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Addressing the media, he said that his plans were disrupted because of the coronavirus pandemic and he did not want to be careless. He said that the time has come to transform Tamil Nadu, the superstar said, “Will work as much as possible for the people. If we don’t do it now change will never happen.”

Saying that the victory in politics will be the victory of the people , he said, “it depends on the people of Tamil Nadu. If I win when I enter politics, it will be people’ s victory.”

He thanked everyone for their support, said, “I would like to thank everyone for their support.”

Rajinikanth said, “We will surely win assembly polls and give an honest, transparent, corruption-free, and spiritual politics. A wonder and miracle will definitely happen.”

He had made the announcement about him entering politics on Dec 31 in 2017.

The actor’s political entry is expected to give tremors to DMK and AIADMK. Many suspected that the superstar who is close to many RSS and BJP Leaders Mohan Bhagwat, Amit Shah, and PM Modi was compelled by the BJP to make his political entry.

After meeting district secretaries of Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM) on November 30, Rajinikanth said he will make an announcement soon.

For the superstar, his line of politics is spiritual and beyond religion, corruption and focus of the welfare the people . Rajini had asked his supporters to go every street in the state and pass the message about his intentions and he had told them then, “when the time is right I will give the war cry and at the time all of you be ready to support me.”

In 1996 Rajini had openly supported the DMK and had called for “Saving Tamil Nadu from Jayalalithaa” , That year when Jayalalitha’s AIADMK was defeated, Rajini was seen as a major game-changer, which opened the possibility of his entry in Tamil Nadu politics.

The wait of his political announcement came to an end, a year after Jayalalitha’s death on December 2016. After the announcement, superstar had clarified that he will not join any existing political parties. Yet, he had personally gone and met DMK patriarch Karunanidhi for blessings.

Just like many in the cine field close to many in the DMK, Rajini maintains close connection with prominent DMK leaders even though he is against their ideologies. Rajini is said to have a good relationship with Alagiri, Stalin’s elder brother.

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Over one lakh people have been evacuated from coastal areas and power supply was disconnected in vulnerable areas as a precautionary measure.

#WATCH Chennai witnessing spell of strong winds after #Cyclone Nivar made landfall near Puducherry late last night#TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/jZZB3FCJUX

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2020

Chennai’s Meteorological Department said that the cyclone has completely moved to the land and “it has weakened into a severe cyclonic storm. In the next six hours it would further weaken into a cyclonic storm in the next six hours. Heavy rain would also continue.

The tropical storm, which emerged in Bay of Bengal, forced authorities in the southern state to declare a public holiday till Thursday. Metro stations were closed. The Chennai Airport resumed operations after closing it for 12 hours in the wake of the cyclone. However over 70 Chennai flights were cancelled.

Puducherry and coastal districts of Tamil Nadu including Cuddalore and Nagapattinam, continue to receive rain and experience heavy winds.

Tamil Nadu: Eraiyanur village fishermen in Villupuram district experience less than expected damage from cyclone Nivar

"We're happy that cyclone hasn't affected us much. A day ahead we shifted our boats. Now the waves are high. We cannot fish till next week," says a fisherman pic.twitter.com/wDlErkrlnK

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2020

Around 1,200 National Disaster Response Force personnel have been stationed in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh as well. Twelve teams are in Tamil Nadu (six in Cuddalore district and two in Chennai), seven in Andhra Pradesh and three in Puducherry. An additional 20 teams will be on standby in Odisha’s Cuttack, Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh and Thrissur in Kerala.

Government officials in Chennai released water from a major reservoir and cleared fallen trees. Vessels in the city’s port have been moved to sea and port operations will likely remain shut until the cyclone has passed.

With memories of the 2015 floods still fresh, Tamil Nadu is also monitoring four other reservoirs in anticipation of a rapid rise in water levels.

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Tamil Nadu and Puducherry had earlier declared November 24 a public holiday. Many trains and and flights have been cancelled. All three ports in Chennai have been closed.

Puducherry streets are deserted since Thursday morning as locals stay indoors in the anticipation of severe cyclonic storm Nivar.

The Indian Meterological Department suggests that by the outer ring of the cyclone will start moving towards the land and the eye of the storm will make landfall soon after that. The likely location of the landfall will be somewhere between Mahabalipuram and Puducherry.

IMD alerted that Cyclone Nivar is gradually intensifying. It could cause structural damage, uprooting of tress, damage to the thatched/tin houses and damage to banana and paddy crops. There will be strong winds and heavy rains.

The NDRF and other response team are on high alert as the cyclone is likely to hit the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry hard. Very heavy rain is likely in several districts of Tamil Nadu. More heavy to very heavy rain expected in isolated places in TN, Puducherry.

Southern Railway cancelled more train for November 26 and November 27.

South-Western railways also cancelled two trains scheduled for tomorrow in view of the cyclone.

South-Western Railways cancels two trains scheduled for tomorrow in view of #CycloneNivar. pic.twitter.com/CzXvU6vgHp

— ANI (@ANI) November 25, 2020

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The cyclone could hit the coast between Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu (which is around 56 km from state capital Chennai) and Karaikal in Puduchery.

The cyclone will bring extremely heavy rainfall and winds between 120 and 130 km per hour with gusts of upto 145 km per hour. The Regional Meterological Center in Chennai has advised, adding that coastal areas could receive heavy rain till tomorrow.

Chembarambakkam Lake reservoir gates are opened for first time since 2015 and the discharge is likely to increase the water flow in Chennai’s Adyar river.

More than 1,000 personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in Tamil Nadu. NDRF has so far deployed 30 teams across the three states, while 20 more teams have been kept on standby for immediate deployment.

About 15 districts of the three states are expected to be hit by the cyclone and a population of several thousand living in low-lying areas along the river are being evacuated.

The Tamil Nadu Government also ordered removal of all hoardings as precaution.

The Indian Navy is closely monitoring the movement of Nivar, and is in constant touch with officials of both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments. Naval ships, aircrafts and rescue and diving teams have been kept standby.

The coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh are also likely to be affected by the cyclone Nivar.

In May, “super cyclone” Amphan wreaked havoc on eastern India and Bangladesh in May, flattening villages, destroying farms and leaving millions without electricity.

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The number of people who have died of the disease now stands at 82,066 with a case fatality rate of 1.63 per cent.

More than 39 lakh people stand cured with a recovery rate of 78.52 per cent. Almost 83,000 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries closer to the number of new cases. Only 20 per cent, or 9,95,933 cases, are active.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected State by the pandemic with a tally of 10.7 lakh cases as it continued to report more than 17,000 cases a day.

Close to half (48.8 per cent) of the active cases are concentrated in three states — Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Kerala and Telangana contribute close to a quarter (24.4 per cent) of the active cases, the ministry said.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

Karnataka reported more than 8,200 new cases, most of them from its capital. Bengaluru now has more Covid cases than Mumbai, surpassed only by Delhi and Pune.

Delhi’s COVID-19 tally crossed to over 2.25 lakh after 4,263 fresh cases were reported on September 15. Thirty-six fatalities pushed the death count to 4,806, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

According to a study (Johns Hopkins University data), India is the second worst-hit nation in terms of COVID-19 cases after the United States. It is in the third spot in fatalities after the US and Brazil.

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As the novel coronavirus that originated from Wuhan, China is continuing to spread chaos in all nooks of the globe, India is quickly climbing up the chart, and the country has recorded more than 15 lakh positive cases in August alone. According to the latest updates, India has more than 3.2 million positive cases, and the country stands on the third spot in the global chart just behind the United States and Brazil.

On Tuesday, 1,071 deaths were reported, the second-highest single-day figure recorded so far. It should be noted that fresh cases reported on August 25 zoomed past 66,000, and if it goes like this, India will soon overtake Brazil which has 3.6 million positive cases.

A total of 329 deaths were recorded in Maharashtra on August 25 alone, followed by Karnataka (149), Tamil Nadu (107), and Andhra Pradesh (92). However, the number of fresh cases in Maharashtra dipped from 11,000 to 10,425.

Kerala, the southern state of India which successfully flattened the curve at one point in time, is also facing the wrath of coronavirus since May. On Tuesday, the state recorded 2375 positive cases, the highest single-day spike. However, the state has somehow managed to control the fatality rate associated with COVID-19.

In the initial months of the outbreak, coronavirus cases in the country were primarily confined to the urban areas. However, over the past few months, coronavirus drastically affected people living in rural areas and suburbs, which played a crucial role in the surge in positive cases. Relaxation of lockdown measures in several states to reopen economies also negatively affected the strategies aimed to contain coronavirus spread in the nation.

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The education minister said that applications will only be received through online. This is a drastic change and may be the first in the history of Tamil Nadu’s education scenario.

The decision was taken in order to curb COVID-19 spread.  Aspirants can apply to the colleges through www.tngsa.in and www.tndceonline.org and polytechnics through www.tngptc.in and www.tngptc.com.

Students can apply to three courses in college using one application and there is no limit on the number of colleges students can apply to. The students can pick a college of their choice and groups of their choice using the various drop down boxes on the website.

There are a total of 109 government arts and science colleges in the state with about 92,000 seats. Every year, over two lakh students apply for these seats.

According to the statistics of the state’s Higher Education Department, as many as 23,580 engineering aspirants have applied, only a day after the government opened applications for engineering seats.

The whole process of certificate verification, special counselling and supplementary counselling will be held online.  Students can apply on www.tndte.gov.in, www.tnea online.org.  

The online registration of applications for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) 2020 has started and students can apply for counselling by August 16.
 

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For a month now this village called Pothakudi, has been in the dark without streetlights and it is not the usual power woes.  The reason is rather sweet and will bring a smile to your face.

The whole idea of switching off the streetlights is the brainchild of a 20-year old college student named Karuppu Raja.

He noticed an Indian Robin building a nest in the village switchboard which powered all the streetlights. The guy looked into it and saw three small greenish-blue eggs with spots.

On a common Whatsapp group, he shared the story about the bird and all the 35 members of the group readily agreed to hatch a plan to save the mama bird and the hatchlings.

They went to each family and requested that the streetlights be turned off until the eggs hatched. The group admitted that convincing each family was a herculean task.

Some readily agreed. Others called it stupid to switch off the lights for a small bird.  But the group managed to convince everyone and the entire village has gone without streetlight for 35 days.  The Panchayat head also accompanied the group and went door to door advising the residents to stay vigilant in the dark.

Once the main wire leading the switchboard was cut, it was covered with tape to save the bird from electric shock.

Now there are three healthy chicks with the mama bird, safe and healthy.

The villagers are waiting for the winged visitors to leave peacefully so that they could clean the box and restore the streetlights.

Thank you, Pothakudi, for restoring our faith in humanity.

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At least six people were killed and 17 injured in a boiler blast at Neyveli Thermal Power Station in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. The blast occurred in the fifth unit of the second station as workers were resuming work this morning.

Neyveli Thermal Station Inspector Latha said blast occurred at around 10 am. “Six people have died and 17 are injured. They have been admitted to NLCIL General Hospital in Neyveli,” she said.

Meanwhile, reports said that some workers were feared trapped due to the explosion. “Some workers are feared trapped.”

Neyveli, a township in Cuddalore district, is about 200 kilometres south of Chennai. Wednesday’s blast is the second in two months. On May 7, two workers were killed and eight injured in a similar incident.

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The probe into the alleged custodial killings of a father-son duo in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin is all set to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the Madras High Court, which is hearing the case after taking suo moto cognisance, on June 29 said that it doesn’t have any objection with nor will it interfere with the state government’s decision in this regard.

On Tamil Nadu government’s appeal seeking permission to shift the Thoothukudi custodial death case of father-son to CBI, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court said they don’t have any objection and will not interfere with the decision of the state government.

Notably, the development comes a day after Chief Minister Edapaddi K. Palaniswami, who oversees the police department and has come under fire over the incident, announced that the state government would transfer the probe to the CBI after getting permission from the Madurai bench of the High Court, in the next hearing on June 30.

The issue pertains to the death of 59-year-old Jayaraj and his 31-year-old son Bennicks, who died within days of being released from police custody after being arrested on June 19 for opening their mobile shop open beyond permissible business hours due to the coronavirus lockdown.

However, it was later alleged that while in custody, the two were subjected to torture, and even sexual assault, and died as a result of the injuries they sustained. The incident has triggered massive outrage across the state.

The state government has suspended four policemen, including two sub-inspectors. It has also announced a monetary compensation for the bereaved family.

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