Talk of the town

- THE ``TUBE-WAR'' in the region is getting hotter and interesting. The bouquet of the Sun TV group channels is going to have competition in its home turf from the giant of Hindi channels, Zee. Zee TV, which so far did not have a regional hold, has ``paratrooped'' into the south through Asianet, the Malayalam channel.

Zee has taken a majority stake in Asianet and will now spread its wings in the region. Sources say that Asianet is working on a Kannada channel, which is expected to be launched soon. A Tamil channel also is on the cards.

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- IT IS not just the tube that is battling it out in the south. The latest is Internet. The increasing business interest in the medium, which is still confined to 50,000 to 70,000 direct connections in Chennai, saw the City Police suddenly waking up to be extremely dutiful to warn people about a company offering sops to people to sell its Internet service.

Though, dubious offers which often amount to plain deceit abound in the print and broadcasting media in the city, the Police became selectively duty-conscious last Friday. ``This is against law,'' they said pointing at the advertising by the company, Dishnet. The latter withdrew its offer.

But the City police were too interested in the case. According to Dishnet sources, the company received the show-cause from Police only on Saturday. But the Police had issued a press-release on Friday itself and the company came to know from the newspapers and not officially.

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- DAMNED IF you do, damned if you don't. That predicament of the security personnel at Chennai airport was painfully evident, when a Union Minister from the DMK strode in to see off the Chief Minister on Thursday. Along with him were two of his men and they were in no mood to listen to rules and regulations about entry.

The Union Minister, Mr. T. R. Balu, along with the two representatives, tried to enter the airport through (Gate-7) at the old airport complex to see off Mr. M. Karunanidhi, who left by a special aircraft to Madurai at 7-30 a.m.

Mr. Balu was not happy when an officer in charge of Airport Security and Anti-Hijacking, told him that his companions could not enter the operational area. The officer was given some ``tough talk'', ironically, in the presence of top brass of the State police including the DGP.

The Airport Security police finally yielded.

There have been demands that the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) should be asked to take responsibility during such situations.

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- THE POLICE often appears ``top heavy'', with a phalanx of senior officers entrusted with onerous responsibilities.

But in Chennai, two top zonal posts are lying vacant for nearly one year. The posts of Joint Commissioners for South and North have not been filled after the transfer of Mr. M. Balachandran as Additional Commissioner from South, and Mr. D. Radhakrishnan from North Chennai. One theory is that the Joint Commissioners posts are meant only for coordination and hence not necessary when there is an Additional Commissioner. Another is that there are not many takers for the posts.

An officer says even if the Government wants to fill up the vacancies, it can do so only when the promotion of some SPs is effected and that is possible only in the next couple of months.

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- There is a posting controversy of a different kind on at the Chennai Corporation.

Just three months before the present ``in-charge'' Health Officer is due to retire, the Government has confirmed him in the job, amid no-holds-barred lobbying by others.

After a three-year wait, the Chennai Corporation has a full-time Health Officer and the civic body dropped all charges against the `in- charge' doctor to facilitate his promotion.

There is still no Additional Health Officer in the civic body, which means that after the HO's retirement, his post could again lapse into an in-charge situation.

By T. S. Shankar, K. T. Sangameswaran and R. K. Radhakrishnan.

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