5% rise in leprosy cases worries TN health department

Pushpa Narayan | TNN | Updated: Jan 18, 2018, 08:24 IST

CHENNAI: In spite of effective and cheap treatment, prevalence of leprosy in Tamil Nadu has been steadily increasing since 2012, even as the national average recorded a decline. 

With a 5% increase in prevalence per 1,00,000 in five years, TN recorded 4,939 new cases in 2016-17 compared to 3,550 cases in 2012-13, according to the annual National Leprosy Elimination Programme report. The prevalence dropped from 7 per lakh in 2012-13 to 6 per lakh in 2016-17 across India, while rising from 3 per lakh to 4 per lakh in TN. Almost simultaneously, the state recorded an increase in the percentage of cases among children and women, along with the number of those crippled by the disease.

Ahead of World Leprosy Day on January 28, at least one in 20 patients in TN has grade I deformities and one in 25 has grade II deformities. In 2016-17, of the 5,573 people in the country with grade I deformity, 283 were in TN, and of the 5,245 people in India with grade II deformity, 199 were in TN.

The increasing incidence among women, who constitute 42.8% of all leprosy patients, and children (17.64%), has particularly worried public health experts.

Directorate of public health officials say the increase in TN is due to intensive screening. "We were seeing a drastic decline until a few years now but we have increased screening. All children are screened across schools and ICDS centres," said director of public health Dr K Kolandaswamy.

But activists say the increase in incidence began after leprosy prevention programme was integrated with general healthcare schemes too early. Leprosy inspectors were re-designated health inspectors and nonmedical supervisors became block health officials.

"The health officers are too busy as they have to deal with many programmes. No one goes into the field to do a check among adults," said senior officer who did not want to be named.

Sasikala brother: Jayalalithaa died on December 4, hospital delayed news by a dayTNN | Updated: Jan 18, 2018, 06:49 IST



 
TRICHY/CHENNAI: V Divaharan, brother of jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, dropped a bombshell on Wednesday when he said that former chief minister J Jayalalithaa had passed away on December 4, 2016. 

The administration of Apollo Hospitals, where she was treated, had announced her death only the following day fearing for the safety of the hospital, he alleged at a public meeting at Mannargudi in Tiruvarur.

Divaharan, who was speaking at a public meeting organised as part of the birth centenary celebrations of AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran claimed that 'Amma' had passed away exactly at 5.15pm on December 4, 2016 and that he reached the hospital the same night after receiving the information. "Even then, Amma was kept on ventilator. When I inquired with Reddy, he asked me to ensure the safety and security of the hospital. Only then could he declare (her death)", Divaharan said.

Minutes later Apollo Hospitals issued a statement denying Divaharan's claims. "It is unfortunate that unnecessary confusion is being created based on certain misinformation about the date and time of the demise of our former chief minister Selvi J Jayalalithaa, who had expired on December 5, 2016," the four-paragraph statement said.

Jayalalithaa, who was admitted to the hospital on September 22, 2016, suffered a cardiac arrest on December 4.

TTV distances himself from uncle's comment

For more than 24hours, Apollo Hospitals and the government said she was on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and life support systems. She was declared dead on December 5 at 11.30pm.

"During the course of treatment, all clinical protocols and norms were followed. The unfortunate declaration of death was done as per standard clinical protocols," the statement said. Distortion of facts would be unjust to all care-givers and experts, both from India and abroad, it added. "There is a process of inquiry which is being conducted by an eminent body to go through all the facts leading to her demise. We would like the matter to be clarified at the earliest in the interest of truth and justice.".

Rebel AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran has distanced himself from the statement of his uncle V Dhivakaran that Jayalalithaa died on December 4, a day before she was officially declared dead. Talking to reporters in Coimbatore on Wednesday, Dhinakaran said, "I don't know about it. Apollo should clarify it,'' Dhinakaran said in a cryptic reply to a query on Dhivakaran's claim.

Chiyaan Vikram felt disappointed when Sachin Tendulkar didn’t recognise him

THE ASIAN AGE 

Published : Jan 17, 2018, 8:14 pm IST

The actor revealed a fanboy encounter with cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar.

Actor Vikram and Sachin Tendulkar.

Mumbai: Actor Vikram was in Kochi recently to promote his latest film 'Sketch'. While talking to a news channel, the actor revealed a fanboy encounter with cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar.

When Vikram took Chennai bound flight from Mumbai, his co-passenger was none other than Master Blaster. But Vikram felt embarrassed when Sachin didn’t recognise him. Being a prominent star in the South Indian film industry, and having won a National Award, it’s only fair Vikram felt awkward when Sachin didn’t recognise him.

“Then someone walked up to me and sat near me. It was Sachin! I was wonderstruck and just uttered ‘Oh my god’. He turned to me and said ‘hi’. All I could say was ‘sorry sir’. I was embarrassed. I was also disappointed that he did not recognize me,” the actor told Manorama News.

Vikram said that he told he was sad that he didn’t know of him. "I asked him why he was not aware of my existence. He said he did not watch Indian movies. He watches foreign movies once in a while,” revealed Vikram.

During the two-hour flight, Vikram said he and Sachin talked mostly about their sons.

Aadhaar is an 'electronic leash' on citizens: Senior lawyer Shyam Divan tells Supreme Court

By PTI  |   Published: 17th January 2018 06:04 PM  |  

NEW DELHI: Terming Aadhaar as "an electronic leash", a senior lawyer today told the Supreme Court that the government could completely destroy an individual by "switching off" the 12-digit unique identifier number.

The argument was made before a five-judge Constititution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra which commenced hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the government's flagship Aadhaar programme and its enabling Act of 2016.

However, the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, countered senior advocate Shyam Divan, asking whether the state "cannot say that it has every right to find out the number of schools, children or the real beneficiaries of a welfare scheme and verify the real beneficiaries of huge funds which it is spending, it needs Aadhaar number. This is a valid argument." It posed whether the government does not have the right to say that it was spending crores of rupees on welfare schemes and needed to verify whether benefits reached the needy and the leakages or pilferages of resources stopped.

The bench also asked what will happen to the biometric data collected before the Aadhaar Act, 2016 -- whether they will be destroyed if the petitioners challenging the validity of the Aadhaar programme succeeded.

Divan, who opened arguments on behalf of petitioners, said that through a succession of "marketing stratagems" and by employing "smoke and mirrors", the government has rolled out a "little understood" programme that seeks to "tether every resident of India to an electronic leash".

"This leash is connected to a central database that is designed to track transactions across the life of the citizen. This record will enable the State to profile citizens, track their movements, assess their habits and silently influence their behaviour. Over time, the profiling enables the State to stifle dissent and influence political decision making," he argued.

Divan said "the State is empowered with a 'switch' by which it can cause the civil death of an individual. Where every basic facility is linked to Aadhaar and one cannot live in society without an Aadhaar number, the switching off of Aadhaar completely destroys the individual." He said the petitioners are certain that if the Aadhaar Act and the programme were allowed to operate "unimpeded", it would "hollow out" the Constitution, particularly the great rights and liberties it has assured to its citizens.
Divan is representing several petitioners like former Karnataka High Court judge Justice K S Puttaswamy, several activists Aruna Roy, Shantha Sinha and veteran CPI(M) leader V S Achuthanandan.

Divan, who argued through the day and would continue his submissions tomorrow, said "a person cannot avail the facility of a welfare scheme, if the finger prints do not match the templates set by UIDAI," he said, adding that for seven years, biometric data of individuals were collected without any legal framework but only on executive orders.

Moreover, over three crore citizens have not been able to register their biometric data, he said and asked how can the government exclude such a big part of the population who could not be registered without any fault on their part, from availing benefits.
Divan contended that at its core, Aadhaar alters the relationship between the citizen and the State and diminishes the status of the citizen.

Observing that the case at hand was unique as the programme was itself without any precedent, the senior lawyer said "no democratic society has adopted a programme that is similar in its command and sweep. There are few judicial precedents to guide us.

"The closest foreign cases have all been decided in favour of the citizens, repelling the invasive programmes by the State." He said this case was about a new technology that the government has sought to deploy and a new architecture of governance has been built on this technology.

A people's Constitution will transform into a State Constitution, Divan said and asked whether the Constitution allowed the State to embrace this new programme or whether the key document repudiates "the giant electronic mesh that Aadhaar was creating." He also expressed concern over extending the Aadhaar platform to private corporations, the degree of tracking and extent of profiling will "exponentially increase".

"Rights freely exercised, liberties freely enjoyed, entitlements granted by the Constitution and laws are all made conditional. Conditional on a compulsory barter. The barter compels the citizen to give up her biometrics 'voluntarily', allow her biometrics and demographic information to be stored by the State and private operators and then used for a process termed as 'authentication'," he said.

Divan said the Constitution balances rights of an individual against the State interest and "Aadhaar completely upsets this balance and skews the relationship between the citizen and the State...".
"The Constitution is not a charter of servitude. Aadhaar, if allowed to roll out unimpeded reduces citizens to servitude," Divan said.
At the fag end of the hearing, he said if Aadhaar Act is upheld, then in the alternative, no citizen should be deprived of any right or benefit for lack of an Aadhaar card.

The apex court had on December 15 last year extended till March 31 the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes of all ministries and departments of the Centre, states and union territories.

A nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had last year, held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it violated privacy rights.

Medical college scam: Former Orissa HC judge I M Qudussi moves court for probe into leakage of tapes

By PTI  |   Published: 17th January 2018 02:45 PM  |  

NEW DELHI:  Former Orissa High Court judge I M Quddusi, who is on bail after his arrest last year in connection with a medical college graft case, today moved a city court seeking a probe into the leakage of transcripts of telephone conversation between him and two other accused persons in the media.

Taking note, Special Judge Manoj Jain sought response from the CBI by January 22 on the plea which alleged that the document was confidential and was not even supplied to the accused but given to people outside the probe agency.

The application, filed on Quddusi's behalf by advocate Vijay Aggarwal, said this gave rise to "grave suspicion and apprehension of interference of third parties into the investigation of the present matter".

Some major dailies had given out details of the purported transcript of the alleged conversation between three persons including Quddusi, claiming that their phones were tapped by the CBI.
The reports had spoken of conversations between Quddusi, a middleman and B P Yadav, owner of UP-based medical college, Prasad Education Trust.

Quddusi's plea said that "monitoring of the investigation is essential to find out as to whether the alleged conversations and PE report has been leaked by someone within the CBI or they have been stolen, which is essential so as to ensure that it does not become a 'Trial by Media' and ensure that administration of justice is not compromised by interference by third parties in the investigation of the matter." It also said the possibility of tampering of the documents leaked "cannot be ruled out, for which also inquiry is required to be conducted." Quddusi was arrested last year on the charges of graft along with other accused persons but was later granted bail by a Delhi court.

Relax, NEET to factor in State board syllabi too

By Sumi Sukanya Dutta  |  Express News Service  |   Published: 18th January 2018 07:32 AM  |  

NEW DELHI: In what could bring relief to lakhs of aspiring medical practitioners in the country, the Centre has decided to take into consideration the syllabi of all State boards while framing examination papers for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) from this year.

Some experts, however, said it would be difficult to base the question papers on multiple syllabi.

Till last year, NEET exam papers were based on the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus, which left State board students at a great disadvantage as there is a significant difference in the syllabi for Physics, Chemistry and Biology in many states.

“Today we had a special meeting (on NEET) and we have decided that we will take into account curricula of all State boards while framing the question paper for NEET so that students of State boards are not at any disadvantage from this year,” Union Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar told The New Indian Express in an interview.

“This problem should be resolved now and states should have no reason to complain anymore. Students of any State board will now not be at a disadvantage when it comes to NEET,” Javadekar said.
NEET-UG 2018, the test for admission into all MBBS and BDS courses in all government and private colleges — except All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research — is expected to be held in the first week of May.

EXPERTS have, however, said it would be difficult to base the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) question papers on multiple syllabi.“So close to the final publication of the examination schedule and syllabus, I do not know how much the government can do. Also, it won’t be an easy task to base examination papers on so many curricula. I hope this does not lead to further confusion in the minds of students,” said a member of the Medical Council of India.

In an interview, Union Minister for HRD Prakash Javadekar said that following a SC direction last year, the examination will be held in Urdu as well for the first time from this year. This is in addition to 10 languages it is already being held in - Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya and Kannada.The SC, while hearing a petition filed by Student Islamic Organisation of India, had asked Centre to include Urdu as a medium from the 2018-19 session.

The CBSE has been conducting NEET, which replaced the All-India Pre Medical Test and many State pre-medical examinations since 2013.Sources in the CBSE said the official notification for NEET 2018 is expected by the last week of this month when the syllabus, exam date and other details will be released.

There were massive anti-NEET protests in Tamil Nadu last year after the State was denied the exemption it got the previous year.
A 17-year-old Dalit medical aspirant Anitha, who had got 98 per cent in the State Class XII boards but failed to crack NEET, had committed suicide, triggering an uproar across TN. Ever since, hundreds of coaching classes, both government-run and private, have sprung up in the State to make students NEET-ready.

It was in 2006 that the TN government abolished the entrance exam and granted admission to medical and engineering courses based on the Class XII State board marks, saying it allowed students from villages and small towns to pursue higher education. Around 12 lakh students across India had appeared for NEET last year for about 63,000 MBBS and BDS seats.

Notification by Jan-end
The official notification for NEET 2018 is expected by the last week of January when the syllabus, exam date and other details will be released, said a CBSE source.

Bed of banned notes: Rs 100 cr old currency seized from Kanpur
ANI

Published Jan 17, 2018, 11:51 am IST


The cash was in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, which were demonetised by the government in November 2016. 


The raid was conducted in Kanpur's Seesamau pocket. (Photo: ANI)

Kanpur: The Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday seized demonetised currency notes estimated to be worth Rs 100 crore in Kanpur.

However, the counting is on to ascertain the exact amount of money.

The cash was in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, which were demonetised by the government in November 2016.

The raid was conducted in Kanpur's Seesamau pocket.

"We received information of the presence of demonetised currency worth crores at a person's residential premises in Kanpur. A raid was conducted by teams of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Income Tax (I-T) department officials. A final amount has not been ascertained as search and counting is underway. We are interrogating the people involved," AK Meena, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) said.

The police refused to disclose details about the accused involved.

An interrogation is underway by the I-T department officials.