Panel formed to probe sexual harassment complaints against doctors in Chennai hospital

Pushpa Narayan | TNN | Updated: May 1, 2018, 21:00 IST


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CHENNAI: A three-member committee headed by Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital dean Dr R Jayanthi has been appointed to inquire into sexual harassment complaints against a few doctors in Kasturba General Hospital at Triplicane here.

The inquiry has been ordered based on anonymous written complaints received by the Directorate of Medical Education and CM’s cell, officials said.

In February, the Directorate of Medical Education received two anonymous letters about harassment in the Kasturba General Hospital. The letter alleged that a senior professor in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology had ordered her postgraduate students to dish out sexual favours to a male junior faculty member in the department of anaesthetics.

“Although it was anonymous, we did not want to ignore the letter. We conducted two independent inquiries. Both inquiries were discrete and were done face to face with every student. The inquiry officers spoke to all women and concluded that the complaints were baseless,” said director of medical education A Edwin Joe.

However, when the CM’s cell received a similar letter, the directorate has constituted a committee to conduct a formal inquiry. “We have decided to make another round of inquiry just to ensure we haven’t missed anything in the first two,” he said.

 

Indore: Chief Medical and Health Officer probes complaint made against him 

— By Staff Reporter | May 03, 2018 09:06 am

Indore: Though allegations of corruption against medical education and health department have become common, something worse has surfaced. A complaint was lodged with the collector during public hearing against chief medical and health officer (CMHO), Indore, in January this year. The collectorate forwarded this complaint to CMHO to investigate into the allegation made against the latter.

As per case, a complaint was filed by Vikas Singh against the license and registration renewal of KND Hospital, which he started with Dr Nilesh Dehariya in Simrol. He told officials at public hearing that he started KND Hospital in Simrol in 2014 in partnership with Dr Nilesh Dehariya for which he provided land and infrastructure. The hospital was registered in name of Dr Dehariya.

“After a year, I learnt about financial irregularities after which I requested the CMHO not to renew the license of hospital as he had withdrawn the partnership and the management of hospital was under dispute,” Vikas Singh told mediapersons. He alleged that even after lodging compliant, CMHO Dr HN Nayak renewed the hospital’s registration in name of Dr Dehariya’s wife Rashmi Dehariya after which he approached the collector.

“The complaint against CMHO and the hospital was forwarded to CMHO for investigation. Now, the matter is pending with him and the hospital is functioning despite the disputes,” Singh said. Vikas moved another complaint at public hearing in similar connection recently.

Meanwhile, CMHO Dr Nayak said hospital’s registration was suspended in February after getting the complaint. Dr Dehariya said that the registration was renewed in April and there is no dispute over the partnership of the hospital.

After son’s suicide, man vows to give up liquor 

Special Correspondent 
 
TIRUNELVELI, May 04, 2018 00:00 IST

Madasamy performs last rites of Dinesh

Will his son’s suicide reform Madasamy? Dinesh Nallasivan killed himself by hanging from a rail overbridge on Wednesday, and in his suicide note, had cited his father Madasamy’s alcoholism as the reason for his tragic decision. The police also recovered a hall ticket for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) from Dinesh’s body.

Dinesh, his younger brother and sister, had almost been abandoned by his alcoholic father. Now, the repentant father is said to have “promised” to give up drinking.

Though Dinesh had left instructions asking his father not to perform the last rites for him, Mr. Madasamy defied it. “Since my father has promised to give up liquor, he performed the last rites and tonsured his head. He made this promise to us,” informed Balachandran, Dinesh’s younger brother. Mr. Madasamy did not answer calls.

Meanwhile, a group of Congress functionaries submitted a petition in the Collector’s office here on Thursday seeking compensation to the kin of Dinesh.

In the petition, the Congress functionaries said with the death of Dinesh, the children had lost their only support.

SRM counselling on May 7 

Special Correspondent 
 
CHENNAI, May 04, 2018 00:00 IST

Counselling for admission to group institutions to begin on May 7

There were 10 toppers from seven States in the SRM group of institutions’ joint entrance examinations this year. The counselling for the courses offered by SRM group of institutions will begin on May 7.

The results of the deemed university’s joint entrance examination for admission to B. Tech degree programmes were announced on Tuesday. B. Tech seats are offered on the campuses at Kattankulathur, Sonepat in Haryana and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh.

The counselling schedule is available on the university’s website, according to a release. Scholarships worth around Rs. 30 crore are available and the Founder’s scholarships will be awarded based on the SRMJEEE 2018 merit list on the first day of counselling. Of the 1.72 lakh candidates who had registered for the entrance exam, 76,000 have been called for counselling. Among the top 10,000 ranks, 66% students were from CBSE. Students would benefit from interdisciplinary experiential active learning, said SRM president P. Sathyanarayana.

HC refuses to spike PG admission order 

Special Correspondent 
 
CHENNAI, May 04, 2018 00:00 IST

Says can’t interfere as the guidelines have been clearly set by the Supreme Court

Tamil Nadu is likely to miss the May 31 deadline for PG medical admissions after the Madras High Court on Thursday refused to overturn an order by a single bench that had quashed the government orders (G.O.) relating to the award of incentive marks for in-service candidates.

The vacation bench of Justice V. Bharathidasan and Justice N. Seshasayee asked the State government to approach the Supreme Court for clarifications.

“We are not inclined to interfere in the single judge’s order. When the Supreme Court has clearly set out the guidelines to identify such areas for the purpose of PG medical admissions, how can the High Court interfere?”

The April 18 order had declared as illegal two G.O.s passed on March 9 and 23.

The G.O.s had classified the workplaces of government doctors as remote, difficult or rural in order to award incentive marks for PG admissions.

Justice S. Vaidhyanathan, in his order, found the government’s method of identifying these areas “flawed”.

The petitioners before him had pointed out that despite serving in rural locations, they were not eligible for incentive marks; some who work at district headquarters, on the other hand, were eligible for such marks.

On Thursday, the court agreed with the counsel for the original petitioners, G. Shankaran, that the government had not complied with the Supreme Court guidelines.

“Incentive marks should be given to in-service candidates who sacrificed the comfort of living in a city and served in remote and difficult areas. Not based on number of vacancies or work load,” said the court.

Richardson Wilson, appearing for the candidates who wanted the G.O.s reinstated, argued that government doctors in city limits work 12-18 hours while those in rural areas, sometimes, need to work for only about a couple of hours a day.

He said that such factors were considered by the government.

Incentive marks should be given to in-service candidates who sacrificed the comfort of living in a city and served in remote and difficult areas.

Madras High Court

Extra marks for students whose parents vote

Bengaluru, May 04, 2018 00:00 IST

In a competitive education system, every mark counts. With that in mind, children who go to private schools are likely to urge parents to exercise their franchise on May 12. The reason? Many private State board schools across Karnataka have decided to award children four marks in their mid-term examination if their parents cast their vote. If only one parent votes, the student will be given two marks. Managements said the reason behind the initiative is to improve voter turnout.

SC stay a last-minute jolt for many NEET candidates
‘CBSE Must Be Blamed For Situation’

Sambath Kumar & Padmini Sivarajah TNN

Trichy/Madurai:

The Supreme Court stay on the Madras high court’s directive to CBSE to set up additional centres in the state for the sake of Tamil Nadu candidates – who were allotted centres outside for the national eligibilitycum-entrance test (NEET) – has plunged many an MBBS aspirant into a crisis.

Several such students who should have been preparing for the examination are now busy trying to figure out how to reach the allotted centres in time. Parents say their wards are now all stressed as many of them have to make last-minute arrangements to travel to their destinations by bus or car as trains are full.

V Chithra, mother of Mithun from Trichy, had booked train tickets and also a hotel room in Ernakulam where her son was to write. However, she cancelled the room following the high court order believing they may not have to travel to Kerala. Now the Supreme Court has stayed the order and all hotel rooms have been booked, she said. “Even half a mark matters in NEET which may cost my son his medical seat given the high level of competition. We fear his performance may get affected by travel fatigue and pressure,” she said.

“The CBSE is entirely to blame for this mix-up that has put students under immense pressure when most of them are carrying out last-minute preparations,” said J S Sukumar, MD of Uthavi Education Consultancy, a coaching centre in Madurai. “Students in Tamil Nadu are yet to be fully familiar with NEET as this is only the third year they will be writing the exam. They should have been given some consideration while allocating the examination centres.’’ “We ensured our son got the best NEET coaching and he too spent several sleepless nights to prepare for NEET. All the hard work put in for the past one year may go waste if anything goes wrong now,” said R Jayanthi, mother of an aspiring doctor in Trichy.

Even applicants from Ramanathapuram have been given a centre in Kochi.

Yoha Balaji of Global Public School said he had applied on February 18 and was allotted a centre in Ernakulam, but a few of his classmates who applied on February 20 and beyond got a college in Madurai as centre. “I looked for trains today, but found them to be fully booked,” said Ram Sithu, another student who had given his preference of centre as Madurai and Trichy.

Urging the government to bear the expense of candidates forced to go outside the state, PMK youth wing president anbumani Ramadoss said that of the 200-odd applicants, many were from government and government-aided schools. “Some candidates from Tirunelveli and Tuticorin have to travel all the way to Rajasthan to write NEET,” he claimed. TOI couldn’t speak to any such candidate to verify this.