THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Exactly a week after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee opened the NTPC Thermal Power Plant at Kayamkulam, Kerala, the director of the Thiruvananthapuram Doordarshan kendra, P S Palanisamy received his transfer order. He took charge of the kendra on December 15.

Though no reasons are cited in the transfer order, he is believed to have been shunted out for the last-minute hitch in telecasting live the opening of the power plant on January 17. Doordarshan Pondicherry kendra head K P Sreenivasan has been moved to Thiruvananthapuram kendra as the deputy director.

Award for Express

KOCHI: The New Indian Express (NIE), Kozhikode centre, has bagged the National Award for Excellence in Printing instituted by All India Federation of Master Printers Association for newspapers.

This is the first time the AIFMP is giving such an award. The judges' committee, based in New Delhi, had evaluated NIE issues of three months beforedetermining the winner.

RPI splits again

AURANGABAD: The Republican Party of India (RPI)'s `unity convention' today elected T M Kamble, RPI presidium member and former Member of the Legislative Assembly, as the third faction's national president.

The convention was organised in an effort to maintain party unity. However, the Prakash Ambedkar and Ramdas Athavale factions of the RPI did not respond to Kamble's efforts in this regard.

Infants' bodies

HYDERABAD: Three more infants' bodies were found in an open drain abutting Hussainsagar lake here today. With this, nine bodies have been recovered in the last four days.

Infiltrators held

JAMMU: Police have arrested more than 100 infiltrators from Pakistan, who had plans to disrupt Republic Day functions in Jammu and Kashmir, police said here today.