Chemical attack: Wife of accused says victim committed suicide 

TNN | Updated: Feb 28, 2018, 05:50 IST



 

CHENNAI: Three days after a 34-year-old woman in a dying declaration to the city police said her employer, Raja, at a diagnostic lab in Madipakkam had poured surgical spirit on her and set her ablaze, the wife of the man she accused said her husband was innocent and the woman had killed herself.
At a press conference on Tuesday, R Lalitha provided an alternative version of what took place at the lab on the night of February 18. She said Yamuna was frustrated and set herself onfire and Raja tried to save her and injured himself in the process, she said.

Raja’s lawyer Anthony Robson said soon after the incident Raja had taken Yamuna to the Chromepet Government Hospital where she told the staff that she sustained burns due to a LPG cylinder blast and was later shifted to Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital. “If it was an attempt to murder, she could have blamed him right away,” he said.

Lalitha blamed the police for not conducting a thorough investigation and added that she will get justice for her husband.

She also claimed that the incident happened outside the lab and that there were witnesses.

On February 18, Yamuna and her employer, Raja, 40, the owner of Sri Balaji Diagnostics, had had a verbal altercation before Raja allegedly splashed her with surgical spirit and set her on fire in Vanuvampet.

The woman, who was admitted to Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital with 46% burns died on February 25.

Chennai-Coimbatore Shabtabdi Express to stop at Katpadi on experimental basis

Shanmughasundaram J | TNN | Feb 28, 2018, 14:35 IST

 

Shatabdi Express at Katpadi junction

VELLORE: The Chennai Central-Coimbatore-Chennai Central Shatabdi Express trains (train nos 12243 and 12244) will stop at Katpadi Junction Railway Station for a minute on an experimental basis for a period of six months from Wednesday.
With this, the trains would have five stoppages between Chennai and Coimbatore -- Katpadi, Jolarpet, Salem, Erode and Tiruppur. It would benefit people in Vellore district and a large section of business class travellers, according to a press statement from the Southern Railway.

Deputy speaker of Lok Sabha M Thambi Durai, who travelled on the train, flagged off the experimental stoppage at Katpadi. Commercial taxes minister K C Veeramani and MP of Arakkonam G Hari and collector S A Raman were present on the occasion.

The Shatabdi rake has nine coaches -- seven AC chair cars, an AC executive chair car and an Anubhuti chair car.

The arrival and departure timings of train 12243 Chennai-Coimbatore Shatabdi Express at Katpadi will be 8.53am and 8.54am respectively, while the arrival and departure timings of train no 12244 Coimbatore-Chennai Central Shatabdi Express at Katpadi will be 8.14pm and 8.15pm, respectively.

“Based on the patronage and liking of the people, we will decide on whether to continue the experimental stoppage of the train,” said divisional railway manager, Chennai, Naveen Gulati.

The Southern Railway has eliminated all the unmanned level crossing in Chennai division, Gulati said.

No sign of governor visit, officials abort sprucing up of ChitlapakkamPradeep Kumar | Updated: Feb 28, 2018, 21:28 IST

 

When news filtered through that the governor's visit was not happening, workers abandoned their tasks CHENNAI: Officials of Chitlapakkam town panchayat and public works department (PWD) who started to spruce up the neighbourhood anticipating a visit by Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, then chose to abandon work after learning that Purohit would not be visiting soon. 

TOI reported that the governor's office had taken cognisance of Chitlapakkam residents' petition demanding a solution to the garbage crisis in their neighbourhood. Subsequently, it was rumoured that Purohit would visit Chitlapakkam on Tuesday, as part of his larger Kancheepuram district trip schedule. On Monday evening, however, the Raj Bhavan declared that a visit to Chitlapakkam was not in Purohit's schedule.

By then, the town panchayat and the PWD had already engaged workers to patch up potholes on the roads and clean up the garbage filled Chitlapakkam lake, residents said.

The PWD engaged workers to remove overgrown shrubs from the lake's bund and replace damaged tiles in the walking track developed around the lake. It even put up nets to cover the landfill in the water body. However, when news filtered through that the governor's visit was not happening, the workers abandoned their tasks.



"Do we really need a VIP visit to bring change? Only problem is they (officials) are effective in order to please the bosses and not citizens. If they were even half effective throughout the year, then Chitlapakkam would become Singapore long back," said Sunil Jayaram, a local resident and a member of the citizen activism group - Chitlapakkam Rising.

Aircel files for bankruptcy over mounting fin troubles
No Consensus With Lenders, Shareholders On Debt Rejig
 
01.03.2018 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Aircel said on Wednesday that the company has filed for bankruptcy in view of mounting financial troubles and tough business environment. The company, which last year failed in its attempt to merge business with Reliance Communications, said it could not reach consensus with respect to restructuring of debt and funding after discussions with lenders and shareholders.

“Despite these discussions and invoking of a Strategic Debt Restructuring in January 2018, no agreement could be reached,” Aircel said, adding that it has now filed an application under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code for undertaking Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). Sources said the filing was made in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai.

Aircel’s board acknowledged that the company has been facing troubled times in a “highly financially stressed industry, owing to intense competition, following the disruptive entry of a new player, legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses”.

This, it said, has caused significant negative business and reputational impact on the company. Aircel’s has been running adebt of around of Rs 15,500 crore and has seen its subscriber base shrink to around 5.6 crore against 8 crore till December 2017 when it was going strong.

Aircel has already informed regulator Trai that it has shut down operations in six circles — Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (West) with effect from January 31 this year. Its services remain disrupted in other areas such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata and Mumbai. The company said in the current circumstances, resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is an “appropriate recourse”.

“The company would like to emphasise that CIRP is not a proceeding for liquidation, rather is a process to find best possible resolution for the current situation and that would be in the best interest of everyone (vendors, distributors, employees, etc) to protect and preserve the value of the company and manage the operations.” 

HC stays CBSE-set age limit for NEET

01.03.2018

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday stayed a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) notification specifying age restrictions for medical aspirants. The move comes as a relief to thousands who couldn’t apply for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) due to the eligibility conditions laid by the board.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar stayed the notification — which barred general candidates above 25 years of age and reserved category aspirants aged over 30 from applying for the MBBS and dental course entrances — and allowed the aspirants, some of whom are from Open School, to submit their application forms by March

9. The HC also sought the response of the CBSE and the Medical Council of India (MCI) on the candidates’ plea, challenging the eligibility criteria laid by the board.

The court, however, clarified that while the candidates will be allowed to submit their application for the entrance exam, they cannot sit for the examination — scheduled on May 6 — as the case is sub judice and will be heard next on April 16.

The HC was hearing several petitions filed by medical aspirant. Aspirants from open schools should have studied privately or under a recognised board to apply for the NEET exam, the bench pointed out.

Appearing for some of the petitioners, senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta told HC that students were also challenging the constitutional validity of the amendments made by the MCI in the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, which are the basis of the NEET-UG notification issued by the CBSE.

But senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for MCI, opposed the maintainability of the pleas saying a similar issue has already been decided by the high court in the past. The CBSE said it had nothing to do with the amendments made by MCI and was only concerned with carrying out the tests as per the existing regulations.

Aadhaar linking weeds out 2.75cr bogus ration cards 
01.03.2018 

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: Complete digitisation of ration cards and linking them to Aadhaar number of beneficiaries has helped the government weed out over 2.75 crore duplicate and bogus ration cards that were used to get highly subsidised foodgrains.

Food ministry officials said though the entire process of digitisation of ration cards had started in January 2013, it gained momentum in the past four years. “We have plugged the leakage of subsidised wheat, rice and coarse grains to the tune of ₹17,500 crore annually. Though there is no direct savings because new beneficiaries also get added, now we are providing the foodgrains to the real beneficiaries,” food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan told TOI.

According to government data, about 23.19 crore ration cards have been issued to people under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). While all the ration cards have been digitised, the progress of linking ration cards to Aadhaar numbers is about 82%. “More bogus ration cards will be out of the system once we have 100% Aadhaar seeding,” Paswan said.

Data compiled by the food ministry show that nearly 50% of the deleted ration cards across the country came from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. A large number of bogus ration cards were also deleted in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

Police can seize passport but can’t impound it: HC 

01.03.2018 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: The Madras high court has made it clear that police authorities can only seize passport of a person, but has no powers to impound them.

“Even the courts cannot impound passports, under Passports Act. The passport authority alone is empowered to impound passports that too after giving opportunity of hearing to the person concerned,” justice M N Muralidharan said.

The court made the observations while allowing a revision petition moved by Dr C Ramesh Babu, an orthopedic surgeon, seeking return of his passport impounded by police and deposited with a trial court in connection with a criminal case, on February 26, 2016.

“Courts have no power to impound passports seized by police. However, the duty of the court is to direct the passport authority to commence proceedings for impounding of the passport as per the provisions of the Passports Act.

In turn, the passport authority is to initiate due process to impound the passport after affording opportunity duly to the holder of the passport as it involves the right to free movement as guaranteed in the Constitution as one of the fundamental rights. After considering the necessity pertaining to the facts and circumstances of each case, the passport authority, by giving detailed reasons, may take any decision on either side by applying the mind,” the judge said.