Tejas Express flagged off

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MADURAI, MARCH 02, 2019 00:00 IST

Good to go:Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off the Tejas Express on Friday.A. Shaikmohideen

The luxury train will ply the Madurai-Chennai Egmore route

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off the first Tejas Express to be operated by the Southern Railway. The train will ply between Chennai Egmore and Madurai.

The inaugural train with 68 passengers on board that chugged out of Madurai railway station is the first rail service to be introduced after completion of work on the doubling of chord line railway tracks between Chennai and Madurai. Mr. Modi flagged it off from Kanniyakumari through video conference.

The rakes, with 15 swanky air-conditioned coaches, have several new features which promise a new travel experience. The train comprises one executive chair car coach with 56 seats and 12 chair car coaches with 78 seats each, and two power cars.

The seats in both the executive chair car (2+2 seating arrangement) and the chair car (2+3 seating) have plenty of boot space with reclining facility. Passengers can also use thigh support in the executive class at the push of a button. A foot rest and a dining table embedded in the arm rest are some of the luxuries on offer. Another important passenger-friendly feature is a flight-like audio-visual entertainment display system. Bottle holders, book holders and plug points for charging mobile phones are among the added features.

Smart windows with motor-operated venetian blinds sandwiched between glasses add to the aesthetics of the coaches. The coaches have a bio-vacuum system, sensor-based soap dispensers and hand driers.

Safety and security

The coaches have sliding doors which would be operated by a guard. As soon as the signal for the train to move out of the station is received, the guard will close the sliding doors of all the coaches. This would ensure safety and security of passengers. However, passengers who have the habit of getting down from the trains at platforms as soon as they halt at stations should be wary about this safety feature.

“Many tend to board trains as they start chugging out. But in this case, the doors will close before the train leaves. If there is no one to manually open them, people may end up missing the train,” said a Travelling Ticket Examiner.

The coaches are equipped with CCTVs. “The data of each camera would be stored for 30 days,” said a Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer. The coaches also have smoke detectors. “If smoke is detected, the system will raise an alarm. If the smoke is not put out, the system will shut down the train,” he added.

Passengers happy

S. Lakshmi, 71, a frequent traveller, made use of the inaugural run of Tejas Express. A retired official from the Department of Post, Ms. Lakshmi chose to travel alone from Madurai to Tiruchi, only to get a feel of the new train. “I will come back by Vaigai Express to Madurai,” she said.

Maya Suresh, 53, a music teacher at a city college, was also part of the inaugural run of the train. “My aunt used to often recall her experience travelling as part of the inaugural run of Vaigai Express decades ago. I too thought of making use of the first journey of Tejas Express. It was really comfortable,” she said after travelling up to Kodaikanal Road.

The train comprises one executive chair car coach with 56 seats, 12 chair car coaches with 78 seats each and two power cars

MKU restores flagship course after two years

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, MARCH 02, 2019 00:00 IST

The M. Sc. (Biotechnology) course was started in 1985

Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has restored the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)-funded M. Sc. (Biotechnology) course, its flagship programme, after two years.

The funding was stopped by Union government’s DBT in December 2016, mainly due to irregularities and delays in submitting mandatory utilisation certificates for the funds received for the previous three years. The university has since been trying to restore the funding.

Students for this course are admitted through an all-India entrance examination conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru University. While the DBT-funded programme is now available in 33 universities across the country, MKU was one of the first universities to be funded by the department way back in 1985.

The cancellation of funding, which was first reported by The Hindu , attracted disappointment from alumni of the programme, many of whom are now spread across the globe and involved in cutting-edge research.

D. Ganesh, the present coordinator of the course, said that the DBT team visited the university thrice in the meanwhile to ensure that it had adequate infrastructure and other facilities.

“It was impressed with the facilities. Other shortfalls were also rectified, following which DBT Expert Committee decided to restore funding for the course,” he said. Pointing that JNU had already initiated the process for conducting entrance examination for 2019-10, he said that students would be allocated to MKU after the examination. Thirty seats that existed before the cancellation had been retained, he added.

Highlighting that the flagship programme brought laurels to the university through the distinguished alumni spread across the world, Vice-Chancellor M. Krishnan appreciated all the faculty members who played a crucial role in restoring the funding.

“The programme will help in producing quality research scholars in the area of biotechnology and also make the School of Biological Sciences self-supportive through continuous support from DBT,” he said.

HC comes down hard on Collector for not obeying orders

Legal Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH 02, 2019 00:00 IST

She did not evict encroachers from public land

The Madras High Court on Friday came down heavily on Namakkal Collector M. Asia Mariam for not having evicted encroachers from a public land despite a specific direction issued by the court and instead having passed an order deciding to regularise the encroachments in accordance with a government order.

A Division Bench of Justices M. Venugopal and S. Vaidyanathan said: “This court is really shocked to observe as to how such an order can be passed by the District Collector, despite issuance of specific direction to the respondents for removal of encroachments by this Court and the act of the 1st respondent / District Collector is highly condemnable.”

“She must be taught about court proceedings as she is smart enough to act as an appellate authority of this court. Moreover, this contempt petition has been mainly filed pursuant to an utterly and palpable incorrect statement made before this court on March 1 by A.N. Thambidurai, learned Special Government Pleader, who appeared for the respondents on that date,” the Bench added.

‘True in letter and spirit’

“Similarly, the proceedings of the Collector are nothing but not obeying the orders of this court in true letter and spirit,” the Bench said.

The judges were highly disturbed over a specific line in the Collector’s order where she had said: “It is ordered that at present there is no necessity to remove the encroachments since it had been decided to regularise them.”

However, after a Government counsel informed the court that he would instruct the Collector to withdraw her order and file an affidavit to that effect in the court, the judges adjourned the hearing on the contempt of court petition to March 4.

They adjourned the hearing with a rider that the Collector should be present in court on that day if her order was not withdrawn by then.

The court is really shocked to observe as to how such an order can be passed by the District Collector

Vandalur flyover by April-end

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, MARCH 02, 2019 00:00 IST

Construction work on the flyover in progress.M. KarunakaranM_Karunakaran

New traffic signal planned to facilitate completion of project

A new traffic signal will be installed at the junction of Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road and GST Road. This is to facilitate completion of work on the two deck slabs of the Rs. 55-crore flyover at Vandalur.

The Highways Department has fixed April end as target for the completion of this work that began in September 2016. On completion, the six-lane flyover — 711m long — would allow vehicles to drive over the Vandalur junction.

“The contractor has time till June-end. But we have planned it in such a manner that the work will be over before that. Though the earlier plan was to finish it by the end of last year, the work has taken more time due to labour issues, non-availability of sand, and an increase in cement prices. Labourers are from north and had gone home for over a month, delaying the work. But we are compensating for that delay,” explained an official source in the department.

The new traffic signal would allow vehicles towards Chennai from Kelambakkam to take a right turn beneath the flyover. At present, motorists are taking a left and then a ‘U’ turn to travel towards Chennai.

Traffic diversion

“When we get this traffic diversion in place, we would take up work on construction of the flyover’s ramp, the panels on the sides and retaining wall. We have arranged flyash from the Ennore thermal power station for the filling,” explained an engineer associated with the project.

Vandalur resident R. Pandian said that each time motorists had to wait for a minimum of 10 minutes during rush hour at the signal. “The work has been going on at a snail’s pace. If the project is expedited and is completed on time, it would come as a relief to motorists,” he said.

The work has taken more time due to labour issues, non-availability of sand, and an increase in cement prices

Official

Duplications spotted in organ wait lists

Serena Josephine M.

CHENNAI, MARCH 02, 2019 00:00 IST

Transtan to identify such multiple registrationsfor kidney, liver transplants

Nearly 200 patients waiting for kidney and liver transplantations in the State have registered with more than one hospital. The Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan) has now taken up an exercise to identify such multiple registrations that have led to the creation of a long waiting list, thereby slowing down the process for many patients waiting for organs.

At least 180 patients on the active waiting list for kidneys and 20 patients on the active waiting list for liver have registered with more than one hospital. For instance, one of them has registered with nine hospitals, while another has registered with four.

They also found that almost 900 patients on the inactive waiting lists for both organs would have to be removed as they were either dead, had undergone transplant, were not on follow-up or were unwilling for transplant. This was because hospitals did not update the lists, officials said.

When a patient with end-stage organ failure registers for transplant under the deceased donor programme at the hospital where he/she is undergoing treatment, a unique identification number (UID) is issued. They pay Rs. 1,000 for the registration. Hospitals are bound to take an undertaking from patients that they are not registered elsewhere.

Switching hospitals

If a patient chooses to move to another hospital while waiting on the list, he/she should submit a letter to Transtan along with a letter from the consultant at the new hospital expressing willingness to take over. When the transfer is processed, the UID, along with seniority is maintained, and the hospital where the patient was initially registered is notified to remove the name from the list as per rules of Transtan.

However, this was not the case with many patients. “Knowingly or unknowingly, nearly 200 of them have registered with many hospitals. These entries were done by misspelling their names, dropping surnames or initials, entering different dates of birth or minor changes in addresses,” said R. Kanthimathy, member-secretary of Transtan.

It was a random check that led Transtan staff to the duplications in the kidney and liver waiting lists. The transplant authority has now taken up an exercise to identify patients with multiple registrations on the waiting lists. They are doing a blood group-wise filtering of patients to pick up duplications.

“We are halfway through this exercise to streamline the waiting list. We are calling up patients to verify their registrations. Some of them are aware that they are registered with several hospitals, while others are not. We have always insisted that hospitals update their waiting lists every month,” she said.

Dr. Kanthimathy said they had taken a hospital-wise list and were in the process of intimating hospitals to delete such cases. “We have started sending emails to hospitals. They should delete multiple registrations, remove names of patients who died while on the wait list and those who have undergone transplantations,” she added.

She said multiple registrations would only make the waiting list longer. “The list will not move if this is the case. Patients will not benefit from multiple registrations and they have to understand this,” she added. For queries regarding their registrations, patients can call Transtan office at 044-25333676.

Physically active lifestyle reduces colon cancer growth: Study

02.03.2019

A new study has found that after a short session of high intensity interval training (HIIT), growth of colon cancer cells was reduced, and this also increased indicators of inflammation.

For a long time, the focus on exercise has been on the positive changes in the body that occur following a longer period of training. However, these findings suggest that the effects following a single session of HIIT, an exercise regime involving short, high energy bursts are also important.

According to the study, the changes following HIIT suggest that repeated exposure to the acute effects of exercise may contribute to the fight against the cancer. These results reinforce the importance of doing regular exercise and maintaining a physically active lifestyle. The study involved colorectal cancer survivors completing either a single session of HIIT or 12 sessions over 4 weeks.

Speaking about the study, James Devin, lead author said, “We have shown that exercise may play a role in inhibiting the growth of colon cancer cells. After an acute bout of HIIT, there were specific increases in inflammation immediately after exercise, which are hypothesised to be involved in reducing the number of cancer cells.” According to researchers, this suggests that a physically active lifestyle may be important in tackling human colorectal tumours.

— ANI

Pregnancy is no reason to defer physical test for job: HC

Debashish.Karmakar@timesgroup.com

Patna:02.03.2019

In a significant decision, Patna high court on Friday ruled that pregnancy cannot be cited as reason to defer the physical evaluation test (PET) of a candidate for recruitment since, the bench of Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Anjana Mishra said, right to motherhood and right to public employment were two separate issues.

The bench allowed the plea by Central Selection Board of Constable (CSBC) against a single-bench judgment which had directed it to defer PET of six petitioners, who were in an advanced stage of pregnancy on the test date on January 1, 2017. The petitioners were among applicants to 2,649 posts of jail wardens advertised by CSBC on July 31, 2015. The written test was held after 13 months. The bench on August 3, 2017, had directed the selection board to draw up a fresh date for the petitioners’ physical evaluation. The single bench observed that while publishing the advertisement, CSBC had not fixed the examination dates and termed it “insensitive” to force the petitioners to choose between motherhood and career.