Can Rajini, Kamal pull off an MGR, turn fans towards poll booths? 

‘MGR Was Unquestioned Leader; Today Actors Need To Be Accessible To Gain Trust Of Cadres’

Jaya.Menon@timesgroup.com   10.04.2018

On March 10, 2018, small-time businessman and Kamal Haasan fan ‘Aanandham’ Rajesh, 38, was in for a big surprise. Crowds had gathered on the street near the Perundurai bus stand in Erode district as the actor’s convoy arrived with a flourish. Kamal Haasan emerged through the open rooftop of his car. “He suddenly extended his hand to me and asked me to hoist the Makkal Needhi Maiam flag. It was an emotional moment for me,” said Rajesh, touched by Kamal’s gesture.

Dravidian politics has come a long way. Charisma of politicians is not any more about inaccessibility, and, wooing cadres to build a party is a harder challenge. With actors and political novices like Kamal and Rajinikanth taking the plunge into TN politics which has well-entrenched parties and seasoned politicians, the trick is to do the act differently. “I told my fans in Perundurai that I may have designed the flag, but it is up to them to ensure that it flies with dignity,” said Kamal.

In October 1972, when matinee idol M G Ramachandran was expelled from the DMK, neither party chief M Karunanidhi nor MGR could have predicted the dramatic impact of his political entry. Since then, MGR’s path-breaking experiment in restructuring his fan clubs into a political party base has inspired many including N T Rama Rao, Vijayakanth and Chiranjeevi.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, hero-worshipping fans dared not question celluloid heroism. Today, with intense public pro-activism, social media and acute disillusionment, political forays could prove a daunting task for Kamal and Rajinikanth. This is exactly why both the actors are following a structured approach towards transforming their fan clubs into a cadre base, their target being the youth at the grassroots.

Kamal says he laid the base for a political party three decades ago, channelising his fan clubs into social work. A team of professionals and experts from various fields are helping him build his party.

With his plan yet to be unveiled, Rajinikanth, who announced his political foray recently, has appointed a core team of office bearers to structure his fan clubs in the districts. District-wise meetings are being held to spot talent and enlist them as office bearers of fan clubs. In every district, the clubs are headed by a secretary, who is aided by office bearers in the smooth transition of clubs into a political party.

“MGR fans were politically aware that he did not really have the need to organise them,” said author and MGR biographer R Kannan. On October 19, 1972, MGR could announce that the ‘20,000’ fan clubs (there were 18,000 DMK units and so the fan clubs had to be higher) had turned into the ADMK.

“After the 1971 assembly election and its good showing, DMK functionaries did not give permission to cadres to sign up as members of MGR fan clubs; instead they recommended that cadres join Karunanidhi’s son M K Muthu’s fan club,” said journalist Sudhangan.

NTR’s decision to enter the public sphere was sudden, pointed out Kannan. His 600 fan clubs became the ‘yuva sena’ (youth force), distributing the Telugu Desam manifesto that sang the prime slogan of ‘Telugu Atma Gauravam’ (Telugu pride) and helped his 1983 campaign. “Kamal and Rajini cannot be compared to NTR. He was virtually ‘god’ for the people,” said Andhra Pradesh Food Commission chairman and J R Pushparaj, who contested and won on a TDP ticket in the 1983 assembly polls.

“Kamal’s party and his fans appear more like a popular NGO than a politically charged party. Rajnikanth’s fans have deified him but their political work or presence on the ground is yet to be felt,” said Kannan. Rajnikanth’s tentativeness makes it all the harder for his fans.

On the other hand the fans need to mature into political workers and organisers. This could happen when the stars themselves become fully committed to the public sphere.

Govt launches on-site NEET coaching camps 
 
3K Students To Undergo Month-Long Training

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   10.04.2018

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday launched month-long residential camps across the state to help government school students crack NEET, the common entrance test for admission to undergraduate medical courses.

An estimated 3,000 students will undergo the training at nine colleges.

School education secretary Pradeep Yadav launched the camp at the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology campus where 400 students from 12 different districts had assembled and will undergo training.

Among the nine centres, three will have tutors to instruct students in English; the six others will coach the students in Tamil.

Allen Career Institute from Kota and Chaitanya Coaching Centre will carry out the training at three centres while another 128 teachers from government schools have been given training in Bengaluru by Chaitanya to coach other students. Students will also be able to access VSAT sessions by Speed Coaching Institute.

Yadav said students were chosen on the basis of their scores in Class X.

“The concept of residential coaching was brought in because we felt students could focus on their studies without any distractions and gain access to all the required facilities. In addition, information sharing between peers is likely to take place when they are together,” Yadav said.

“The level of training at these camps is [on the same level as] at any private coaching centre. Since the test is relatively new to everyone, every student has an equal shot at cracking it,” the school education secretary said.

He said 8,223 students enrolled for NEET coaching in government training centres, including in residential camps, in the state, and enquiries continue to come in.

More schoolgirls have enrolled in both the residential and non-residential centres than schoolboys: 5,850 girls and 2,383 boys are now part of the programme.

In Chennai district, 154 students enrolled for the training. Virudhunagar, Salem and Tiruvallur had the most enrolments and Nagapattinam the least. 

Medicos with PG diplomas oppose promotion of govt resident docs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  10.04.2018

Chennai: The Madras high court on Monday ordered notice to the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the state government on a plea assailing MCI’s notification bringing doctors with MD/MS degrees eligible for the post of senior residents in the broad speciality as well as super speciality categories in government service.
The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose ordered a notice returnable by April 13 on the PIL moved by Dr G Jaysiya of Kalappa Naicken Patti village in Namakkal.

Jaysiya had completed a diploma in Medical Radiology Diagnosis and is presently working as Senior Resident in Radio Diagnosis in Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College and Hospital.

According to the petitioner, there are three major departments in government service. DMS primarily consists of services in rural taluks, district headquarters and ESI. DPH, consists of primary health centres including urban and rural. The last one is DME, which consists of purely academic service attached to medical colleges and hospitals. Doctors with MBBS and PG diploma specialisation are initially posted in DPH and then placed in DME as tutor subsequently promoted as senior resident, the petitioner said.

Similarly, doctors with MD and MS are posted in other departments except DME. While so the MCI on June 5, 2017 issued a notification modifying the Rules and paving way for MD/MS doctors to be appointed in DME as well.

Claiming that the move would affect the prospects of PG diploma doctors, the petitioner said, “There are about 5000 doctors across the state working in government service. In that about 700 are PG diploma holder along with MBBS and are exclusively posted in vacancies in directorate of medical education as tutors and promoted as senior residents.’ When the state government attempted to appoint such MD doctors in DME, diploma doctors approached the high court in 2017 in which the government allegedly assured that such appointments would be made only in unfilled vacancies and currently serving diploma doctors would not be disturbed.

But now, apprehending that the government would once again try to disturb their peaceful service armed with the MCI notification, the petitioner has approach the high court to quash the same.

Blood tie: Clue from wife jails priest 

CCTV Cams Belied Claim Of Violent Robbery

Sindhu.Kannan@timesgroup.com 10.04.2018

Chennai: The police played a waiting game during the past three days hoping that Vadapalani temple priest Prabhu alias Balaganesh would crack under the strain of questioning.

Investigators denied Prabhu access to television or newspapers in hospital as police sought to keep him in the dark over the death of his wife Gnanapriya.

Prabhu subsequently panicked, fearing that his wife would disclose the truth if she were alive, said an investigating officer.

As soon as police arrived at 6.30am on Thursday, he began to tremble, claiming to have been possessed by a spirit to avoid being questioned, said the officer, adding that he pretended to be unconscious at the hospital where doctors gave him only a 50% chance of survival.

Prabhu was told by police that his wife was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kancheepuram. Asking to see his wife, he was discharged from the hospital and escorted by a police team. Seeing the van cross the hospital, Prabhu questioned why they were not halting there. Police then disclosed his wife’s death, following which he pretended to cry for ten minutes, said the officer.

Investigators discovered in the course of the investigation that the evidence at the crime scene did not corroborate the sequence of events narrated by him.

The hammer left behind at the scene was washed, while the injury on Prabhu’s head appeared to have been self-inflicted. He also could not satisfactorily explain the presence of his wife’s blood on his person since, according to him, he was attacked first before his wife was targeted.

It was also not clear why the intruders chose that particular house when they had easy access to other houses if it was a murder for gain, said a police officer. Though Prabhu told police that the unidentified men entered the house at 1.30am, police found that CCTV footage only showed his friend Manoj Kumar arriving at around 2.15am. Police recovered the stolen gold jewellery from Manoj’s puja room underneath the deity.

During questioning, Prabhu told officers that he devised a plan to eliminate his wife three days before the murder but stopped when she awoke in the middle of the night.

MURDER IN COLD BLOOD: Priest Prabhu and his wife Gnanapriya in the days after their marriage; a neighbour found Prabhu tied up in a bathroom and his wife battered to death in their single-room house

Here, there’s a rush to enrol unborn kids for LKG classes

Vinayashree.J@timesgroup.com 10.04.2018

Unborn children can now obtain admission to school. Mulling over school admissions even before planning a family may sound like a joke cracked by a stand-up comedian, but for some young couples in the city it is a reality.

The father of a six-month-old child was stumped when he was told that he was “too late” for planning admission, not for the current batch, but for the 2022 batch at a reputed school. Sishya School, Adyar (ICSE) is known to carry out registrations for batches much in advance, but some parents found it absurd when the school told them they had missed the deadline for a batch that would start classes four years later. Aditya N, the surprised father, said: “The school told me that I was late as only those born in January 2018 or born in the coming months would be considered for admissions. As all other batches were full, I was told that as a special request I could approach the school later,” he said.

When TOI contacted the school, it said all admissions for batches before 2022 were closed due to high demand while a notification on the school website called for appointments for registrations for LKG for 2022.

But Malathi K of Aurro Educational Services said it ultimately came down to parents who pay for this system of prior admission. “It is better to carry out admissions for the present batch. These processes also affect RTE admissions due to high demand for filling the seats,” she said, adding that the “absurd” pattern should not be replicated by other institutions.

Meanwhile, most CBSE schools are following the board’s early admission deadlines keeping parents on their toes. The window for applications which opened in February has closed for many institutions.

Many schools are already in the process of verifying applications and admitting students for the coming academic year.

Docs: Prolonged use of antacids harms kidneys

Rupalil.Mukherjee@timesgroup.com 10.04.2018

Mumbai: Recent global studies suggesting that prolonged use of widely prescribed antiacidity pills to treat “gas” and heartburn may be linked to long-term kidney damage, acute renal disease and chronic kidney disease have sparked fresh debate amongst the medical community here.

Though a few initial reports about the association of these drugs — also called PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) — with kidney disease have been published in reputed medical journals over the last couple of years, it is only now that there are studies suggesting that it’s more serious and linked to both acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, doctors told TOI.

Also, since these reports are mostly restricted to nephrology journals and limited to only specialists, many physicians may not be really aware of these adverse effects.


Acidity pills should be prescribed for less than 8 weeks

Increasing concerns about these drugs could be the reason why their safety profile was discussed at the Annual Conference of Nephrologists and a conference of the Association of Physicians of India.

PPIs rank among the top 10 prescribed classes of drugs and are commonly used to treat acid reflux, indigestion, and peptic ulcers. They are prescribed across specialities, from orthopaedics and cardiology to internal medicine and surgery.

A US-based nephrologist, Dr Pradeep Arora, spoke about the drug’s risks at the annual conference of the Indian Society of Nephrology in Delhi recently. He told TOI: “PPIs should be ideally prescribed in the approved indications, if possible for less than eight weeks. Beyond this, if a patient is on PPIs, kidney function and magnesium levels need monitoring.”

Most patients do not know about side-effects like CKD (chronic kidney disease) as in the early stages CKD from any cause usually shows no symptom. Therefore, it is essential to use PPIs only for specific indications, and not for a prolonged time, as well as monitor kidney function during its usage, said Vijay Kher, chairman, nephrology, at Delhibased Fortis Escorts.

When PPIs for tacking acidity first hit the market nearly 20 years ago, they were perceived as very safe. This perception perhaps still lingers amongst a large section of gastroenterologists, physicians and other specialists and has percolated down to patients as well.

Since these drugs suppress acids, they could be responsible for adverse effects like iron absorption, vitamin D3 and B12 deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances (low magnesium), infections in the GI tract, etc. Studies indicate that the risks for the elderly could include heart problems and dementia.

“Recent studies say indefinite use of these medicines leads to kidney problems — like among the young there is a small increased risk of acute kidney injury, and among elderly, chronic kidney disease. There should not be indefinite use of these drugs,” said Dr Gourdas Choudhuri, director & HoD, department of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary sciences at Fortis Memorial Research Institute.

“It is important to be careful when prescribing PPIs, especially in those at risk of kidney dysfunction (for instance, a patient with diabetes). In these patients, kidney function should be carefully monitored,” said Delhi-based diabetologist Dr Anoop Misra.

Though no advisory has been issued against the medicine, Dr Kher said drug regulatory authorities will be informed.

இத்தனை நோய்களுக்கும் ஒரே தீர்வு நெல்லிக்காய்....!


நெல்லிக்காயில் உள்ள ஆன்டி-ஆக்ஸிடன்ட் புற்றுநோய் ஏற்படுவதைத் தடுக்கும். இவை புற்றுநோய் செல்களின் வளர்ச்சியை தடுப்பதாகவும் ஆய்வில் தெரிய வந்துள்ளது. வெல்லத்தில் மிகுந்துள்ள இரும்பு சத்தும், நெல்லிக்காயில் உள்ள கால்சியம் சத்தும் நம் ஆரோக்கியத்தை மேம்படுத்தும்.

ரத்த சோகை உள்ளவர்கள் இதைதொடர்ந்து பயன்படுத்தினால் ரத்தத்தில் ஹீமோகுளோபின் அளவு கூடி இரத்த சிவப்பு அணுக்கள் அதிகரிக்கும். இட்லி, தோசை, சப்பாத்தி போன்ற உணவு வகைகளுடன் சேர்த்து சாப்பிடலாம்.
உடல் எடையை குறைக்க வேண்டும் என்றால் தினமும் நெல்லிக்காய் சாப்பிடலாம். இவை உடலில் உள்ள தீங்கு விளைவிக்கும் டாக்ஸின்களை வெளியேற்றி உடல் எடையைக் குறைக்க உதவும்.
நெல்லிக்காயில் நார்ச்சத்து அதிகமாக இருப்பதால் மலச்சிக்கல் உள்ளவர்களுக்கு இது தீர்வாக அமைகிறது.

நெல்லிகாயை தினமும் ஒன்று சாப்பிட்டு வந்தால், உயர் இரத்த அழுத்தம் கட்டுப்பாட்டுடன் இருக்கும். நெல்லி பொடியை தேனுடன் கலந்து தினமும் சாப்பிட்டு வர நல்ல பலன் கிடைக்கும்.

நெல்லிகாயில் வைட்டமின் சி வளமாக இருப்பதால் கண் பார்வை மேம்படும். இதில் உள்ள ஆன்டி-ஆக்ஸிடன்ட் கண் ரெட்டினாவை பாதுகாக்கிறது.
1 டேபிள் ஸ்பூன் நெல்லிக்காய் சாற்றுடன் சிறிது பாகற்காய் சாற்றினை சேர்த்து கலந்து குடித்து வந்தால் உடலின் இன்சுலின் சுரப்பை அதிகரிக்கும். இதனால் இரத்த சர்க்கரை அளவை கட்டுப்பாட்டுடன் வைத்துக் கொள்ள முடியும்.

நெல்லிக்காயில் உள்ள இரும்புச்சத்து புதிய இரத்த செல்களை உருவாக்கி மறைமுக மாரடைப்பு மற்றும் பக்கவாதம் ஏற்படும் வாய்ப்பைத் தடுக்கும்.