

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the HR&CE department to take immediate steps to recover 134 acres of land owned by Chennai Thiruvengadamudaiyan Vekatesa Perumal Temple.

A division bench of Justices S M Subramaniam and C Saravanan passed the order on Wednesday, on a public interest writ petition alleging that the land parcel owned by the temple in Vellanur had been alienated to third parties using forged documents.

Chennai city police commissioner Shankar Jiwal on Wednesday issued a ban on flying of drones unmanned aerial vehicles in the Chennai city limits ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the city on Thursday. The order was promulgated under Section 144 of CrPC, read a release from the city police

"There is expected to be a pile up on roads surrounding the event venue- EVR Salai, Dasaprakash junction to Madras medical college from 3pm to 8pm, apart from slow traffic movement on arterial stretches like Anna Salai, Sardar Patel Road and GST road. Public are advised to plan their travel accordingly," an official release said.

If you are an office-goer or have a train or flight to catch on Thursday, start early as city police have predicted slow traffic movement on city's arterial stretches Anna Salai, Sardar Patel Road and GST road, courtesy Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city. The Prime Minister is set to lay the foundation stone for new projects at an event to be held at the Nehru indoor stadium near Chennai Central railway station.