200 RGUHS students to pay hefty fine for flouting rules

STAFF REPORTER

BENGALURU, DECEMBER 15, 2018 00:00 IST



The students’ results will be announced only after they pay a fine ranging between Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 5,000, said the Registrar of the university.File photo

They wrote names of gods, symbols, mantras on their answer scripts

As many as 200 students from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) will have to pay a hefty price for ignoring the rules and writing the names of gods and mantras on their answer scripts. The university has withheld their scores and will release the results only after the students pay the fine.

Prior to the exams held in October, the RGUHS had issued a circular warning students not to jot down signs, symbols, names of gods, mantras, etc. on their answer scripts. At the time, the authorities had said the new rules were necessary as there were cases where words like ‘Om’ and names of gods had been written in pre-assigned spots to help the evaluator identify the student whose answer script was to be evaluated.

Despite this, around 200 medical and allied health sciences students, who wrote the examinations in October flouted the rules. “The list of these students was submitted to the malpractice committee which met last week. It has been decided that their results will be announced after collecting a fine ranging between Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 5,000,” said M.K. Ramesh, Registrar (Evaluation) of the university.

The rules also prohibited students from writing the register number, their name, the letters ‘P.T.O.’ at the end of the pages, other irrelevant messages, any word, number, or sentence that was extraneous to the questions asked. Students were also prohibited from answering questions out of context and tampering with their booklets.

“Not all students wrote this to commit malpractice. Some students did it out of sheer carelessness. So we decided that we should fine them so that they do not have to write the same paper again,” said a professor.

Nurse jumps off third floor of hospital, dies

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NAGERCOIL, DECEMBER 15, 2018 00:00 IST

She was questioned after an inmate’s gold ornament went missing

A nurse working with a private eye hospital here allegedly jumped off the third floor of the hospital on Thursday evening, and died on Friday.

Police said N. Anisha, 20, of Viyanur in Kanniyakumari district, who was working in the eye hospital, was staying in the hostel run by the hospital. She sustained multiple injuries when she jumped off the hospital building. She was admitted to a private hospital in a critical condition and succumbed to her injuries on Friday. Nesamoni Nagar police, who sent the body to Government Kanniyakumari Medical College Hospital at Asaripallam for a post-mortem, registered a case in this connection. The police said Anisha was questioned by the hostel authorities recently after a gold ornament of another nurse went missing. Upset over this, Anisha might have taken the extreme step. Accusing the hospital administration of having driven Anisha to end her life, her relatives staged a dharna in front of the hospital for a while. The police pacified them with the assurance that a proper investigation would be conducted.

Those in distress or having suicidal tendencies could seek help and counselling by calling State’s health helpline 104 or Chennai-based Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.

MMC to get new infrastructure

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, DECEMBER 15, 2018 00:00 IST

Minister for Cooperation Sellur K. Raju performing a bhoomi puja for construction of new buildings on Madurai Medical College campus on Friday.S. JamesS_James

Foundation stone laying ceremony for construction of new buildings at a cost of Rs. 37.25 crore happened inside Madurai Medical College premises here on Friday.

S. Shanmugasundaram, Dean (in charge), Madurai Medical College and Government Rajaji Hospital, said that two buildings will be constructed on the college premises.

“One is a seven-storey building with facilities to accommodate classrooms and other infrastructure needed for six departments in the college. The other building, which will have four floors, will be residential quarters for non-teaching staff at the college,” he said. Minister for Cooperation ‘Sellur’ K. Raju and Madurai North MLA V.V. Rajan Chellappa laid the foundation stone for the buildings in the presence of Collector S. Natarajan and Dr. Shanmugasundaram.

A number of projects augments the infrastructure are underway at GRH and MMC, including an operation theatre complex supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), super-speciality block under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), and a new building to host paediatric and other departments, are underway in various stages. The projects have also faced criticism for prolonged delays in completion.

Banks asked to pay for negligence in service

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, DECEMBER 15, 2018 00:00 IST

In a case of cheque box tampering and manipulation

Madurai District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on Friday directed ICICI Bank, Madurai, and Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai, to jointly and severally compensate a complainant after it found the banks guilty of negligence in a case of cheque box tampering and manipulation.

The forum was hearing the case of T. D. Subramanian of Madurai, who was having a bank account with the ICICI Bank.

He said that he had received a cheque for Rs. 83,825 from his customer, Kumaran Textiles, Chennai, though an Indian Overseas Bank cheque.

The complainant is said to have dropped the cheque for collection with a challan dated April 2012 in the security drop box of the ICICI Bank. However, the money was not credited into his account. It was brought to his notice that the security drop box was broken open and various cheques dropped into the box were taken away by culprits.

A complaint was made to the Banking Ombudsman, RBI, Chennai, who, after conducting an inquiry, found out that the complainant’s cheque was manipulated, forged and presented through Federal Bank, Madurai, in another person’s name. The Banking Ombudsman had found ICICI Bank at fault for not safeguarding safety and security of the drop box and the Indian Overseas Bank for not properly scrutinising the cheque before payment.

The forum comprising president V. Balasundarakumar and members C. Packialakshmi and M. Maraikamalai directed both the banks to jointly and severally pay the cheque amount of Rs. 83,825, a compensation of Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 3000 as cost to the complainant.

Charges to be framed against Sasikala in FERA violation cases

R. Sivaraman

CHENNAI, DECEMBER 15, 2018 00:00 IST

As per HC order, questioning will be done via video-conferencing

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate is set to frame charges against jailed AIADMK leader Sasikala through video-conferencing in cases booked by Enforcement Directorate.

According to the prosecution, Sasikala, as chairperson-cum-director of JJTV Private Limited, had authorised the company’s managing director and her nephew V. Bhaskaran to negotiate and enter into a contract with any foreign supplier with a transponder facility for launching a Tamil satellite TV channel in the early 1990s.

In pursuit of this, payments were made to firms in U.S. and Singapore dollars for hiring transponders and uplink facilities for JJ TV without getting the permission of the Reserve Bank of India.

Sasikala and Bhaskaran were cited as accused in these cases registered in 1996 and 2001.

Last year, the trial court began the proceedings by questioning her on the charges she faced through video-conferencing facility from Parappana Agrahara prison, Bengaluru.

After transfer of the then presiding officer of the court, the case was taken by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate-II(ACMM-II) S. Malarmathi.

Procedural lapses

With the prosecution pointing out certain procedural lapses, the ACMM-II ordered the production of Sasikala before the court. Her order was challenged in the Madras High Court. The High Court found from the records that she had denied the charges, but, however her signature was not found.

It was only for this purpose, the trial court wanted to question her again on the charges so that the irregularity could be rectified.

Order set aside

The High Court set aside the order for the production of Sasikala but directed to proceed further by questioning her on the charges through video conferencing.

On Friday, counsel for Sasikala submitted the High Court order. After perusing the order, ACMM-II Ms. Malarmathi adjourned the matter for framing charges and questioning Sasikala through video-conferencing on December 20.

Govt. letter contradicts former CS

Deepu Sebastian Edmond

CHENNAI, DECEMBER 15, 2018 00:00 IST

Girija Vaidyanathan  

No separate report about Jayalalithaa’s treatment was submitted in Oct. 2016, says Girija Vaidyanathan

The Tamil Nadu government has contradicted its former Chief Secretary by telling the Commission of Inquiry looking into the death of Jayalalithaa that an October 2016 meeting of its cabinet did not discuss the treatment being provided to the former Chief Minister, who was still hospitalised.

In an October 31, 2018 letter to the Justice (Retd.) A. Arumughaswamy Commission, Chief Secretary (CS) Girija Vaidyanathan said that the cabinet meeting of October 19 only passed a resolution praying for Jayalalithaa’s speedy recovery: there was no agenda item regarding the then Chief Minister’s treatment.

Two letters

P. Rama Mohana Rao, Chief Secretary during Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation, had told the Commission on October 24 that he had prepared a note about shifting Jayalalithaa abroad and placed it before an “October-end, 2016” meeting of the State Cabinet.

Ms. Vaidyanathan’s letter was one of the two from the State government to the Commission, the other was received on October 29, 2018. They were in responses to two letters from the Commission asking a number of questions to the government.

In her second letter, the incumbent Chief Secretary also said that, even after a survey of the files of the Public and Health Department, the government was unable to find any reports by Mr. Rao to O. Panneerselvam about him signing the Apollo Hospital procedure records along with V.K. Sasikala. At the time, Mr. Panneerselvam was also handling the hospitalised Chief Minister’s portfolios.

The government has also informed the Commission that Apollo Hospitals’ Chairman Dr. Prathap C. Reddy and doctors of the Critical Care Unit “regularly, on a daily basis” briefed a group of individuals from the government. There is also an indication that these briefings took place in the mornings: all ministers who visited the hospital daily would normally attend, while senior ministers would join in at times.

Others who were briefed include: Chief Secretary, advisor to the Chief Minister Sheela Balakrishnan, available Secretaries to the Chief Minister, Health Secretary and his Minister and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambi Durai.

Ms. Vaidyanathan also informed the Commission that because of these briefings, the then-Chief Secretary did not have to submit a separate report about the health status of Jayalalithaa.

More inquiries

Tamil Nadu government's Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan on Friday told the Commission that incumbent deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam had never approached him with concerns of the treatment provided to the former Chief Minister during the two months he was himself CM after her death.

After being sworn in on the same night as Jayalalithaa's death, Mr. Panneerselvam resigned on February 5, 2017. Sources said that Mr. Radhakrishnan, had also said that — to the best of his knowledge — Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has not yet raised doubts about the nature of Jayalalithaa’s death.

The statements of the Principal Secretary (Health) about the incumbent Chief Minister and his deputy were extracted during a cross-examination by V.K. Sasikala’s lawyer N. Raja Senthoor Pandian.

The Commission has also asked Mr. Radhakrishnan to return on December 18; counsel for both Sasikala and Apollo Hospitals are to complete their cross-examination.

Mr. Radhakrishnan said that Jayalalithaa did not require to be taken abroad for treatment. He added that the former Chief Minister was provided treatment that conformed to international standards.

He said that it would have been a shame for Indian doctors if the leader was shifted abroad, as they are capable of providing the same level of care.

On Friday, the Commission also examined three servants who had been employed by Jayalalithaa. Devika, Sivayogam and Bhoomika were identified by a team led by Police Inspector Kanagasabhapathi, who has been appointed to aide the Commission.

Servants questioned

One of the three women recollected that she had seen Jayalalithaa lean on Sasikala’s shoulder at home the night of her hospitalisation. Another told the Commission that a modified elevator was put in place to welcome the former Chief Minister; her aides were preparing for Jayalalithaa to be discharged mid-December.

A source said when the Commission had asked the women if they had heard or seen a commotion at the house the night of Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation — they replied in the negative.

Jayalalithaa did not require to be taken abroad for treatment

J. Radhakrishnan

Health Secretary

RGUHS students to pay fine for flouting rules

BENGALURU, DECEMBER 15, 2018 00:00 IST

The students’ results will be announced only after they pay a fine ranging between Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 5,000, said the Registrar of the university. File photo

As many as 200 students from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences will have to pay a hefty price for ignoring the rules and writing the names of gods and mantras on their answer scripts. The university has withheld their scores and will release the results only after the students pay the fine.