| Tamil Nadu |
By Abhishek
Hogenakkal’s fate lies undecided, Marans & Karuna bury the hatchet
Tamil issue
The Tamil Nadu political leaders raised their concerns over the welfare of the ethnic Tamils in Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Indian authorities later raised the issue with the Malaysian and Sri Lankan governments.
Tamil leaders have been accusingg Sri Lankan Army of high-handedness in the Tamil regions where a battle rages between the LTTE and the state. The DMK demanded that the Centre stop military assistance to Sri Lankan government or support will be pulled from the UPA.
The tension got further escalated when a Sri Lanka daily carried the remark of Lankan Army Chief calling the Tamil leaders ‘Political Jokers’. The incident later led to the sacking of the editor of the newspaper before threatening to become a diplomatic tussle between the neighbour countries.
Marans vs Karunanidhi
DMK’s M Karunanidhi patched up with his grand nephews Maran brothers after more than a year. The two families had drifted apart and led to a media war down South.
Marans’ Sun TV headed by Kalanidhi Maran which works as the mouthpiece of DMK and Kalaiganr TV backed by DMK clashed and vied for TRPs.
The family feud developed between two families after Marans’ newspaper Dinakarn published a survey saying people prefer Karuna’s younger son Stalin to Azhagiri. In a reaction to the survey, Azhagiri followers attacked Dinakarna’s office and engaged in vandalism.
Karunanidhi later asked Prime Minister Manmiohan Singh to drop his grand nephew from the Ministry of Telecommunication and IT.
Hogenakkal Issue
The Cauvery water sharing tussle between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka continued this year. The Rs 1,334-crore project envisages water supply to 40.4 lakh people in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts of Tamil Nadu. The Karnataka government objected to Tamil Nadu govt’s construction of Hogenakkal dam over Cauvery river saying it deprives Karnataka people of their share of water and that the waterfall of Hogenakkal belongs to it. The case is still pending in the Supreme Court.
What is more, even Tamil superstar Rajnikant jumped into the controversy and criticized Karnataka for opposing the project resulting in protests against his movies in Karantaka.
Cyclone Nisha
Tamil Nadu was hit by Cyclone Nisha towards the end of the year claiming more than 100 lives, besides affecting standing crops on thousands of hectares of land. The cyclone came after torrential rains which left the major areas, national highways and railway lines in the region submerged. The coastal areas of Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Tiruvarur were the worst affected. |
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