After 19 years, Chennai-Kollam regular train service to resume from Monday
The new daily train is to be operated from Chennai Egmore to Kollam Junction via Madurai, Virudhunagar and Sengottai on chord line, according to official railway documents.

Published: 03rd March 2019 03:55 AM |

Image used for representational purpose.

By B Anbuselvan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Nearly 19 years after the withdrawal of the daily train between Chennai and Kollam in metre-gauge line, the regular train service in one of the oldest routes in South India, is set to resume from Monday.

The new daily train is to be operated from Chennai Egmore to Kollam Junction via Madurai, Virudhunagar and Sengottai on chord line, according to official railway documents. With this, the Chennai - Sengottai section will have two daily trains and one tri-weekly train.

The inaugural special will be flagged from Egmore station at 3.15 pm on Monday and the regular services will commence from the next day.


The regular train will leave Chennai Egmore at 5 pm and reach Kollam at 8.45 am on the next day. Similarly, in the return direction, the train will leave Kollam at 11.45 am and reach Egmore at 3.30 am the next day.

The Madras - Quilon Mail, which started running in 1904, was one of the oldest trains in Indian Railways.In order to transport spices and condiments including black pepper, cashew, cloves and cardamom from the capital of erstwhile Travencore State, Quilon to Madras, the South Indian Railway Company had opened the Quilon - Sengottai line in 1902. This was the first line in Travencore State.

Subsequent to the completion of Madurai - Virudhunagar - Sengottai meter gauge line by the British government, the Quilon - Madras mail was flagged off by Travencore Maharajah Mulam Thirunal Rama Varma in 1904. The train then extended till Thiruvananthapuram in 1918.

The Quilon Mail was one of the oldest metre-gauge trains run with first class and air- conditioned coaches. After serving the rail passengers for more than 70 years, the train got short terminated at Kollam in 1979 for gauge conversion works in Kollam - Thiruvananthapuram section.

“In 1979, when Thiruvananthapuram division was created, Madurai division officials strongly objected to transfer the Virudhunagar - Kollam section to the former as the Madurai - Kollam section was one of the high revenue generating sections in Southern Railway,” recalled official railway sources.

In 1996, during gauge conversion works between Virudhunagar and Madurai, the Quilon Mail was diverted via Virudhunagar and Manamadurai. Later, the service discontinued in 2000 for gauge conversion works.

Official sources said the new line would create a third rail route between Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, reducing the travel time by 100 km.

Presently, superfast trains from Chennai Central, reach Thiruvananthapuram via Coimbatore, Kottayam, Chenganur and Kollam, covering 922 km in 16 hours ten minutes.

“The travel distance between Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram via Kollam would be 825 km. It will serve as an alternative line of Chennai Egmore - Thiruvananthapuram via Madurai, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil, (795 km),” said official sources.

Madras High Court transfers fake UGC office scam probe to CB-CID

The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court transferred the investigation into the fake University Grants Commission (UGC) office scam to CB-CID.

Published: 03rd March 2019 06:06 AM |


Madras High Court (File Photo | EPS)

By Express News Service

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court transferred the investigation into the fake University Grants Commission (UGC) office scam to CB-CID.Justice N Seshasayee passed the order by allowing a petition filed by one S Sakthivel, a retired Selection Grade Senior Assistant in Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) who is one of the victims of the scam.

According to Sakthivel, three persons - R Sathiyaseelan, J Stephen Raj and V Edwin Vinothkumar - ran a fake UGC CRAI (Centre for Research and Innovation) regional office in Madurai and defrauded him and several others of lakhs of money in the pretext of providing employment.

It is the case of the petitioner that the three persons collected `9 lakh from him and after conducting written examination and interview, they appointed his son as Additional Administrative Supervisor in the ‘fake’ office. As his son died before he could join duty, the accused offered the job to her daughter, who was equally qualified, and she worked in the office from November 5, 2017.

The SS Colony police raided the office on September 19, 2018 and upon detailed inquiry it was found that the accused were running such centres in other districts as well and had been cheating people of several crores of rupees.


The petitioner further submitted that the accused at the time of collecting money from him had produced very convincing evidences such as certificates and imitating the logo, signature of UGC authorities among others.

Even the staff, including his daughter, who worked in the fake office were unaware of the scam, he stated and prayed the Court to transfer the case to CB-CID Special wing and to expedite the investigation.

Hearing the same, the Judge directed the Inspector of Police of Central Crime Branch, Madurai to handover the case files to CB-CID in two weeks.

Exam, interview

It is the case of the petitioner that the three persons collected Rs 9 lakh from him and after conducting exam and interview, they appointed his son as Additional Administrative Supervisor in the ‘fake’ office

Non-teaching staff of MKU shifted en masse

Pon Vasanth B.A

MADURAI, MARCH 03, 2019 00:00 IST

The major reshuffle follows allegations of corruption and irregularities in several departments

The Madurai Kamaraj University administration has transferred a large number of its non-teaching staff within different departments (sections) of the university in what is seen by the staff as a major reshuffle done after a gap of many years.

The move follows long-pending allegations of corruption and irregularities in some departments, for which the same set of personnel serving in those departments for long years was cited as a primary reason. According to university sources, at least 130 staff, including about 50 regular staff and other temporary workers in the casual labour (CLR) and consolidated pay casual labour (CPCLR) categories, were transferred on Friday.

The entire non-teaching staff from the Research section and the office of the Additional Controller of Examinations (ACE) in the Directorate of Distance Education (DDE), from where maximum number of complaints were reported in the past, have been transferred to other departments.

It can be noted that the university’s Syndicate, in its last meeting, passed a resolution to constitute a committee to enquire into complaints reported against present Additional Controller of Examination M. Rajarajan and his office.

Reshuffle of all non-teaching staff was one of the key demands raised by Joint Action Council - Madurai Kamaraj University, a coalition of few teaching and non-teaching staff associations, to Vice-Chancellor M. Krishnan after he took charge in January.

Though a similar reshuffle was attempted when G. Arumugam, who has since retired, was acting as Registrar, it was revoked when P.P. Chellathurai, the previous VC, took charge.

The Vice-Chancellor said the mass transfer was done to clean up and to infuse new blood in all the departments.

Automation

Mr. Krishnan said a number of other initiatives were also being taken to address problems. V.S. Vasantha, Professor from School of Chemistry, has been appointed as Research Coordinator, he said.

Highlighting that inordinate delays were reported mainly in Research section, he said that steps were being taken to automate the processes. “We will soon have an online system, through which the scholars can track the status after submission of their theses,” he said.

Setting things right

Mass transfer was done to clean up and to infuse new blood in all the departments, says VC

Tamil Nadu to be the pioneer for heart valve treatments

03.03.2019

The Ministry of Health, headed by Dr C Vijayabaskar, Honourable Health Minister, presided a public awareness programme on heart valve replacements without open heart surgery, at Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital, on February 27. This was the firstof-its-kind programme in the country to inform patients on treatments.

Many patients develop heart valve disease, widely referred to as “Aortic Stenosis”. This has always been treated with open heart surgery. There have been evidences which proved that these patients can have their valve replaced without surgery — through a keyhole procedure called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI). This expensive treatment was predominantly a treatment available only in private hospitals. Tamil Nadu government is said to be the first state in the country to start these treatments in the government sector. The Government of TN has signed a contract with Dr AB Gopalamurugan, Senior Consultant, Interventional Cardiologist and Chief of Endovascular Treatments, Heart Team India.

The officials today claimed that Gopalamurugan, who introduced such treatments to the country, has performed the most number of valve replacement procedures without resorting to an open surgery.

Minister felicitating patients with Dr AB Gopalamurugan and dignitaries


Dr Gopalamurugan being felicitated by Minister C Vijayabaskar for his efforts to iniate TAVI in the state

State brings 14 of 41 constituent colleges under it
Move To Ease Fin Burden Of Govt Varsities

Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Trichy:03.03.2019

Eight months after an announcement by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, the state government has passed orders for converting 14 of the total 41 constituent arts and science colleges under the director of college education (DCE) into government colleges. These include four of the 10 constituent colleges managed by Bharathidasan University (BDU) which is the largest among state-run universities.

The conversion, which would be undertaken in three phases, is being done to ease the financial burden on staterun universities in managing these colleges. For instance, Bharathidasan University which runs 10 such colleges must spend more than ₹7 crore a year to run them. The concept of constituent colleges had emerged to meet the demand for arts and science colleges after the state government took a policy decision not to start any more government arts colleges. However, that in effect proved to be a burden for the state-run universities.

It was to relieve the universities of this burden and enable them to focus on research that the government decided to convert them into government arts colleges. The announcement in this regard was also made in the assembly by the chief minister. Earlier, it was estimated that the government would have to spend ₹152 crore every year towards these colleges. But a detailed account on the total number of staff took the total spending up to more than ₹168 crore.

Observing that conversion of these colleges at one stretch would cause huge financial burden on the state government, it has now been decided to convert them in a phased manner, the GO said. Constituent college at Lalgudi in Trichy, apart from one each in Perambalur, Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts will be converted in the first phase in the central region.

Terming the order as a relief as the matter has been pending from June last year, BDU vice-chancellor P Manisankar said they were expecting some more clarification on various aspects of the order.

ONE AT A TIME:Converting all colleges at one go would incur a huge loss and the state plans to do it in phases

Tejas can give airlines tough competition

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:03.03.2019

The railways has introduced Tejas superfast express on the Madurai - Chennai sector in an effort to bring train journey at par with air travel offering world-class facilities at premium fare. Regular commuters say the train has the potential to offer tough competition to low-cost airlines on the Trichy – Chennai sector depending on the travel time cut. However, the present travel time of six and a half hours from Chennai to Madurai falls well short of expectations, they say.

As of now Alliance Air and IndiGo operate seven services a day on the Trichy-Chennai sector. The coaches of the fully air-conditioned train equipped with modern entertainment system, modular toilets, smart windows and GPS-based passenger information system among other features were made at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai. The train has been well received in terms of its features, but not on travel time. When Vagai Express was inaugurated in 1977, it covered the same distance in 7 hours. Now it takes 40 minutes more.

According to V B Jagannath of Trichy Intra-City Development Endeavors (TIDES), Tejas would offer competition to Chennai-Trichy flights if there is a stoppage for it at Tambaram. Of course, airlines would still maintain their edge if they reduced fares. “Not sure how the patronage will be for the train as its fares are high. As the train is expected to cater to the affluent, it can easily attract air passengers. Since the Trichy-Chennai flight fares are exorbitant starting around ₹4,500 sometimes, taking Tejas should make more sense for them”, he added.

Two flights depart from Chennai at 4.55am and 5.45am everyday. Since Tejas departs at 6am from Chennai, it could have an impact on these flights, said the director of Naveen Travell, Trichy V Navaneethan. “It all depends on Tejas maintaining the right time and reducing the present travel time considerably,” said A Giri, member of DRUCC and Thanjavur District Rail Users Association.

HC relief for students of defunct med college

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 03.03.2019

In a reprieve to 144 second-year MBBS students of nowdefunct Annai Medical College, who were denied permission to write exams due to shortage of attendance, the Madras high court has ordered the Directorate of Medical Education to allow them to continue their second-year classes till March to help them achieve the mandatory 75% attendance.

Justice N Kirubakaran also ordered the directorate to permit them to attend third-year classes from April along with their batch and to write thier second-year exams in August. The students were

transferred to government-run colleges in view of a court order.

On December 22, 2017, the high court had directed the state to accommodate all the 144 students of Annai Medical College, admitted during the academic year 2016-17 in state-run medical colleges since the college was denied recognition. The court also directed the government to make arrangements to take special classes to the transferred students, so that the lost attendance could be achieved.

In view of the order, the government passed an order dated March 2, 2018, transferring all the 144 students to government-run colleges but said that as per the MCI rules, it is impermissible for those students to have clinical hours within a short span of time.

Subsequently, the government issued a circular stating that the students cannot be allowed to write the second-year exams.

Assailing the circular, the students approached the high court through a review petition.

The 144 students of Annai Medical College were transferred to govt-run colleges after a court order