Ahead of elections, one BJP worker and two others were detained with Rs 4 crore cash by Tamil Nadu Police at Tambaram railway station in Chennai, as per the reports.

The BJP member, identified as S Sathish (33), along with his brother Naveen (31) and one driver, Perumal (26), were carrying Rs 4 crore in eight bags, the report suggests, the flying squad team with police detained them when they were set to travel to Tirunelveli by Nellai Express train.

The report further suggests that the team of Tirunelveli BJP MP candidate Nainar Nagenthiran instructed Sathish to reach Tirunelveli with Rs 4 crore.

The police conducted search operations in Kilpauk, Triplicane, and Saligramam, as well as the locations linked to Tirunelveli BJP candidate Nainar Nagendran. According to the report, the passengers had stored the cash at places associated with the BJP leader before transporting it to Egmore railway station.

The police detained all three suspects and informed the income tax department. The IT teams will interrogate the accused now.

Currently, there is an ongoing investigation to determine if the passengers had planned to distribute the cash in the Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The elections are scheduled to take place in seven phases starting on April 19th.

In the first phase of the 2024 general elections, voting in Tamil Nadu’s 39 constituencies is scheduled for April 19, with counting on June 4.

As the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is currently in effect following the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has strictly mentioned its guidelines for the politicians and their party members.

Earlier, the ECI  instructed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to immediately halt delivering Viksit Bharat messages on WhatsApp.

The poll body has also asked the Ministry to provide a compliance report on the subject, it added. The Commission claimed it had received multiple complaints alleging that even after the election results were announced and the MCC went into effect, messages intended to promote the Central government’s activities under the Viksit Bharat Sampark were still being delivered to citizens’ phones.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on January 26, handed over the Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award 2024 to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair during the 75th Republic Day celebrations in Chennai. Governor R.N. Ravi and other dignitaries were also present at the event.  

The fact-checker Zubair has been working to debunk the fake news, circulating on social media platforms. Zubair through his Alt News portal has been analysing the veracity of the news coming out on social media and his work helps to prevent the occurrence of violence in society likely to be caused by fake news, the statement read.

The statement further brought attention to a specific incident during March 2023, where social media was loaded with misinformation that the migrant workers were being attacked in Tamil Nadu.  

It was noted that his website Alt News published the video after verifying the authenticity of the video footage. The footage in the video posted on social media had not actually taken place in Tamil Nadu and thus stopped the spread of rumours against Tamil Nadu and acted to prevent violence caused by caste, religion, race and language in the state, the citation said.

During the ceremony, CM Stalin also presented the Chief Minister’s Special Award to U Aayi Ammal, also known as Pooranam. Pooranam, who resides in Madurai district, donated 1.52 acres of her land to upgrade the Madurai East Panchayat Union Middle School to a High School in Y. Kodikulam. She made this generous donation in memory of her daughter Janani.

The Chief Minister awarded the Anna Medal for Gallantry, 2024 to three individuals. These included fisherman Yasaar Arafat from Kayalpattinam in Thoothukudi district, D. Daniel Selvasingh from Thadiveeran Koil in Tirunelveli, and Tahsildar S. Sivakumar from Srivaikundam in Thoothukudi district. Arafat led a group of over a dozen fishermen from Singithurai to rescue around 250 people who were stranded in the unprecedented floods on December 17 and 18 last year in Thanneerpandal village.

Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday extended the free breakfast scheme for all the government school students across Tamil Nadu.

The chief minister celebrated the expansion by having breakfast with school students in Tirukkuvalai, Nagapattinam and sharing a meal with them, where M K Stalin’s father, former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, was once a student.

This is not just a fund allotment but an investment in our children’s future. The Tamil Nadu government has invested in enhancing students’ minds and knowledge. This would definitely manifest in the form of talent and capacity-building which will profit the state, he said.

The state government has allocated Rs 404 crore for a programme launched in September last year. It aims to benefit 17 lakh enrolled children in over 31,000 schools in Tamil Nadu.

The chief minister had instructed elected representatives to launch the extension of the scheme in government primary schools in their constituencies.

The scheme was expanded after the pilot program that provided free breakfast to 114,000 students in grades 1-5. The program showed an increase in school attendance and improved the nutritional health of students in the state.

In September 2022, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu expressed his views on the scheme saying the scheme which has been rolled out for students of Class I to V in government schools is not a freebie, in fact, it is the foremost duty and responsibility of the State government to ensure its children are fed. Such schemes are the face of a government.

While speaking at the launch of the novel Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme, Stalin added that when he was interacting with students in a programme at Chennai, he asked a few students why they appeared tired and if they had eaten. The students responded him saying that they usually don’t eat in the morning, which struck a chord.

Many officials and teachers affirmed the same. That spark led to the birth of the free breakfast scheme. Through this scheme, every student shall enter classrooms with their stomachs full, he stated.