THE TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAI TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 5TIMES CITY/REGION

Chennai: Anticipating Kani-mozhi’s re-lease on bailin the 2Gspectrumcase by thethird weekof Septem-ber, theDMK chiefhas for the

first time postponed the ‘Mup-perum Vizha’, the party’s an-nual celebrations, to Septem-ber-end. The three-daycelebrations, which mark thebirth anniversaries of DMKfounder leader CN Annadurai,DK leader Periyar and thefounding day of the DMK, arenormally held mid-Septemberevery year.

But with his legal advisorsconveying the hope that therewas a good chance that Kani-mozhi might get bail in a coupleof weeks after more than 100days of imprisonment, Karuna-nidhi, keen that his daughtertake part in the event, has post-poned the celebrations to Sep-tember 30.

“Thalaivar wants to visit his

daughter in Delhi again. But hewas told that Kanimozhi mayget bail in the third week of Sep-tember. Senior party leaders arealso hope the same. He wants tohave Kanimozhi in the anniver-sary celebrations. He expressedhis wish to other senior leadersand postponed the date,” a for-mer minister told TOI.

Karunanidhi had skippedhis birthday celebrations onJune 3 due to his daughter’s in-carceration. “Kalaignar doesn’twant to celebrate ‘MupperumVizha’ when Kanimozhi is inprison,” a close associate of Ka-runanidhi said.

Earlier, the triple functionswere only organised in Chen-nai, but later it was decided toconduct the function in the dis-tricts every year. In 2004, it washeld in Coimbatore, followed byTirunelveli, Kancheepuram,Erode and Kanyakumari.

“We also have problem ingetting permission to conductthe celebration in Vellore. So thevenue was shifted to our Chen-nai headquarters. Thalaivarwill present the Periyar ,Anna,Pavendar Bharathidasan andKalaignar Awards at the func-tion,” a senior DMK leader said.

DMK puts off fete onhope of Kani’s release

Karthick S TNN

HOMECOMING?

Chennai: At a time whencrores are being poured intoprojects like elevated express-ways and rail networks, themost basic need of Chennai-ites continues to be ignored.The metropolis has just 714public toilets for its 46 lakh pop-ulation against at least 1,500 re-quired, a study by TransparentChennai, a research organiza-tion, has found.

Given that nearly 10 lakhtravellers pass through the citydaily and that the number ofdiabetics is rising, there is anurgent need for more publictoilets, says the study whichmapped 49 toilets in the Chen-nai Corporations’ Zone 4 com-prising Villivakkam, Sembi-um, Perambur andAyanavaram. Many werefound to be located far frommarket areas, bus stops and ar-eas with heavy pedestrian traf-fic. The condition of toilets inMuthamizh Nagar, BV Colony,Thattankulam, KesavapillaiPark, Kosapet and RK Nagar innorth Chennai and Mylapore,Marvadi Thottam, Visalakshi

Thottam, Triplicane and Gand-hi Nagar in south Chennai wasfound to be particularly bad.

“Most of the toilets are in apathetic condition,” says Sou-mya Sethuraman, a researcherwith Transparent Chennai.The Chennai corporationdoesn’t have any data on the toi-lets, she says. A 2009-10 surveyby the Union ministry of urbandevelopment on sanitation andhygiene standards saw Chen-nai securing just 53 points outof 100, she said.

Apart from approving amove to impose a fine of Rs 50

for spitting, urinating or defe-cating in public places in 2008,the civic body appears to havedone little. A visit by this corre-spondent to toilets near theChennai Central railway sta-tion, Adyar, Saidapet, Royapet-tah and T Nagar revealed thesorry state of affairs. Not a sin-gle person was seen enteringany of them. In several therewas no water, the doors and oth-er accessories were either bro-ken or removed. Many otherswere locked. The space outsidewas being used as a toilet andthe stench was overpowering.

Several women said they feltunsafe about using these toiletsas the entrance was at the rear.

Sulabh International, anNGO, had been maintaining450 public toilets along with thecorporation until 2007. “Weconstructed 225 public toiletsand handed them over to thecorporation. It is responsiblefor their maintenance,” saysAjit Kumar Thakur, advisor ofSulabh International Chennai.

Corporation commission-er D Karthikeyan said a surveywould be conducted across thecity to construct new toiletsand that tenders had beenawarded for disabled-friendlytoilets in 30 places. The projectwould be completed by year-end, he said. Proper mainte-nance of existing toilets wouldalso be ensured, he said.

Many residents were unan-imous in demanding more toi-lets. “The absence of an ade-quate number of toilets in mostpublic places encourages opendefecation. The existing onesdon’t have the basic ameni-ties,” a law student Feroz Khansaid.

mp.christin@timesgroup.com

Instead Of Required 1,500, Chennai Has Just 714 For 46L People

Public toilets low on agendaChristin Mathew Philip TNN

GIVING IT A PASS

City’s population – 46 lakh

No. of public toilets – 714

Public toilets required – 1,500

No. of travellers passingthrough Chennai – 10 lakh/day

Data management on publictoilets poor

Most public toilets don’t have24-hour water supply

Budgetary allocations forpublic toilets not adequate

Chennai: The Supreme Courtorder asking Tamil Nadu chiefminister J Jayalalithaa to per-sonally appear before a specialcourt in Bangalore, which ishearing the disproportionateassets case against her, is thesecond instance of the apexcourt ruling against what isviewed as Jayalalithaa’s at-tempts to delay the due processof law.

In an earlier order in 2003,the apex court, fearing miscar-riage of justice, transferredthe disproportionate assetscase and the London luxury

hotel case from a special courtin Chennai to one in Bangaloreas Jayalalithaa had draggedthe two corruption casesthrough a series of legal arti-fices when she was out of pow-er between 1996 and 2001. Buton her party returning to pow-er in 2001, the cases picked uppace. Jayalalithaa, of course,has since then been dis-charged from the London hotelcase.

While she has got acquittedin most other cases too includ-ing the TANSI land deal case, itis the disproportionate assetscase that is giving her sleep-

less nights even 15 years afterthey were registered. Jayala-lithaa will be among the veryfew chief ministers to appearin a court while in power.

The case against Jayala-lithaa is that she allegedlyamassed wealth to the tune of.̀ 66.65 crore, disproportionateto her known sources of in-come, during her first tenureas chief minister from 1991 to1996.

She was arrested in Decem-ber 1996 and during her 28 daysof judicial remand, the offi-cials of the directorate of vigi-lance and anti-corruption con-ducted raids at her PoesGarden house. Among the val-uables seized were severalhundred sarees, a few hundredfootwears, dozens of wrist-watches, 468 jewellery itemsand many airconditioners.Jayalalithaa, her friend N Sa-sikala and their associatesowned 120 properties, theDVAC claimed. The DVACcharged that her assets had ris-en from .̀ 2.01 crore in 1991 to.̀ 66.65 crore in 1996.

The apex court transferredthe case to Bangalore for theconduct of fair trial based onpetitions filed by DMK generalsecretary K Anbazhagan andJanata Party president Subra-manian Swamy. The SupremeCourt took serious note ofmany prosecution witnessesbacktracking after she return-ed to power in 2001. The SC or-der said, “the judicial processwas subverted,” and the publicprosecutor “is hand in glovewith the accused.”

The SC also ordered thatday-to-day hearings should beheld in the Karnataka specialcourt.

SC comes in wayof Jaya’s bid to

delay assets case

Jayalalithaa will beamong the very fewCMs to appear in acourt while in power.The case against heris that she allegedlyamassed wealth tothe tune of .̀ 66.65crore

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Chennai: Ten days after theMadras high court stayed theSankararaman murder casetrial, a new petition has been fil-ed seeking dismissal of the ear-lier petition and urging thecourt to restrain the mediafrom publishing anything re-lating to the alleged telephonicconversation between KanchiSankaracharya Jayendra Sa-raswathi and the trial judge.

On August 25, Justice K Su-guna had stayed the ongoingtrial after advocate P Sundara-rajan filed a petition allegingthat a taped telephonic conver-sation between Jayendra Sa-raswathi and trial judge T Ra-masamy had surfaced.

Claiming that there was an at-tempt by the acharya to bribethe judge, Sundararajansought re-trial in the case.

On Monday, K Thiru Muru-gan of Virugambakkam filed apetition to implead him as aparty to the proceedings. Hesaid the earlier petition was fil-

ed by vested interests frustrat-ed by the turn of events at thetrial court. Questioning themaintainability of the petitionagainst the trial, Murugan saidhe wanted the court to issue anorder restraining the mediafrom publishing anything re-garding the alleged telephonetapes or financial issues said to

have been discussed overphone.

After Sundararajan’s coun-sel Manikandan Vathan Chet-tiar objected to impleading Mu-rugan, Justice Suguna issuednotice to the respondents ask-ing them to file their counter-af-fidavits by Friday, when thematter would be taken up forhearing.

Sankararaman, managerof the Varadaraja PerumalTemple in Kancheepuram, wasmurdered on the temple prem-ises on September 3, 2004.Jayendra Saraswathi and hisjunior Vijayendra were arrest-ed in connection with the case.The trialis being held at the Pu-ducherry sessions court follow-ing a Supreme Court order.

New plea in HC seeks curbs onmedia in Kanchi murder case

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TAPE CONTROVERSY

Madurai: The Maduraibench of Madras high courton Monday directed the stategovernment to file a counter-affidavit on a petition alleg-ing that prisoners were beingforced to clean toilets at theMadurai central prison.

The bench comprisingjustices P Jyothimani and MM Sundresh gave the direc-tive on a PIL filed by NagaiThiruvalluvan, a Madurai-based advocate, seeking toprovide proper facilities toundertrials, including hospi-tal services, power supplyand clean toilets. The petitionalso alleged that the prison-ers were being made to cleantoilets.

On August 25, the courthad directed the principal dis-trict judge of Madurai to visitthe prison and file a report onits condition. The court di-rected him to submit reportson the condition of undertrialprisoners as well as thoseserving out sentences.

When the matter came upbefore the bench on Monday,the principal district judgesubmitted his report whichstated that the remand pris-oners were indeed beingforced to clean toilets. Onhearing the submissions ofthe counsels, the bench askedthe government to file a coun-ter-affidavit on the conditionsexisting at Madurai prisonand posted the matter to nextMonday for further hearing.

Court seeks govt reply oncondition of Madurai prison

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