TN legislator killed in road accident

Tamil Nadu Minister for Environment and Pollution Control and Minorities Welfare N Mariam Pitchai died in a road accident near Tiruchirappalli (Tiruchi) on Monday morning. He was 60. Pitchai was on his way to Chennai to take part in the swearing-in cerem-ony of new MLAs, sched-uled in the afternoon. Born in Tiruchi, Pitchai was sworn in as minister in the recently-formed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government after winning the Tiruchi west constituency by defeating former transport minister KN Nehru. He was also elected as corporation councillor for Tiruchi for two terms.