31-year-old held for raping beautician

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CHENNAI: Police on Saturday arrested a migrant worker in connection with the rape of a beautician at her residence in Adambakkam last Sunday. The accused, Mansoor Ali, 31, from Uttar Pradesh, was arrested near the Chennai Central Railway Station.

The woman has been living in the state for the past eleven years and was employed as a beautician at a parlour in Sankar Nagar, Pallavaram for the past 18 months, police said. On Sunday morning, around 3am, the man had knocked on the doors of the woman's house, approaching her in the pretext of availing her services for a wedding. "The woman didn't open the door and had questioned the man on the necessity to turn up so early through the window. He told her that the beautician booked for the function didn't turn up and he needed someone soon," a police officer said.

After the women let him in, he held her under knifepoint, gagged and raped her. Police who were investigating her acquaintances found that one of her former co-workers, Sameer, also from Uttar Pradesh used to visit her often. The accused, Sameer's friend, noticed the woman's address and raped her, police investigations revealed.

RTI portal: HC orders notice to TN govt

TNN | Updated: Aug 13, 2017, 12:11 AM IST

Chennai: Asserting the need for an online RTI portal for every state government, an MBBS student has approached the Madras high court seeking direction to the Tamil Nadu government to launch an online portal for online RTI queries.

"Creation of online RTI portal would develop transparency, would reduce the burden of public information officers, reduce paper work and save public money along with transit delay by applying and receiving information," said Mohamed Khader Meeran, who is pursuing MBBS at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Maharashtra.

Admitting the PIL, a division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee ordered notice to the state government returnable by September 4.

According to the petitioner, though there is a provision for online portal under the Right to Information Act, all the states including Tamil Nadu have not developed such portals. The only exemption is Maharashtra, which has made their own RTI portal without any assistance from the central government. TNN

Second round of engineering counselling in Anna University from August 16

TNN | Updated: Aug 13, 2017, 06:22 AM IST

CHENNAI: After filling up only 49% of government quota engineering seats through TNEA (Tamil NaduEngineering Admission), Anna University will now have second round of counselling from August 16 to 18.

About 2,000 to 3,000 seats are expected to be filled through this second-round which will take in students for unfilled seats across general and vocational streams. But unlike registration for the general round which was done via web, the candidates will have to apply on August 16 at the Anna University campus for an on-the-spot registration.

For reserved category like the Adi-Dravidar students, counselling will be conducted on August 18, through the same on-the-spot registration process. "Based on ranking of the newly registered candidates, they will be allotted seats across the affiliated colleges," said Anna University registrar S Ganesan.

The counselling, he stated, will provide a window for the students who had for instance failed class 12 and had to give supplementary exams, or those who had not previously applied.

This year, a total of 1.75 lakh government quota seats were up for grabs, among the four constituent colleges of Anna University and its 500 odd affiliated colleges. But only about 49% have been filled, with only 86,355 of these seats have been allotted to candidates.

"Many colleges surrendered some extra seats to the general counselling pool as well, which explains why the vacancy left after counselling is high. With this round, we hope to add some extra seats for reserved category like Scheduled Cast," added Ganesan.

Quack held, huge quantity of banned drugs seized

Shanmughasundaram J| TNN | 

Aug 13, 2017, 08:12 PM IST

Vellore: Health department officials on Saturday arrested a quack and seized a cache of drugs, including banned drugs, during surprise inspections in two places in the district on Saturday.

Joint director (JD) of medical and rural health services, Vellore, Dr A Shanti, along with drug inspector Deivanai and revenue department officials, conducted a raid at Sri Thiruamalai Blood Lab at Kurusilapet village.

"We conducted the raid at Kurusilapet following a direction from Collector (S A Raman) regarding a quack, Kannan. We caught him red-handed when he was treating a woman. We also found a young mother with her three month-old child waiting at the clinic," said the JD (in-charge) Shanthi. He, however, managed to escape from the officials. The police have registered a case in this regard and launched a search for him.

Kannan had been running the clinic-cum-lab in a rented portion that converted into three rooms.

The inquiry revealed that Kannan, a B A graduate, had been running the clinic in the name of Shri Thirumalai Blood for over four years in the village. The officials also found banned drugs such as Nimusulide, which is used as a pain killer and to reduce fever.

"Nimusulide tablets were banned three years ago, but Kannan had stocked a large number of these tablets," added the JD.

In the second raid conducted at Reddiyur, the team arrested Sankar who had been running a clinic in the village. He was arrested three months ago by the health department officials. However, he resumed his practice after getting out on bail.

"We found third generation drugs and antibiotics like amikacin in his clinic. He has been administering and prescribing such drugs to the villagers," she added. The officials were clueless that how the quacks managed to source the third generation drugs and banned drugs.

Sankar was arrested and handed over to the Jolarpet police along with the seized drugs.

The police have registered a case under the provision of the Tamil Nadu Private Clinic Establishment (regulation) Act 1997 and the Indian Medical Council Act 1996.

Man held for posting photographs of would-be bride

TNN | Updated: Aug 14, 2017, 05:52 AM IST




CHENNAI: Police on Sunday arrested a 32-year-old man for posting photographs of himself with his former girlfriend on social media to threaten the woman after her family called off their marriage.

Investigators said the 23-year-old woman's parents, residents of Valasaravakkam, refused to allow the marriage to go ahead after they discovered that Anthony Rajesh Kumar, who had come to the city from Tuticorin and was a salesman at a Mambalam textile showroom, already had a wife and child.

Their daughter worked in a shop next to the showroom where Kumar worked. They met and she agreed to marry him," a police officer said. "She informed her parents about him. When her parents told Kumar that they'd like to meet his family, he claimed to be an orphan."

They grew suspicious, made enquiries in Tuticorin and learned that he was married and had a child.

"The woman's parents called off the wedding and searched for another man for their daughter," the officer said. "Soon after they found a suitable groom, Kumar posted photographs he had taken with the woman on networking sites. The prospective groom saw the pictures and refused to marry the woman."

The woman's family asked Kumar to remove the pictures from the internet but he rebuffed them. The family lodged a complaint with the Valasaravakkam police, who arrested Kumar from Coimbatore, where he had found a new job.

Accident victim died due to delay in treatment in Ambur GH, inquiry ordered

Shanmughasundarm j| TNN | Aug 13, 2017, 10:27 PM IST

Hindu Munnani members staging protest condemning the health department and hospital management.

VELLORE: A 65-year-old accident victim and a critically ill 13-year-old girl died at the government hospital in Ambur, allegedly due to delay in treatment on Sunday afternoon.

The two deaths, within a span of an hour, and in the absence of doctors at the GH, sparked a protest. Members of the Hindu Makkal Katchi locked the main gate of the hospital and laid siege to it for nearly 30 minutes, condemning "the lethargic attitude of the doctors and hospital management". The incident created some unrest in the area.

The victims have been identified as Rajkumar of Chennai and Vaishanavi of Rallakothur near Omarabad in Vellore district.

Collector S A Raman said he has directed Joint Director (in-charge) of medical and rural health services, Vellore Dr A Shanthi.to conduct a departmental probe into the incidents. "If the charges are proved, departmental action will be taken against the duty doctor," said the Collector.

Rajkumar and Shanthanam, 84, were travelling in a car towards Bengaluru from Chennai on Sunday when the accident occurred near Vadapudupet at 12.20pm. Rajkumar lost control of the vehicle and rammed into a truck in front of him. A 108 ambulance from Madhanur arrived at the spot and shifted Shanthanam to the Christian Medical College Hospital. The ambulance from Ambur shifted Rajkumar to Ambur GH.

"Rajkumar was admitted at the GH at about 12.40 pm. There were two staff nurses and no doctors at the hospital when Rajkumar was admitted," said a source and added that Rajkumar died due to injuries by the time the duty doctor returned to the hospital.

Sources in the health department said that Rajkumar died at about 3 pm and the duty doctor came to the hospital at about 3.30. Officials, however, said the doctor was at the hospital when the girl was brought to the hospital.

The girl has admitted in the GH 10 days ago and referred to a hospital in Bengaluru. But, the family did not take the child for surgery and brought her back to the GH by 4 pm. "The child was brought dead," said Dr Shanthi.

She added that the medical officer post would be handed over to Dr Kennedy. At present, the post is held by senior assistant surgeon Dr Sharmila. "We will depute two doctors from neighbouring hospitals to increase the present strength from four to six," she said.

TN students who are allotted seats in all India counselling can't take part in state counselling, DGHS says

Pushpa Narayan| TNN | Updated: Aug 13, 2017, 08:24 PM IST


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CHENNAI: Students who have been allotted seats in round two of NEET-based counselling conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services, New Delhi, for MBBS and BDS admissions to all India quota seats in government colleges and deemed universities can't attend any other counselling including those organised by states, said director general of health services Jagdish Prasad here on Sunday.

The directorate had warned medical aspirants to make a "calculated decision" before locking their options or opting for the second round of counselling as the Supreme Court judgment in the Dar-ul-Islam case has said allotment will disentitle a candidate from other counselling processes.

"We have published names of students who have been allotted seats in the final round. Copies are available to all state governments. They will have to remove the names of these students from the list of eligible candidates," he said.

Copies of the SC judgment has been uploaded on the DGHS website (http://www.mcc.nic.in/).

Most parents complained that students in Tamil Nadu were in no position to take any calculated decisions as the state government is yet to release the rank list.

Officials in the state selection committee, which is in-charge of medical admissions in the state, said the rule can't be implemented.

Director of medical education Dr A Edwin Joe said, "We have not published any such thing as eligibility in our prospectus. Also, we have not received any intimation from DGHS."

The selection committee has prepared two rank lists - one based on NEET and other based on Class XII marks. Names of more than 500 students from other states figure in NEET-based rank list.

"We haven't removed any of their names yet," he said.

Senior health officials also argued that if the state gets itself one year exemption from NEET, then the SC order will not be applicable for the state counselling, which will be based on Class 12 marks.