Madras High Court to decide on burial site for Karunanidhi's body
Chennai, Aug 8 : The Madras High Court on Wednesday morning would decide on the DMK's plea against Tamil Nadu's government's decision to deny burial of the party President M. Karunanidhi's body at Marina Beach.
Hearing the plea late Tuesday night, the court directed the state government and the Chennai Corporation to file their replies and adjourned the case to Wednesday morning 8 a.m.
At the hearing the state government had opposed the allotment of space at Marina Beach for burial of Karunanidhi's body.
On Tuesday, the DMK party and family members of Karunanidhi had requested the state government for allotment of space near DMK founder C.N. Annadurai's memorial at the Marina Beach.
Citing pending cases against the burial of bodies at the Marina Beach, the AIADMK government had said it was ready to allot two acres near Gandhi Mandapam on Sardar Patel Road where Raj Bhavan is located.
On Tuesday, the government decision drew flak from leaders cutting across party lines including Congress President Rahul Gandhi, MDMK's Vaiko, DMDK's Vijayakanth and PMK's S. Ramadoss, who favoured a memorial on the Marina Beach. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and the CPI(M) also joined the chorus.
Ramadoss urged the ruling party not to indulge in politics in this matter, saying the reason stated by the government is not acceptable.
Ramadoss said even when AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa was buried at the Marina Beach there were court cases pending. Her body was buried at the Marina Beach within the memorial of AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran.
He said Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for 19 years and his last rites should be done in a decent manner.
The mortal remains of AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran and his successor Jayalalithaa are buried near Annadurai's memorial on the Marina Beach.
A five-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi died after battling age-related ailments at Kauvery Hospital on Tuesday evening.
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Champions Trophy opening on Feb 16 or 17; PCB hopeful Rohit Sharma will be there
Lahore, Jan 15 (PTI): The opening ceremony of the Champions Trophy will be held either on February 16 or 17 and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is confident that India captain Rohit Sharma will be in attendance at the event.
The PCB source also said that it is awaiting communication from the ICC on the schedule of the customary captains' photo-shoot and the pre-event press conference.
The eight-team tournament will get underway on February 19 in Karachi. However, India will play all their matches in Dubai, starting with the clash against Bangladesh on February 20, after refusing to travel to Pakistan owing to security concerns.
The source said PCB has procured all relevant clearances from its government to promptly issue visas to all captains, players and team officials who will come here for pre-tournament events.
"This obviously includes Rohit or any other Indian team player or official or board official," he added.
Another source confirmed to PTI that the PCB has made it clear to the ICC that the opening ceremony, featuring all teams and their captains, will take place in Pakistan.
"This is in line with the usual protocols and since the opening match is on 19th the opening ceremony can be expected either on the 16th or 17th," the source added.
He said the schedule of the opening ceremony would depend on the warm-up matches list.
The source said that recently three Indian nationals, who were a part of the ICC delegation which came to Pakistan, were promptly issued visas once the world body sent their names to the PCB.
