Buses sans conductors: staff unions move HC

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, JULY 13, 2018 00:00 IST


Judge asks government to respond by July 18

The State Transport Employees Federation (STEF), affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court stating that many State Transport Corporation buses were being operated without conductors though it was mandatory to engage the services of the latter in every bus.

When the case came up for admission before Justice S.M. Subramaniam on Wednesday, he directed the government counsel to obtain instructions from the Transport Secretary by July 18. The judge wanted to know whether both mofussil as well as city buses were operated with drivers alone, as claimed by the federation.

In an affidavit filed in support of the writ petition, K. Arumuga Nainar, STEF general secretary, said that his was one of the largest unions with a membership of around 33,000 out of 1.45 lakh employees working in State Transport Corporations.

He said the government had been operating the buses directly till 1975.

Thereafter, it entrusted the work to transport corporations. At present, there were six corporations (for Villupuram, Salem, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Madurai and Tirunelveli divisions), one metropolitan transport corporation for Chennai and a State Express Transport Corporation for operating buses.

The buses operated by these Corporations were bound to follow the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 and they fall under the definition of ‘stage carriage’ in the enactment. Sections 29 to 38 of the Act list out the statutory requirements for obtaining a licence to act as conductor and prescribes their duties.

Conductor’s role

Listing out the responsibilities of a conductor, the petitioner said: “He is responsible for maintaining the bus in a clean condition. He is responsible to ensure that buses do not carry passengers beyond the permitted seating capacity.

It is his responsibility to ensure that goods carried in the buses do not cause inconvenience to the passengers.”

Counselling for medical, dental seats cancelled

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, JULY 13, 2018 00:00 IST


DME cites High Court’s order to CBSE

The counselling for seats under management quota in self-financing medical and dental colleges in the State for the academic year 2018-2019, scheduled to be held on July 16,17, and 18, has been cancelled, according to a notice issued by the selection committee of the Directorate of Medical Education. The DME has issued a notification on its website and cited the order issued by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on July10.

The case pertains to Tamil medium students having scored poorly in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test as the question paper contained around 49 errors in translation. The High Court ruled that the CBSE should award 196 marks to the students and the merit list should be redrawn to enable the students to participate in counselling.

The first round of counselling was held for the State quota of government seats in the first week of July.

The Directorate General of Health Services has cancelled its second round of online counselling for seats under the All India Quota and for deemed universities.

The last date for locking in choices was July 9. Candidates were expected to report to their respective colleges by July 13. According to the DGHS’ Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) notice on its website, “Online undergraduate counselling for the session: 2018 including the declaration of second round result will be kept in abeyance till further orders.”

Secretariat staff to undergo 6-month mandatory training

Dennis S. Jesudasan

CHENNAI, JULY 13, 2018 00:00 IST



Section Officers and Under Secretaries will undergo training to keep up with changes in various spheres of governance.
Exercise will give officials exposure to all aspects of governance

In a major revamp of the training scheme for Section Officers (SOs) and Under Secretaries (USs) posted in various departments in the Secretariat, the government, after 25 years, has introduced a “compulsory” six-month capacity-building training to keep up with the changes in all spheres of governance.

The deputations of these officers to various districts will commence in October and the training aims to help the officers gain experience in the functioning of various State public sector undertakings and follow the trail of schemes till they reach the beneficiaries.

“At the end of the training, the trainees will make a presentation on the training experience, and based on their interaction during the presentation, an evaluation will be done and a rating will be given for each trainee. These ratings may be used while assessing the trainees’ suitability for higher responsibilities,” a G.O. issued by the Chief Secretary stated.

For Under Secretaries, the training would include a three-month classroom and city offices training programme. They would be put through classroom coaching in an eight-week capsule at the Anna Institute of Management and a one-week capsule at the State Judicial Academy here; they will also undertake visits to important offices in the city for two weeks. The officers are to be sent for training during the non-budget period in two batches a year – in July and in October.

The six-month training for Section Officers would have two components: a three-month training capsule in various offices in Chennai and a three-month deputation to offices of various departments in 30 districts across the State (excluding Chennai and the Nilgiris).

Requests for exemption

The selection and deputation of Under Secretaries and Section Officers for training and allocation of choice districts will be only as per seniority, and requests for priority allocation of districts and for exemption from undergoing the training either in a particular batch or for total exemption “shall be summarily rejected,” the order stated.

“100% attendance shall be a prerequisite for their appointment to the posts of Under Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries, respectively, and necessary amendments to the Special Rules for the Tamil Nadu General Service will be issued separately,” the G.O. noted.

The decision of the government follows the recommendations made by a committee constituted in November last year led by the Secretary in the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Training) Department.

The committee recommended a revamp of the training schemes (during the non-budget period) and further prescribed service qualification pre- and post-training.

Since Secretariat officials interact mostly with the Heads of the Department in Chennai, it was imperative that they were given training in the activities of the various Heads of the Departments so as to have a wider perspective on State administration, the G.O said.

The change in the training scheme for Secretariat officers comes after 25 years since the last change was effected (in 1993).

Father’s name in birth certificate optional: HC

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Can’t compel a woman to disclose name of child’s father, says judge

In a judgment that would be celebrated by single mothers and those going in for intrauterine insemination, the Madras High Court has ruled that there is no legal obligation on the part of a mother to disclose the name of the father at the time of registering her child’s birth.

The court said it was sufficient for her to file a sworn affidavit that the child was born from her womb. Justice M.S. Ramesh held that even women who had been deserted by their husbands could obtain birth certificates for their children without mentioning the name of their father.

The judge said that women who bring up children with their own income source could not be compelled to name the deserters in birth certificates. He pointed out that neither the Births and Deaths Act of 1969, a Central enactment, nor the Tamil Nadu Registration of Births and Deaths Rules of 2000, framed by the State government by exercising powers conferred on it under the Act, requires the father’s name to be recorded in the birth register maintained by local bodies.

Correcting the error

The judgment was passed on a writ petition filed by a divorcee, who had given birth to a baby girl at a hospital in Tiruchi, through intrauterine insemination.

However, the Tiruchi Municipal Corporation issued a birth certificate on August 9, 2017, naming the donor as the child’s father. The petitioner’s request to issue the certificate without mentioning the father’s name was rejected on the premise that the law does not provide for removing it from birth certificates.

Challenging the rejection before the Madurai Bench of the High Court, the petitioner’s counsel Shabnam Banu contended that Section 15 of the Births and Deaths Act empowers the officials to correct errors, if any, in birth and death certificates. Hence, the erroneous entry of semen donor’s name as the child’s father should be corrected immediately, she argued. The judge passed an interim order directing the Tiruchi Corporation to treat the entry of the semen donor’s name as an error and delete it forthwith.

Further, he stated the need to protect the donor’s confidentiality as disclosing his identity could lead to serious prejudice . In the final order , he recorded the civic body’s submission that a new birth certificate had been issued without the father’s name.

FROM SEPT 15

RBI directs banks to put purchaser’s name on DD

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: 13.07.2018

In a bid to curb money laundering using anonymous demand drafts (DDs), the RBI has made it mandatory to incorporate the name of the purchaser on the face of the financial instrument.

In a circular issued to all banks on Thursday, the RBI said that in order to address concerns arising out of possible misuse of anonymous DDs for money laundering, it has been decided that the name of the purchaser be incorporated on the face of DDs, pay orders, banker’s cheques and similar instruments. The order takes effect for such instruments issued on or after September 15, 2018.

Although the government has barred the use of cash in high-value transactions, tax avoiders have managed to work around this by purchasing DDs. Also, these drafts have been used by tax avoiders for purchase of benami property. Bankers say

that it is quite likely that there might be restrictions on use of third party-purchased DDs in some transactions. They say that use of banker’s cheques for payments by institutions has come down due to use of electronic fund transfers.

Although cheques are more transparent from a compliance point of view, the government often insists on DDs in tenders to ensure that only serious buyers participate. Such drafts also help in speedy realisation of funds as compared to cheques when issued from out of town. Education institutions also ask for DDs to ensure that cheques do not bounce.

According to sources, there is a big market for DDs that can be purchased without a PAN card. These are made out in the name of jewellers and the demand has increased after the government barred use of cash for purchase of jewellery.

Why you cannot think when it is too hot

Heatwaves Can Make Thinking 13% Slower: Study  TOI 13.07.2018

Heat waves can sap productivity by slowing down thinking, even in the young and healthy, a study suggests. Harvard researchers found that during a summer heat wave, students living in dorms without air conditioning consistently scored lower on daily cognitive tests over nearly a week than students in buildings with AC.

“For the first time, we’ve been able to find a detrimental effect of heat waves in young healthy adults,” said lead author Jose Guillermo Cedeno Laurent, associate director of the healthy buildings programme at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “Among that group (who had no AC) there were longer reaction times and lower accuracy compared to students who lived with air conditioning,” he said.

The researchers followed 44 undergraduate and graduate students in their late teens and early 20s for 12 consecutive days during July of 2016. Twentyfour of the students resided in buildings constructed in the 1990s that were equipped with central air conditioning, while 20 lived in low-rise brick buildings built between 1930 and 1950 with no cooling system.

The researchers designed their experiment so that the 12 days included a five-day heat wave, preceded by five days with more moderate temperatures, and followed by two days of cooler weather. Temperatures inside the building without air conditioning averaged 26.3° Celsius and ranged as high as 30.4° Celsius. Average temperatures in the air-conditioned buildings were 21.4° Celsius, ranging up to 25° Celsius.

Each morning the students took two tests of cognition on their smartphones. One test, which required them to correctly identify the colour of displayed words, measured their reaction speed and ability to concentrate and block distractions. The other test, which presented basic arithmetic problems, measured mental quickness and working memory.

During the heatwave, students in buildings with no cooling had 13.4% slower reaction times on the colour-word tests and 13.3% lower scores on the math tests, compared to those living in dorms with air conditioning. The study suggests this decrease in cognitive ability might be attributable to “an increase in thermal load” along with the combined influence of other factors associated with heat exposure including sleep loss and dehydration.

Previous research on effects of extremely hot weather has been in vulnerable populations that are at risk of dying: either the very young or the very old, the authors noted in ‘PLOS Medicine’.

“This study looks at the effects of heat in a population we all think of as generally being resilient,” said study coauthor Joe Allen, co-director of Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard school. And while much media coverage has been on people dying prematurely, “the fact is, millions are impacted by heat waves,” Allen said. “And with climate change, and the increased duration of heat waves, we’re going to see an increased impact on performance and learning.” AGENCIES



BEAT THE HEAT

Air India goes all veg for pilots by ‘mistake’, withdraws order

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:13.07.2018

Air India pilots were served another shocker recently when the airline asked flight caterers to supply only vegetarian meals for them on aircraft. The order, however, did not last long and was withdrawn immediately.

This short-lived confusion was sparked by a mail issued by the airline’s catering section on July10 that the ‘special’ meals on AI flights for pilots were to be all-veg with immediate effect. Pilot meals are meant for the flight’s co-pilot and commander.

Exactly a year back, AI had started giving all-veg meals to economy class passengers on its domestic flights as a cost-cutting measure which leads to a saving of about ₹8 crore annually. Non-veg food continues to be served on business class of domestic and all classes of AI’s international flights.

“The email asking for veg meals for pilots was sent by mistake by the catering section. It has been withdrawn,” said a senior AI official. The airline spokesman said: “It was an inadvertent typing error. Both meals (veg and non-veg) will continue to be available to pilots.”

An AI commander, however, said the now-withdrawn “veg-meals-for-pilots” order would not have meant that pilots wouldn’t have access to non-veg meals. “All airlines globally take separate meals for pilots and crew members whose flight caterer may be different from the one supplying meals for passengers. The idea is that God forbid if passenger meals lead to some issue like food poisoning, the crew is unharmed and is able to land the plane safely. How the separation of meal for crew is done is something that cannot be shared due to safety reasons,” the official said.

A number of crew meals are taken on a flight, which are both veg and non-veg. The meals designated for pilots in this separate crew meal would have been allveg as per the order. The logic: veg meal can be had by non-veg also but not viceversa.

With this order now withdrawn, the AI pilots can continue to get the meal of their choice on flights.



SHORT-LIVED CONFUSION:

The airline spokesman said it was an inadvertent typing error