Tamil Nadu: 35 government quota BDS seats, 505 management seats in self-aided colleges lie vacant

At the end of the counselling, 35 government quota BDS seats and 505 management seats in self-financing colleges remained vacant.

Published: 11th September 2018 05:36 AM |

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: At the end of the counselling, 35 government quota BDS seats and 505 management seats in self-financing colleges remained vacant.

The selection committee of the Directorate of Medical Education wound up the counselling on Monday. “It was the end of the counselling. We had called candidates with just NEET pass marks to fill the seats. But, the candidates preferred only MBBS seats. They were even ready to take NEET next year for it. So, BDS seats remained vacant. The remaining seats will be surrendered back to the colleges concerned,” said selection committee Secretary Dr G Selvarajan.

On Monday, 318 candidates attended the counselling for government quota BDS seats in self-financing colleges, and 237 seats were allotted and there were 35 vacant seats. For management quota seats, 65 candidates attended, and 64 were allotted seats and 505 seats remained vacant.

The selection committee invited applications from candidates last month for government quota seats in self-financing dental colleges and management seats after seats were not filled. The committee notification had said candidates with not less than 119 NEET marks can attend the counselling in general category and for the SC/ST/OBCs, UG NEET 2018 score should be not less than 96.The counselling to fill BDS government quota and management seats in self financing dental colleges was held from August 27 to 30.

St Thomas Mount deaths in Chennai: Railway staff may face charges
The alteration of the FIR was a fallout of the statement of witnesses, say police.

Published: 11th September 2018 05:49 AM |

Police altered the FIR in the case on Monday. | (File | EPS)

By B Anbuselvan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A few railway employees, including loco pilot, guard and station masters, who were on duty on July 24 when five passengers who travelled on the foot-board of a train were killed after hitting the concrete fence at St Thomas Mount station, are likely to be charged with causing death due to negligence.

On Monday, the Mambalam Government Railway Police inquiring into the incident have altered the first information report (FIR), invoking sections 304 (a) (causing death due to negligence not amounting to culpable homicide ), 279 (driving vehicle endangering the human life), 337 (causing hurt by act of endangering life) and 338 (causing grievous hurt to others negligently) of the Indian Penal Code. On July 24, the case was registered under IPC Section 174 (accidental death).

The alteration of the FIR was a fallout of the statement of witnesses, say police. “Many witnesses said were not warned about operating the train in fast line. We also suspect that the train may have exceeded the caution speed while entering into the platform 3 at St. Thomas Mount. So, the FIR has been altered to fix the accountability,” P K Ravi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, GRP, told Express.

On Saturday motorman Manoj Pazhavilla and guard Balaji, who were on duty in the Chennai — Tirumalpur suburban train on July 24, the day of the accident, were interrogated by the GRP. The police also recorded the statements of station masters of Guindy, St Thomas Mount and Beach stations. Railway officials have told the police that EMU trains are permitted to maintain 40 kmph speed while entering into the platform and subsequently decelerate it to zero. On July 24, the EMU was operated at the speed of 38 kmph, said police.

The police suspect that railway employees may have failed to take enough precautionary measures while diverting the train to the fast line during rush hour. “We were informed that the operational wing had to issue a mandatory warning to all staff including loco pilot, guard and station masters when they decided to run a train on fast line. We have asked the railway employees to submit the caution order issued at the Beach station,” added Ravi. The police have not named any railway employee in the FIR so far. “After an inquiry, accordingly we will fix accountability,” said the GRP police personnel.

In a nutshell:

On July 24, case registered under section 174 (accidental death) of IPC.

Mambalam GRP inquired with 35 witnesses and five railway employees.

Police suspect negligence in safety precautions and overspeed while entering into the platform at Mount station.

FIR altered, invoking section 304 (a) (causing death due to negligence), 279 (endangering the human life), 337 (causing hurt) and 338 (causing hurt negligently) of IPC.

Southern Railway says caution order issued to operate on fast line and train was at the speed of 38 kmph while entering into the platform 3 at Mount.

EMUs allowed to maintain 40 kmph while entering into platform claims Southern Railway.

Courses in paramedical sciences

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

TIRUCHI, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 00:00 IST

The Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University has approved the proposal of K.A.P. Viswanatham Government Medical College to offer eight degree courses on paramedical sciences. G. Anitha, Dean of the college told The Hindu that duration of the courses would be three years. B.Sc, Radiology and Imaging Technology, Critical Care Technology, Dialysis Technology, Operation Theatre Technology, Physician Assistants, Accident and Emergency Care Technology and Medical Lab Technology were among the courses approved by the Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University.

The intake of each course would 20 students. A total of 160 students would be admitted.

Department of Treasuries and Accounts to become paperless from November

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

TIRUCHI, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 00:00 IST

Sensitisation programme for officers on IFHRMS held

The Department of Treasuries and Accounts will become paperless from November, according to Tenkasi S. Jawahar, Principal Secretary/Commissioner of Treasury Accounts.

He was addressing a sensitisation programme for treasury officers on the Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System (IFHRMS).

He said that preparatory works on launching the IFHRMS had reached the advanced level. As per the schedule, a digitalised system for streamlining treasury operations will be launched in November. The existing system will be eased out on October 31. “The new system will completely eliminate paper based entry transactions,” he said.

Mr. Jawahar said the works on digitalising the service records of about 9 lakh government employees was almost complete. This would enable the officials to upload the payment details of employees, promotion, transfer, leave and other service details regularly. There would be no room for displacing service records.

He said the new system would simply the task of preparing pay bills. All 29,000 drawing and disbursing officers in the State could prepare the pay bill through online. They would have to submit the pay bills to the treasury office through online.

Mr. Jawahar said that the system had been encrypted with security features such as bio-metric authentication, digital signature and multiple firewall. It would drastically reduce paper work and eliminate manpower for physically carrying bills to the treasury. It would also save time and energy. Under the existing system, it takes at least six to 10 days to prepare pay bills. Under the new system, the payment would be routed through Reserve Bank of India's e-Kuber facility and settlement of bills would be done on the same day.

Collector K. Rajamani, Commissioner of Police A. Amalraj, District Judge S. Kumaraguru, Chief Conservator of Forest Yokesh Singh and senior officials participated.

Railways ordered to pay compensation to victim of rat bite on running train

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SALEM, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 00:00 IST

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the Southern Railway to pay Rs. 32,000 as compensation to a passenger who was bitten by a rat on a running train.

P. Venkatachalam of Koottathupatti village in Vazhappadi block, in his complaint to the Forum, had stated that the incident happened when he was travelling by Salem – Chennai Express on August 8, 2014. When he tried to take his bag that was under the seat, a rat bit his index finger causing pain and bleeding.

He brought it to the notice of the train ticket examiner, who told him that there was no medicine in the first-aid box. However, he promised treatment when the train reached Vridhachalam junction.

Mr. Venkatachalam approached the station master after the train reached Vridhachalam junction, but he was told that there was no medicine available in the station. He registered a complaint in the complaints register at the station.

After the receipt of complaint, the station master gave him a copy with a false endorsement as if first-aid was given to the complainant.

The station master assured Mr. Venkatachalam proper treatment at the Egmore Railway Station. But, no one took care of the complainant at the Egmore station. The complainant said that he took treatment in a private hospital in Chennai and later at the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital in Salem city.

A few days later, the complainant received a letter from the Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Salem Division, stating that proper first-aid was given to the complainant.

Venkatachalam preferred a complaint with the Forum through the Federation of Consumer Organisations-Tamil Nadu (FEDCOT), seeking compensation for the mental agony he suffered and the expenses incurred for the treatment.

The Railways in its reply stated that first-aid was given to the complainant through a Siddha doctor who was travelling in the same coach. Though he was requested to stay back at Vridhachalam station for further treatment, he preferred to continue his journey. He did not utilise the emergency medical service at Egmore, it said.

The Forum, presided by R.V. R. Deenadayalan, president, and S. Rajalakshmi, member, observed that Railways was a major establishment and it was duty bound to keep the coaches clean. It was mandatory on the part of the Railways to stock the first-aid box with emergency medicines.

Deficiency in service

The failure of the Railways to keep the coaches clean and to stock the first-aid box with emergency medicines amounted to deficiency in service.

Smile not always a sign of happiness

It Can Be For Social Reasons, To Put People At Ease Or To Show Complex Emotions

London:11.09.2018

Smiling does not necessarily indicate that a person is happy, according to a study. It is widely believed that smiling means we are happy, and it usually occurs when we are engaging with another person or group of people. Researchers from the University of Sussex show this is not always the case. Sometimes we do smile simply because we are happy, but we also smile for social reasons and to put people at ease, as well as to show more complex emotions, such as resignation.

The way people often behave during one-to-one Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) is as if they were socially engaged, researchers said. They asked 44 participants aged 18-35 to play a geography quiz game consisting of nine difficult questions so that they often got the answer wrong. Seated participants interacted with a computer alone in a room while their faces were video recorded.

After the quiz, the participants were asked to rate their subjective experience using a range of 12 emotions including ‘bored’, ‘interested’ and ‘frustrated’. Their facial expressions were computer analysed frame by frame in order to judge how much they were smiling based on a scale of 0 to 1.

“According to some researchers, a genuine smile reflects the inner state of cheerfulness or amusement,” said Harry Witchel from Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS). “However, Behavioural Ecology Theory suggests that all smiles are tools used in social interactions; that theory claims that cheerfulness is neither necessary nor sufficient for smiling,” Witchel said.

“Our study showed that in these Human-Computer Interaction experiments, smiling is not driven by happiness; it is associated with subjective engagement, which acts like a social fuel for smiling, even when socialising with a computer on your own,” he said.

The analysis broke down each of the questions into a question and answer period. Participants did not tend to smile during the period when they were trying to figure out the answers, researchers said. However, they did smile right after the computer game informed them if their answer was correct or wrong, and surprisingly, participants smiled more often when they got the answer wrong. “During these computerised quizzes, smiling was radically enhanced just after answering questions incorrectly,” Witchel added. PTI

DECODING A SMILE

Woman delivers boy on train for the second time

Ravindra.Uppar@timesgroup.com

Belagavi:11.09.2018

Yallawwa Mayur Gayakwad, 23, returning home to Raibag from Kolhapur for her third delivery, suffered labour pains mid-journey and gave birth to a baby boy on the train. The entire railway machinery got into a tizzy, organizing a makeshift ward and ensuring a safe delivery, but Yallawwa wasn’t too flustered. She had done the exact same thing a year ago.

Yallawwa lives with her husband and children in a rented house in Kolhapur. While Yallawwa works as a domestic help, her husband is a construction labourer. The couple have a girl and a boy, who was born in a running train near Hatakanagale railway station on the Maharashtra border a year ago. Expecting for the third time, Yallawwa boarded the Haripriya Express on Monday morning to return to her house in Shahu Park, 7km from Raibag town, for the delivery. Her sister-inlaw accompanied her on the less than three hours journey.

Around 9.30am, as the train neared Chinchali, about 15km from Raibag, Yallawwa developed labour pain. Sources said she was travelling in a crowded general compartment and seeing her in pain, passengers offered her a seat. But the pain intensified and Yallawwa realized it was time.

The railway staff called for the 108 ambulance to stand by at Raibag station but Yallawwa seemed ready to deliver on the running rain. The staff quickly vacated the compartment and covered it with bedsheets to create a labour room. Yallawwa’s sister-in-law and some elderly woman passengers then delivered the baby.

When the train pulled into Raibag, the ambulance staff gave first aid to mother and child and shifted them. The station master stopped the train for half an hour at Raibag, allowing for their safe transfer.

Health officer RH Rangannavar said mother and child were doing well at the Raibag taluk hospital and would be discharged in a day.

ALL IS WELL: Officials said the mother and child were doing well at the Raibag taluk hospital