Latest news with #Tamil-medium
The Hindu
02-06-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Children in govt. and aided schools get new sets of uniforms, books and stationery on the first day
After summer vacation, schools in Tiruchi welcomed students on Monday. On the first day of the new academic year, textbooks, notebooks, school bags, stationery, shoes, and two sets of uniforms were distributed to children in government and government-aided schools. A total of 7,79,101 textbooks, 8,65,401 notebooks, 1,33,928 sets of school uniforms, and 2,41,282 books were distributed to students of 1,297 government and 363 aided schools in Tiruchi this academic year. Collector M. Pradeep Kumar distributed textbooks, uniforms, and other items to students at Syed Murthuza Government Higher Secondary School here. In Perambalur, about 418 government and aided school students received 31,903 sets of uniforms, 52,071 notebooks and 53,877 books. Children in 11 self-financed Tamil-medium schools also received notebooks. A total of 36,301 students studying in Tamil medium and 5,048 in English medium from Classes 1 to 5 at 751 government and aided schools, and 73,827 Tamil medium students and 14,116 English medium students of Classes 6 to 12 studying at 140 schools in Karur district received textbooks and other school items on Monday. Textbooks, notebooks, school bags, shoes, socks, atlases, crayons, colour pencils, geometry boxes, and uniforms were distributed to the students. Collector P. Rathinasamy distributed textbooks, uniforms and other items to 462 students of Classes 6 to 12 at the Government Model Higher Secondary School in Asithinapuram in Ariyalur. As many as 1,32,155 textbooks, 95,086 notebooks, and 64,610 uniforms have been distributed to students studying in government and aided schools in Ariyalur district. About 34,448 pairs of socks were given to students from classes 6 to 10, 48,168 school bags for classes 6 to 12, 13,966 geometry boxes for classes 6 to 9, and 5,462 drawing books for class 6 students have been distributed to the students, said Mr. Rathinasamy. Earlier, officials conducted a meeting with the school heads and inspected the availability of textbooks and other school items. They ensured that the schools were cleaned and repair works were carried out on the premises to welcome the children after a month-long break.
The Hindu
01-06-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Bulldozers flatten Madrasi Camp amid heavy security
As dawn broke on Sunday, bulldozers rumbled into Madrasi Camp in south Delhi's Jangpura under the watchful eyes of a police contingent and started tearing down hundreds of houses in the decades-old slum cluster, while stunned residents, some teary-eyed, looked on. The demolitions were a result of a Delhi High Court order dated May 9, which directed the authorities to clear the area along the Barapullah drain as part of a restoration and cleaning drive for the 16-kilometre-long drain, which flows into the Yamuna river. Wiping her tears, Rani, a 50-year-old widow, said, 'My family left Madras [now Chennai] 55 years ago without any belongings. I built my house, which meant the world to me, from scratch. In a minute, they razed it.' The area was inhabited mostly by residents hailing from Tamil Nadu. 155 families not on list Of the 370 families in the area, 215 were found eligible for relocation under the 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makaan' rehabilitation scheme. A total of 189 have been offered flats in Narela, while the remaining 26, found eligible under a revised list, are still awaiting allotment. Members of the other families, which were declared ineligible, said surveyors rejected their claims citing reasons such as their names missing from voter lists and minor spelling mismatch in their documents. While some families are said to have moved their belongings 40 km away to Narela, the exact count remains unclear. Several residents said the flats allotted to them lack basic amenities, including electricity and water, and have broken doors and no windows. The Delhi Development Authority, which allotted the flats, did not respond to these claims till the time of going to press. Revati, 50, said, 'Here [Jangpura], the rent is very high. The flat in Narela is too far and not liveable. I am stuck in this situation.' Annapurna, 60, added, 'Would sitting inside those (Narela) houses ensureroti (bread)?' Families with school-going children raised concerns over the lack of a Tamil-medium school in Narela, such as one near Barapullah. Some students said they barely understand Hindi, posing a major educational barrier. Aam Aadmi Party Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj said, 'On May 31, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta claimed that not a single jhuggi would be touched. But today, Madrasi Camp was razed, leaving thousands homeless.' BJP Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva responded, 'Our government has provided alternative flats. AAP must explain why it treated slum dwellers as vote banks and failed to rehabilitate them.' Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Rajya Sabha member Tiruchi Siva said, 'These people survive on meagre incomes. Sending them far off isn't right, there should've been humanitarian consideration.'
Indian Express
01-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Tamil Nadu pledges support to residents as Delhi's ‘Madrasi Camp' faces demolition
As a court-ordered demolition drive began tearing through the narrow lanes of Delhi's 'Madrasi Camp' on Sunday, the Tamil Nadu government issued a statement promising support to the hundreds of Tamil-origin families facing eviction from the decades-old settlement near Nizamuddin Railway Station. In a statement issued from Chennai, the state government said the Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi has been tasked with actively facilitating and overseeing coordination efforts. 'Reaffirming its unwavering commitment to the welfare of persons of Tamil Nadu origin residing outside the state, the government of Tamil Nadu is in active coordination with the residents of 'Madrasi Camp' to ensure that every possible support is extended to them without delay,' a state government statement said. The statement came hours after the Delhi High Court's May 9 order came into effect, triggering the demolition of 370 slum homes constructed over the Barapullah drain. The court had declared the settlement an unauthorised encroachment, citing its role in obstructing drainage and causing severe monsoon water logging in surrounding areas. Dating back over six decades, the settlement, also known as 'Madrasi Basti', has been a vibrant enclave of Tamil-speaking migrants who arrived in Delhi seeking work as domestic help, cooks, and daily-wage labourers in affluent neighbourhoods like Jangpura, Bhogal, and Lajpat Nagar. Though humble in its infrastructure, the camp evolved into a tightly woven community, maintaining its Tamil culture and language through local festivals, political engagement, and Tamil-medium schools. Built on land owned by the Railways, 'Madrasi Camp' has long stood as a symbol of the Tamil working-class diaspora in Delhi. Residents also kept political ties alive with their home state, participating in Tamil Nadu elections and maintaining close contact with their roots. However, the recent court order found that of the 370 households in the camp, only 215 were eligible for relocation under the provisions of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) Act and the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015. These families have been allotted flats in Narela, a northern suburb over 35 kilometres from the camp. The remaining 155 families — those who failed to meet documentation or eligibility criteria — are now left to fend for themselves, without formal resettlement or rehabilitation. According to a directive of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the state government will assist the residents of 'Madrasi Camp' who choose to return to their native districts in Tamil Nadu. Comprehensive support, including assistance for livelihood and other essential needs, will be extended to them, the official statement said. 'This assistance will be facilitated through the offices of the concerned District Collectors to ensure timely and effective implementation,' it said. Officers at the Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi will be coordinating efforts to provide on-ground support to those who wish to return to Tamil Nadu.
New Indian Express
04-05-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Friend-circle guide to help kids ace test
COIMBATORE: The sunlight filtering into a quiet government school classroom in Coimbatore lands gently on a row of determined young faces. It's late afternoon and the Class 12 students with their heads bent over spiral-bound textbooks are deep in preparation. These thick Q&A books of 1,000 pages each aren't provided by the school. However, for Tamil-medium students preparing for board exams, they are nothing short of essential. What makes them remarkable isn't just the content — it's the man behind them. P Raguraman, a 49-year-old civil contractor, has quietly spent the past two decades building more than just homes. Through his Kovai 'Aram Arrakkattalai' (Aram Trust), he's been assembling and distributing study guides to thousands of underprivileged students (classes 10 and 12) across Coimbatore for free of cost. It started in 2003, when Raguraman noticed students in rural areas struggling to access exam materials. Many of them relied on torn library books or borrowed notes that were often incomplete. Seeing this gap, he reached out to educators, including retired teachers, and compiled a comprehensive Q&A guide that would cover the entire syllabus, something rural students could lean on during their most crucial academic years. 'For the first 10 years, I printed 5,000 books annually and personally distributed them to students in classes 10 and 12,' says Raguraman. 'Later, I scaled it down to 1,000 for each grade due to financial constraints. A friend in Sivakasi prints them at a low cost, and I still visit the schools myself to hand them over.' Each book costs around Rs 300 to print. A circle of 20 long-time friends has quietly backed the effort since the beginning — one of them runs the printing press, offering the service at zero profit. The guides in Tamil include past board questions, model answers, and memory aids aligned with the state syllabus, all vetted for accuracy by experienced teachers. At a time when private tuition centres and coaching apps dominate urban education, Raguraman's hand-delivered books continue to serve students in schools that lack even the basics. The message that travels with every book? That someone out there is rooting for them.
Hindustan Times
22-04-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Citizen philanthropy: An old Bangalore tradition
Last week, a lovely new cultural space called Sabha officially opened its doors to Bangalore. Except it isn't new at all. Located on Kamaraj Road in the heart of the city, Sabha, now lovingly restored by the Ammini Trust, was originally the Chaturveda Siddhanta Sabha (CVS) School, a co-ed Tamil-medium school established over 150 years ago under the aegis of the RBANM's Educational Charities, founded in 1873. To this day, RBANM's runs nine different educational institutions, focused, as per its charter, on serving low-income, first-generation learners in marginalized communities around the Ulsoor area. The letters RBANM, as many old Bangaloreans who grew up in the Cantonment know, are the initials of the 19th century merchant-prince-turned-philanthropist, Rai Bahadur Arcot Narrainsawmy Mudaliar. The Mudaliars – also referred to as Vellalars – were originally a community of prosperous landowners from the Marutham (agricultural terrain), one of the five landscapes of the Tamil country (the others are Mullai – forest, Kurinji – mountains, Palai – arid land, and Neital – seashore) as described in Tamil Sangam literature some 2000 years ago. One branch of the Mudaliars, believed to have originated in the Tulu country (also known as the Thuluva Vellalars), eventually settled in the Thondaimandalam, the fertile doab between the rivers Penna and Ponnaiyar (both of which originate in Nandi Hills near Bangalore). The erstwhile Thondaimandalam today covers a large swathe of northern Tamil Nadu, including cities like Chennai, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, and Arcot. It is from these cities that large numbers of Thuluva Vellalars moved to Bangalore in the 19th century, to help build and serve the upcoming Bangalore Cantonment. One of them was RBANM (1827-1910). Compelled into earning a livelihood while quite young, he was denied a formal education, but his entrepreneurial smarts made him very wealthy indeed. A turning point in his fortunes was winning the contract to build the New Administrative Offices (today the High Court Building) in 1864. One of the first things this noble soul did after the project was completed in 1868 was to establish free dispensaries and schools – both Tamil and English-medium, for both boys and girls, to serve the poorest and the most marginalised. After he died at 82, having been honoured by both Queen Victoria and Chamarajendra Wadiyar X, his remains were interred in his own coconut grove at Veerapillai Street, very close to where Sabha stands. Another Thuluva Vellalar who, following in the footsteps of RBANM, contributed greatly to Bangalore's development, was BP Annasawmy Mudaliar, whose name is immortalized in the street that skirts Ulsoor Lake. Graduating with honours from the United Mission School in Bangalore, Annasawmy was also a contractor, involved in the building of the City Railway Station (1881) and Mayo Hall (1883). In 1907, he turned philanthropist, setting up the Tamil-medium Annasawmy Mudaliar School in the Fraser Town area for children of 'night-soil carriers'. Two years later, he set up the Rao Bahadur BP Annasawmy 'Mood' Dispensary, the quaint shortening of Mudaliar perhaps prompted by the need to accommodate the long name in the small space under the pitched roof. Both institutions still serve the community today. There were several other noteworthy Vellalars who contributed immensely to the city, but three worth mentioning are Mangalam Chinnaswamy Mudaliar, the cricket administrator after whom RCB's home stadium is named; Dr TV Arumugam Mudaliar, senior surgeon and Superintendent of Victoria Hospital in the early 1900s, and physician to Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar (the Arumugam Circle in Basavanagudi is named after him); and Dr T Seshachalam Mudaliar, also Superintendent of Victoria Hospital from 1939 to 1949, who has a rather unique distinction – his 1930 paper on the 'accessory appendicular artery', which supplies blood to the appendix, was such a breakthrough that it came to be known as the 'artery of Seshachalam', making him the only Indian, Mudaliar or otherwise, to have a body part named after him. (Roopa Pai is a writer who has carried on a longtime love affair with her hometown Bengaluru)
