ON Inspection: Assembly Petitions Committee Chairman Kovai Thangam, and other members enquiring about facilities in GH in Karur on Thursday.

KARUR: Assembly Petitions Committee has recommended construction of a bridge across the Amaravathy river at Pasupathypalayam in Karur in lieu of the existing causeway there, according to its chairman and Valparai MLA Kovai Thangam.

The Rs.253-crore flood prevention project, to strengthen the bunds of the Cauvery, Coleroon and other rivers in Tiruchi, Karur and combined Perambalur districts, would be completed within two years, Public Works Department Minister Durai Murugan has said. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would lay the foundation stones for this and three other projects of the Public Works Department to be taken up in Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Karur, Nagapattinam and combined Perambalur districts here on June 24.

INSPECTION: Transport Minister K.N. Nehru (right) and PWD Minister Durai Murugan near the site where the new Kattalai barrage will come up across the Cauvery at Mayanur in Karur district. The stage has been set for laying the foundation for Rs.700-crore worth of projects that will be executed by the Public Works Department in the Tiruchi Circle. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi will launch the works in Tiruchi on June 24.

A three-month-old boy, which was administered vaccine on Wednesday died on Saturday The child's parents alleged that death was due to vaccination while the Health Department declared it to be death due to diarrhoea.

Tamil Nadu reels under a third successive year of drought, and the rural economy is fast drying up as a sixth straight crop failure stares farmers in the face.