Indian-American Sruthi Palaniappan elected president of Harvard student body
Washington, Nov 20: An Indian-American woman has been elected as the president of the powerful student's body of the prestigious Harvard University.
Sruthi Palaniappan, 20, whose parents migrated to the US from Chennai in 1992, was elected as president of the Harvard University Undergraduate Council.
Her running mate Julia Huesa, 20, was elected as vice president, according to an announcement by the Undergraduate Council Election Commission.
Palaniappan said the duo planned to work on improving the Council's communication with the student body in their initial days in office.
"I think from the onset, better structuring the way we communicate with students is something that we need to already set the tone and plan for," she said.
"I think we're going to work on it before we even leave for break and just get off the ground running," she told Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper of the varsity.
Palaniappan was the youngest delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July 2016.
According to report, Palaniappan and Huesa garnered nearly 41.5 per cent of the votes as against their nearest opponent Nadine M Khoury and Arnav Agrawal, who received 26.6 per cent of the votes.
They ran their campaign under the slogan "make Harvard home".
The duo, a long-time member of the Undergraduate Council, are scheduled to take over from the outgoing president Catherine L Zhang '19 and vice president Nicholas D Boucher '19.
Palaniappan is currently the council's education committee chair.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
