Engineer kills self blaming superior for harassment

TRICHY: In a chilling reminder of an agricultural department executive engineer's suicide in Tirunelveli two months ago for which a former minister and an official were arrested, a 36-year-old engineer in Tiruvarur has killed himself, apparently unable to bear harassment from a superior officer at workplace.

R Muthukrishnan, site supervisor with the state's District Rural Development Agency, doused himself with kerosene and set himself ablaze on Sunday. Before his death on Monday morning, he gave a dying declaration to Tiruvarur magistrate P Kavitha blaming Senthil Kumar, an executive engineer in the department, for his death.

Tiruvarur RDO Muthumeenakshi and DSP J Anbazhagan were also present when the statement was recorded.

Police registered a case under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC against Kumar, who is absconding. Muthukrishnan accused Kumar of giving him lots of work and putting him under undue pressure. DRDA sources said there were differences of opinion between Muthukrishnan and Kumar with regard to selection of beneficiaries under the Tamil Nadu government's flagship solar-powered green house scheme, meant for the poor homeless.

Muthukrishnan, a resident of Ammaiyappan Nagar in Tiruvarur, has been working as a site supervisor in Nannilam union for the past eight months. He was earlier attached to DRDA in Tiruvarur as a junior draftsman. He had apparently sought transfer to Nannilam because of Kumar's harassment. But even after the transfer, the harassment continued, it was alleged.

On Sunday, after dinner, Muthukrishnan left his house for a walk. He doused himself in kerosene and set himself ablaze in the middle of the road. By the time onlookers came to his rescue, he was badly burnt. He was rushed to Tiruvarur government hospital, where he died. As news of his death spread on Monday, government officials attached to DRDA and members of site supervisors' association staged a demonstration in front of the Tiruvarur collectorate.

His family initially refused to accept the body after postmortem. They were pacified by district collector N Mathivanan, who assured a free and fair investigation. Muthukrishnan is survived by wife Thilagavathi and two sons.

On February 20, agriculture department engineer S Muthukumarasamy, 57, killed himself by jumping before a train in Tirunelveli district. It was alleged that he was being harassed by the staff in then agriculture minister S S Krishnamoorthy's office with regard to certain appointments in the department. Krishnamoorthy, who was subsequently dropped from the cabinet, was later arrested along with agriculture department chief engineer M Senthil and charged with abetment to suicide.

Top Kerala cop caught cheating in law exam

KOCHI: A senior Kerala police official was on Monday sent out of the examination hall after being caught cheating while writing the Master of Laws (LLM) examination.

T J Jose, inspector general of police of Thrissur range, was appearing for a supplementary paper on constitutional law at St Paul's college, Kalamassery. An off-campus LLM student, Jose had appeared for the exam at the college at 10am. Around 11.30am, the invigilator caught the IG copying from a chit allegedly kept between the answer sheets.

"The invigilator immediately informed the external examiner and college manager. They questioned him and the IG left the campus and took the chit with him. We have informed MG university and also send them the invigilator's statement for necessary action," said college vice-principal Peter VJ.

Confirming the incident to the media, the vice-principal said the incident will be intimated to the Mahatma Gandhi University.

The IG, however, denied reports that he had been caught by the invigilators. "Nobody has caught me for copying, no papers have been recovered from me. The examination began at 10 am, and I finished writing my paper at about 12 and I came out. Nobody has given me any report of copying,'' the IG said.

Replying to questions he said. "I had appeared for the one of the papers of the LLM examination held on Saturday, I appeared for the examination today also. I will be appearing for the examination to be held on Tuesday also.''

He conceded that the police higher ups had sought an explanation from him on the alleged incident. "I told them the same details," he said.

Asked about the reports that the state home minister had directed ADGP Sankar Reddy to probe the charge, Jose said, "It is natural that there would be a probe whenever such a charge is made."

When contacted the ADGP said the probe will begin at the earliest. "Home minister has given the direction for the probe. We only have to see the availability of the college officials involved in the examination duty. The inquiry report will be submitted within the minimum time possible," Sankar Reddy said.

2 varsity employees suspended after answer sheets go missing

AJMER: The authorities at Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati University suspended two employees on Monday and ordered a probe after a bundle of checked answer sheets of UG exams went missing.

According to sources, varsity employees Chand Singh Rawat and Papu Singh Rathore were given the responsibility to bring the evaluated answersheets from Udaipur and Bhilwara to Ajmer. They took the vehicle of the university to collect the answers sheets from different centres and returned on Saturday.

On Monday, while verifying the answer sheets, it was found that one of the bundles was missing.

The employees of the secrecy department informed the university authorities about the missing bundle and a massive search was carried out on the varsity premises.

Later, university registrar Renu Jaipal suspended both Rawat and Rathore for negligence in their duty.

Preliminary, it seemed that either the employees had not closed the vehicle's door properly during their return journey and the bundle fell off en route or they didn't collect the bundle from the evaluation centre. The university had made coordinating centres in different districts of the state to evaluate the answer sheets of graduation exams. Such a system helps in getting the evaluation done by teachers of different universities and colleges.

Sources said the university has informed all the police stations of Udaipur, Bhilwara and Ajmer about the incident.

According to sources, if the bundle of answer sheets is not found, then the provision of giving average marks to students would apply, as is done when copies get destroyed.

Jaipal refused to comment on this issue.

After the two employees were suspended, the university employees' union staged a protest against the administration and demanded a roll back of the order. The employees abstained from work and shouted slogans against the university.

According to sources, such an incident had happened in 2009 too when a bundle of answer sheets had gone missing while being brought to Pali. Another such incident had occurred in 2007 when question papers had gone missing from an envelope in the university.

SSLC answer-script with threat goes viral

Bengaluru: SSLC candidates pinning currency notes to their answer-scripts, penning heart-wringing pleas, dropping threats, offering inducements or indulging in claptrap is not new. Several such answer-scripts have gone viral on WhatsApp in the past few days, exposing blatant violation of the ban on mobile phones inside evaluation centres. In one answer-script that has gone viral, the candidate has oscillated between threatening to invoke black magic against the evaluator to committing suicide. Another candidate has waxed eloquently on how to make chicken curry. The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB), which has banned use of mobile phones inside evaluation centres of SSLC answer-scripts from this year, has said evaluators uploading scripts on WhatsApp will face the music. Yashoda Bopanna, director of KSEEB, told TOI that students should focus on studying well, instead of writing such things. "We don't know whether they are original answer-scripts or not and where they originated. We will conduct an inquiry, if anyone is found guilty of leaking them. We will take action against them," she said. Evaluation of answer-papers is going on at 210 centres and around 57,000 teachers are evaluating the scripts. The SSLC results are expected to be announced in the second week of May. According to sources in KSEEB, some students write such things on answer- papers every year but evaluators are now violating the rules by leaking them. They said the evaluator who leaked the suicide threat might have been scared and put it on WhatsApp. But leaking answer scripts that have chicken curry recipe is only mischief, they added.

WHAT THE STUDENT WROTE

"If the evaluator doesn't pass me, I will commit suicide. I will also perform black magic on the evaluator and his or her family members, so that they die. Maths is a difficult subject. I have done well in other subjects. If I fail in this subject, I will only be abused by my family members."

A student in maths answer-script

Discharge petition of government employee dismissed by court

The Madras High Court Bench here has refused to discharge a government employee from a case registered against him on a charge of canvassing depositors who had been cheated by a finance company run by his wife and son in Tiruchi in May 2010.
Justice S. Nagamuthu rejected the plea to discharge C. Chandrasekaran from the case booked under the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 1997 though he claimed that he was neither a partner nor in any way connected to the firm. Pointing out that as many as 218 depositors had been reportedly cheated to the tune of Rs. 45.60 lakh by the finance company, the judge said that the petitioner before the court should necessarily face trial in the case since there were materials to doubt that he had canvassed for deposits.

A slow start to this summer

Those days that define Chennai are here again. Though city residents complained of sultry heat on Monday, the first day of peak summer season, popularly known as ‘ kathiri ’, the weather observatories recorded nearly two degrees less than the average monthly temperature.

This month had a hot start to ‘ kathiri ’ when the mercury level soared to 36 degree Celsius and 37 degree Celsius on May 1 and May 2. However, there has been a dip in the day temperature since Sunday. On Monday, Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam registered 34.6 degree Celsius and 34.7 degree Celsius, respectively.

Normally, the peak summer days last till May 29. Cloud cover was one of the reasons for the temperature to drop slightly. However, residents would have experienced sultry weather because of humidity, said officials of the Meteorological Department.

The department forecasts that the mercury level will hover around 36 degree Celsius on Tuesday. There is a possibility of light showers in city due to convective activity, which follows a period of intense heat.While the weather observatory has recorded a relatively lower temperature, residents said Monday was more of a typical peak summer day and the real feel was more like 42 degrees Celsius.

“There may be a difference in the heat felt by people venturing outdoors because of the increasing solar radiation. The maximum temperature is recorded at the observatory under shade and ventilation to maintain equilibrium. This kind of temperature is felt at those houses with proper ventilation,” Y.E.A. Raj, former deputy director general of meteorology, Chennai.

He said in 2014, the city recorded its first hot day when the mercury level crossed the 40–degree mark on May 15.

“We experienced light showers around the same time — between May 5 and May 8.”

Pay for bus ticket and now, pay for luggage too

To avoid getting fleeced by autorickshaw drivers, N. Arun of Mylapore hopped into an MTC bus to reach Chennai Central. He was on his way to his hometown and had a suitcase in his hand. But to his dismay, he ended paying for two tickets – one for himself and the other for the luggage.

“I paid Rs.10 extra to the conductor despite having just one suitcase. When I asked him why he was charging more, he did not have proper explanation,” says Mr. Arun.

For many who cannot afford an auto rickshaw or a call taxi, MTC buses are the only refuge. “They should have a permissible limit for luggage. If a passenger carries more than two bags, then he can be charged extra,” says M. Selvi, a housemaid, who visits her hometown Madurai every month.

Meanwhile conductors claim that the ticket inspectors create a problem if they do not issue a ticket for the luggage. “This is one issue that triggers an argument with the passengers. Most often, the problem arises in routes connecting railway stations and bus termini,” says a bus conductor.

Another conductor said that unlike SETC buses, the ones plying for MTC do not have space for luggage. “The baggage causes inconvenience to other passengers. Buses connecting railway stations and bus termini should be provided with luggage space to solve the problem,” he adds.