Chennai - Sandesh

Swayamsevaks in social media serve a purpose

Polio-afflicted Selvaraj of Karaikudi helps poor students since 1968. He is not only poor but in fact a beggar. Earlier he was a bicycle mechanic. Since 2006, he is jobless but he continues his good work of helping the poor – by begging. Social media including Facebook came to his help. As a result, one person from Chennai has been sending to Selvaraj Rs.500 every month for the last two years. Swayamsevaks of Chennai, active in social media have in a big way patted (1) The Editor of The New Indian Express, Chennai (2) Reporter Vignesh who did the Selvaraj story (3) the kind hearted Selvaraj and (4) the nameless benefactor of Chennai. This, to spread the good word, encourage the media to come out with more such good news and enthusing readers to respond to good news to begin with. 

Madrassa threatens social cohesion

It is a typical instance of imposing a Madrassa close to a Hanuman temple. This happened in Vellore town. In the words of D. Rengarajan, Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO): “A group of Muslims have tried to construct a madrassa. Following strong protests from the Hindus and Hindu Organisations, it has been successfully stalled in the past”. The problem resurfaced on August 17, when construction work was noticed. A board with the words - ‘Shamsunisha Arabic Madrasa’ - was erected on the land. On learning about this development, Hindu Munnani activists and other Hindu organisations along with local residents gathered and staged a protest. The protestors claimed that construction of a madrassa in close proximity to a place of Hindu worship would foment tension and demanded that the work be stopped. As a result, the police called a peace meeting. Hindus attended the meeting but Muslims failed to do so. 

RTI route by ABGP activist solves a problem

Shri Balaji an activist of ABGP Tamilnadu, helped solve a problem affecting thousands of railway passengers coming from southern towns to Chennai Egmore. There is a halt at Tambaram where local electric trains start. If a passenger wants to go to Nungambakkam by electric train after alighting from long distance express train he was harassed by the ticket collector saying that the ticket booked for the express is valid only for that train and not for the sub-urban electric trains. So the passenger used to be booked under ticketless travel, though Egmore is beyond Nungambakkam. Balaji’s RTI brought out the fact that while booking by Express, say from Srirangam to Egmore, the passenger has only to seek reservation upto Tambaram and mark his destination as Nungambakkam which is beyond Tambaram. Such a step will avoid unnecessary harassment, according to Shri M N Sundar, Organiser ABGP.