Off the cuff: Liquor deal breaks group

Won’t moo? Is it councillor’s cow?
Unlike other cities, the city corporation has brought the stray cattle menace in Tiruchy under control by impounding and auctioning animals. But the move seems to have annoyed some councillors who release their livestock on city roads. At a recent council meeting, a few councillors complained about animals getting injured during the drive and said the fine amount was too high. But their demands failed to find support as the top brass knew any such move would spoil the corporation’s image. Reacting to it, a junior civic body officer said it would be difficult to ensure 100% safety of animals while catching them and there is no way to check if the animal belongs to a councillor. A senior official had the answer. If a cattle roams on the street as if it owns it, then it must belong to a councillor, the officer educated his junior.

Gifts unvoted
It’s a sour deal for some voters in the Erode East bypoll as political parties that gave them Rs 3,000 and Rs 2,000 for each vote went after them when they failed to exercise their franchise. Apart from cash, voters were also given silverware, silk and fancy sarees, dhotis, shirts and smart watches. After paying them the goodies, the parties kept tabs on them to ensure that they actually cast their votes at polling booths. On the polling date on February 27, a few local functionaries of a Dravidian party identified the people who did not vote in the bypoll and made them pay money the next day. At least a 100 residents of Periyar Nagar, Karuppanaswamy Temple Road and SKC Road were made to shell out R3,000 each.

Liquor deal breaks group
Officers belonging to Central Industrial Security Forces unit in Coimbatore met a few reporters some months ago and started a WhatsApp group to keep the media informed about the activities of the force. But suddenly, the officer who was managing the group for sharing news updates, deleted the group. When asked about the reason, sources said media persons, instead of asking about news, started pestering him for liquor and household items from central police canteen and the officer decided to snap all links with reporters.

Behind glass walls
At a recent council meeting held in Sivakasi Corporation on February 28, reporters were denied entry to the council hall and were instead asked to sit and view the meeting from a nearby room behind a glass wall. The reporters listened to the proceedings through speakers installed in the room. According to sources, the change has been brought in after a woman councillor brought R1 lakh to the council meeting to flag the issue of bribes being sought by corporation officials from people and the news went viral.

(Contributed by Jose K Joseph, P Srinivasan, R Kirubakaran, Harini M; Compiled by Ashutosh Acharya)