Former Puducherry Assembly speaker V M C Sivakumar was murdered at Niravy near Karaikal town about 280km from Chennai last week.
Sivakumar, 65, was visiting a marriage hall that he was constructing accompanied by his car driver and a police escort.
Suddenly four men, hiding inside, threw country bombs at him but these did not explode. The angry men then stabbed Sivakumar multiple times. They threw two more bombs before escaping on bikes. 
Later police diffused the bombs and admitted Sivakumar’s driver and police escort in hospital. 
Sivakumar entered politics in 1969 and held ministerial portfolios under the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) political party. He was the speaker of Puducherry Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2001. He joined the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party in 2015 but lost the assembly elections in May 2016. 
He had businesses in liquor, construction and others. 

TN farmers in distress due to poor rains

Tamil Nadu’s farmers have termed 2016 a harsh year due to poor rains (the state received only 20% of its usual share), water sharing disputes with Karnataka and cyclone Vardah hit the state last month.
Farmers’ associations held protests and damaged crops in many districts demanding that Tamil Nadu be declared drought hit. They demanded loan waivers, fresh funds for sowing and other benefits. The toll in farmer suicides has reached nearly 300 in recent weeks.
Meanwhile a state government team has been assessing the loss in Nagapattinam, Kumbakonam, Tiruvarur, Tiruchi and other districts.
In a related incident, rose farmers in Krishnagiri district were distressed when Moorheim, a Netherlands-based company, claimed royalty for cultivating Taj Mahal variety blooms. However the South India Floriculture Association (SICA) assured the farmers that royalty was being paid since the first blooms were purchased in 2007 from Holland.

IT dept raids ETA, Buhari business groups

The Income Tax (IT) department raided the offices of the Buhari and Emirates Trading Agency (ETA) at about 74 places across India including 49 in Chennai last week.
Searches were also conducted at ETA’s educational institutions B S Abdur Rehman Deemed University in suburban Chennai. 
More than 800 officers were involved in the raid. 
“The two groups have businesses in construction, education, building maintenance and hospitality besides retail and entertainment industries across India and many Arab countries but their base is in Tamil Nadu. They have evaded taxes running into billions of rupees but the exact details will be known only after the raids are completed,” an income tax officer said.
B S Abdul Rehman, the late founder of the group and his extended family’s properties, at his ancestral town of Keelakarai in southern Ramanathapuram district were also searched. 

Chennai film festival to show Jaya movies

The 14th edition of the Chennai International Film Festival which is under way will screen two hit films of late chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa, who was also a former film star. 
Jayalalithaa died at the age of 68 on December 5.
The films Ayarathil Oruvan and Suryagandhi where she was acted with late AIADMK leader and mentor M G Ramachandran will be screened at the Casino theatre.