Madurai

March 1 2002

Advocates of the Madurai Bar Association boycotted courts today demanding filling of vacancies in the principal sub-court and first additional sub-court besides creation of more munsiff courts.

According to association president Vellaichamy, the vacancies in the sub-courts had not been filled for the past four months and this led to the piling up of civil cases.

"More than one thousand cases are pending in various sub-courts without presiding officers," he pointed out.

One of the sessions judges had been shifted to a fast track court and this vacancy had not been filled. Another additional sub-judge had retired and this post had also not been filled, he said.

The association, he said, also regretted acute scarcity of court fee stamps and stamp papers and criticised the court administration for not taking any steps to rush supplies despite repeated reminders. (karaikal news)

Jayalalitha's new team is 27-strong

Chennai

Mar 1 2002

The new Ministry headed by AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, which is to be sworn in tomorrow at the Madras University Centenary Auditorium, will have 27 members including O Panneerselvam.

Jayalalithaa will hold the portfolios of Home, Police, Public and Minorities while Panneerselvam will be in-charge of Public Works, Prohibition and Excise.

The other Ministers in the list are as follows:

C Ponnaiyan (Finance and Information Technology),

M Thambidurai (Education)

S Karuppusamy (Adi-Dravidar Welfare),

R Viswanathan (Transport),

Nainar Nagendran (Electricity),

S M Velusamy (Industries and Commercial Taxes),

P Mohan (Forests and Environment),

R Vilvanathan (Rural Industries),

M C Sampath (Housing and Urban Development),

Anita R Radhakrishnan (Animal Husbandry),

K Sudharsanam (Backward Classes),

V T Natrajan (Labour),

S Ramachandran (Dairy Development),

K K Balasubramaniam (Information and Publicity),

V Somasundaram (Handloom and Textiles),

M Radhakrishnan (Fisheries),

A Miller (Tourism),

D Jayakumar (Law),

P C Ramasamy (HR&CE),

S Semmalai (Health),

C Durairaj (Local Administration),

P Dhanapal (Co-operation & Food),

N Thalavai Sundaram (Revenue),

R Jeevanandam (Agriculture) and

Valarmathi (Social Welfare).