DMK councilor collects `100 from beneficiaries

DMK councillor Ramakrishnan of Thoothukudi’s ward 47 proved what was always suspected and never come out in the open; There are kickbacks even in the distribution of state freebies. But he had a “genuine” reason why he collected `10 each from 300 beneficiaries of the free-stove scheme in his ward. “How else can I fund the grand distribution ceremony and besides, what’s wrong taking a small contribution from them when they are getting a gas stove worth over `2,000?”
But, the locals were not impressed by his defence. They rallied behind the Opposition parties, led by the AIADMK, which put up posters in the ward accusing him of pocketing `30,000 squeezed out of poor people. The police landed when a skirmish broke out between the protesters and the councillor’s supporters. Finally, Mr Ramakrishnan was forced to refund the mamool.
“We did not pressure the really poor people. Of the 417 beneficiaries, we collected `100 each from only 300 persons,” said an associate of Mr Ramakrishnan. While the councillor seemed unperturbed by the “scam”, social welfare minister P. Geetha Jeevan offered an interesting answer when asked to comment on the episode.
“Theriyaamal vangittar (he took it unknowingly),” she said. Did she mean that he took the money secretly, surreptitiously? “Oh, no, he took it innocently and when he was told it was wrong, he returned the money immediately,” the minister told this newspaper. She insisted that she had strictly warned all her party functionaries in her native district of Nellai that they should not take money from the beneficiaries of government welfare schemes.
The minister did not explain why she had to issue such a diktat.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/31540" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-2f02103b933757e3705788eaab5d9db3" value="form-2f02103b933757e3705788eaab5d9db3" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85271528" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.