Talk of the town

- GUESS WHERE the super-profile birthday boy was on December 12?

Though the rumour mills did overtime speculating on the whereabouts of Rajnikant (Bangalore and Mysore were the hot favourites), reliable word has it that he was cooling his heels at a farm house near Mahabalipuram.

The superstar has, of late, made it a habit to `disappear' every birthday, trying to make private what has become a public celebration. However, this does not seem to daunt his admirers who turn up in large numbers to catch a glimpse of their hero. This, despite the fact that ads were published in papers well in advance, requesting fans not to come to Chennai, for Rajnikant would not be in town to meet them.

Of course, the actor's fan clubs, were not going to let his absence come in the way of their celebrations, which included conducting prayer meetings in temples, churches and mosques and `poor feeding'.

- PRACTICE SHOULD begin at home, if something is to be preached with success. It appears that the Mayor, Mr.M.K.Stalin is firm about this.

It has been a few weeks since the Mayor had a composting bin installed at his residence, the inspiration coming from his better half.

An expert in the field visited the Mayor's residence and got everyone going on this method of turning household vegetable waste into organic manure.

Mr.Stalin should be speaking out about his success, say waste management experts. ``At the moment, the vast majority of Corporation staff look askance at this method. Even all parks under the civic body don't have it. They throw their leaf litter out and burn it'' says an officer.

- IN THESE days of long tenures, IAS officers getting stuck to posts is passe. Some have had record breaking tenures even as others are on their way to break records in longevity, some set in the Sixties.

One such instance is in the Chennai Corporation. The present Additional Commissioner, Mr.Rajesh Lakhani, who set a record as the longest serving Deputy Commissioner (when he was one) is on his way to break Mr.J.A.Ambashankar's record as the officer with the longest tenure in the civic body. Mr.Ambashankar served the Corporation as Commissioner from December 1964 to December 1968 and now the Additional Commissioner, who took over in December 1996, will break the record later this month.

The officer, an IIT-electronics engineer, has been instrumental in getting the flyover project off the shelf. But with 1992-batch officers already being posted as collectors, some say that it is only a matter of time before the officer gets moving.

- THE CONTENTIOUS issue of censorship of films is now spilling over to magazines and newspapers. If the Censor Board has been waging a never- ending war with erring film-makers on issues ranging from showing uncensored portions to non-display of censor certificates, now the print and electronic media are also the censor's gaze.

In a letter circulated to print and electronic media, the Regional Censor Officer, Mr.S.Raju, said that it was mandatory to carry the certification in advertisements of films. Under Rule 38 of the Cinematograph Act, ``any advertisement of films in any media must carry in bold letters, the classification given by the Censor Board, failure of which will attract penalty under Section 7(1)(c) of the Cinematograph Act.

There is a warning too. Offences under the Cinematograph Act are cognizable and non-bailable and can be punished with an imprisonment of up to three years with or without fine up to Rs. one lakh.

By Ramya Kannan R. K. Radhakrishnan and T. S. Shankar

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Section  : Southern States
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