Chennai Dec 27 PTI A Sharjah-bound passenger was arrested on Monday after the Customs detected US Dollars equivalent of Rs 115 crore concealed in his baggage The passenger was intercepted by the officers of the Air Intelligence Unit of the Chennai Customs based on specific inputs shared by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence Bangalore an official release here said On examination of his checked-in baggage convertible foreign currency US Dollars equivalent to Rs 115 crore ingeniously concealed in check- in baggage was recovered and seized under the provisions of the Customs Act 1962 read with Foreign Exchange Management Act The passenger was arrested it said Further investigation was on PTI SA APR APR

Chennai Nov 26 PTI The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and the Market Management panel in Koyambedu wholesale market to submit their response by November 29 on a plea to restore the tomato unloading ground situated there Justice R Suresh Kumar gave the direction while passing interim orders on a writ petition from the Thanthai Periyar Tomato Traders Association by its president A K Swaminathan The petition sought to quash the October 14 2020 order of the Chief Administrator Officer of the CMDA Market Managing Committee which closed the site and consequently prayed for a direction to him to permit the association members to use the ground for loading and unloading tomatoes PTI SA APR APR

Chennai Nov 24 PTI The opposition AIADMK will hold a meeting of one of its key decision-making bodies the Executive Committee on December 1 here the party said on Wednesday The meeting will be held under the leadership of Coordinator O Panneerselvam and Joint Coordinator K Palaniswami at the AIADMK headquarters here a party release said The General Council is the other decision-making body Meanwhile a meeting of the partys District Secretaries under the two top leaders was held here on Wednesday The meeting which was also attended by party MPs and MLAs discussed its strategy to win the ensuing urban civic body polls senior leader D Jayakumar later told reporters He also refuted reports that there were heated arguments between some members and insisted only constructive discussions took place where opinions were shared PTI SA APR APR

Chennai Nov 20 PTI The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday launched a Forensic DNA Profile Search Tool and said it will be useful in various aspects including reuniting abducted and missing children with parents based on DNA Tamil Nadu was the first state to introduce the technology in the country and Chief Minister M K Stalin launched it here an official release said In foreign countries by combining DNA with IT its efficiency has grown manifold and such a technology was not available in the country so far it said The tool will be useful in reuniting abducted and missing children with parents based on their DNA comparison tracking inter-state criminals identifying persons resorting to repeated crime acts and identifying unidentified bodies and human skeletons it said PTI SA APR APR

Chennai Nov 17 PTI Tamil Nadu on Wednesday recorded 782 new coronavirus cases and 13 deaths as the declining trend of fresh infections and active ones in the state continued The active cases dropped to 9211 from the 9349 on Tuesday according to a government bulletin The new cases pushed the cumulative positives to 2717203 while the toll mounted to 36324 following the 13 deaths As many as 907 persons were cured of the disease in the last 24 hours pushing the total recoveries to 2671668 Among the districts Chennai reported the highest fresh cases of 116 followed by Coimbatore at 115 While no new cases emerged from Tenkasi and Theni on Wednesday 16 of the total 38 districts returned single-digit new cases Of the 13 deceased one person did not have any pre-existing health conditions the bulletin added PTI SA APR APR

Chennai Sep 19 PTI The AIADMK in Tamil Nadu on Sunday questioned the DMK governments opposition to bring petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax GST saying it was contrary to the ruling partys persistent demands for covering fuel under the GST ambit earlier when it was in the opposition Chief Minister M K Stalin as Leader of Opposition in the past had often stressed for bringing petrol and diesel under GST saying it will enable in reduction of the fuel prices AIADMK Coordinator O Panneerselvam said However the government had opposed any move to bring petrol and diesel under the tax ambit in the latest GST Council meeting on Friday saying it was a means of key tax revenue for the states he pointed out DMK is known for taking one stand while in the opposition and another when in power in issues like regional autonomy NEET cancellation and inter-state river disputes the former chief minister said in a party statement Explaining in detail DMKs earlier demand for bringing petroleum products under the GST and its Finance Minister P T Palanivel Thiaga Rajan now opposing any such move he said there was an apprehension among the public that the ruling partys earlier stand was only a desperate attempt to capture power Therefore Chief Minister M K Stain should intervene in the matter immediately and in order to lessen the burden on the people take steps to bring petroleum products under GST and establish DMKs pre-election stand he urged This will also help in total fulfilling of DMKs poll-time promise of reducing the rates of petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 3 respectively he added The DMK government had last month announced a cut of Rs 3 per litre in petrol rates Tamil Nadu on Friday opposed the idea of bringing fuels under the goods and services tax GST by saying the petrol and diesel remain one of the last vestiges of a states right to manage its own revenue The GST Council chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday had decided to continue to keep petrol and diesel out of the uniform national tax regime besides taking a number of other taxation related decisions PTI SA APR APR

Chennai Sep 17 PTI Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Friday held their third round of talks between respective committees set up to discuss various inter-state river water disputes An official release from the Tamil Nadu government said that separate panels were established earlier to discuss the Parambikulam-Aliyar and Pandiyaru-Punnambuzha issues and two meetings had held earlier in 2019 and 2020 The third round of talks of these committees were held virtually today it said Tamil Nadu raised matters including the Anaimalaiyaru scheme Neeraru-Nallaru linking getting the Central nod for removing 23 trees on Baby dam and Mullaiperiyar reservoir releasing of water from Neyyar dam to benefit irrigation lands in Kanniyakumaris Vilavankode taluk among others the release said The subjects flagged by Kerala include renewing the Parambikulam-Aliyar project agreement and one on producing electricity from Mullaiperiyar dam it said While Tamil Nadu was represented by a team of officials headed by PWD Additional Chief Secretary Sandeep Saxena Kerala Water Resources Additional Chief Secretary T K Jose led the Kerala side PTI SA APR APR