Hope appropriate appointment is given to para-athlete, says high court

Madurai:06.04.2019

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has expressed hope that the district administration will give an appropriate appointment to the multiple medal winning para-athlete who was relieved of his night watchman job in a government department on a frivolous charge.

In March, a division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and S Ramathilagam had observed that it is disheartening that an athlete who has won so many medals is being treated in such a way and wondered why he was given only a watchman’s post.

When the petition came up for hearing again on Friday, the authorities concerned were not ready with the counter after which the court adjourned the hearing to April 15. The authorities are expected to respond to the queries raised by the court and file a status on the para athlete’s appointment by then. A Gopikannan Gopikannan, 36, of Madurai, in his petition stated that he has so far bagged 41 gold, 19 silver and 17 bronze medals in events up to international level.

In 2003, he was appointed as watchman of District Rural Development Authority. For this job, he had swept clean the backyard of secretariat wearing all medals and trophies to attract the attention of the chief minister’s special cell.

Gopikannan said he was issued employee identity card by the rural development department of Madurai district with the state government emblem. TNN

2 men snatch 23-year-old’s cellphone, stab him to death

Chennai:05.04.2019

A 23-year-old man was stabbed to death while resisting two cellphone snatchers in Shankar Nagar on Wednesday night.

The deceased, Raja Kanna of Mayiladuthurai, had come to the city in search of jobs 20 days ago. He was staying in a rented house in Pozhichallur and had started working at a food stall near Polichalur bus stop.

Around 11.30pm on Wednesday, two men on a two-wheeler intercepted him in Ponurangam Nagar and threatened him with a knife. When they realized he didn’t have any money, they tried to snatch his cellphone. When Raja tried to fight them, they attacked him with a knife. Raja was taken to the hospital where he died of his injuries on Friday. Shankar Nagar police have registered a case. TNN

50k hosps, clinics yet to register with state

Directorate Has Received 18k Applications

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:05.04.2019

At least 50,000 clinical establishments, including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, laboratories and scan centres may have to close down if they fail to apply for registration with the state health department under the Tamil Nadu Clinical Establishments Act, 2018 before May 31, the directorate of medical services has said.

Until Friday, the directorate had received just 18,000 applications from various establishments against the expected 75,000.

In March 2018, the state framed a legislation making it mandatory for all clinical establishments — public or private — to register themselves with the government. “The deadline for registration ended on March 31. As per the Act, from June 31, we can initiate action or close down those establishments which have not applied for registration. They still have some grace period left to register themselves,” said director of medical services Dr N Rukmini.

The directorate has a software that centralizes the whole process and enables online registration. Joint directors of medical services in the districts have also collected hand-filled applications along with a demand draft towards registration. The joint directors will inspect these establishments to ensure they fulfil the infrastructure and human resource requirements as specified in the Act. If the hospitals qualify, they will be given a licence for five years.

The new rules, health department officials say, were brought in to standardize establishments under the allopathic or Indian medicine stream. It specifies the floor space requirement, waiting area, safe drinking water supply and toilets. While doctors’ bodies such as the Indian Medical Association have welcomed the move, associations of Unani practitioners and diagnostic laboratories associations have moved court seeking exemptions or relaxations in the norms. “There are several single room labs in the state in many rural areas. They have not applied yet because they may not fulfil the requirement,” said Doctors Association for Social Equality (Dase) general secretary Dr G R Ravindranath.

The legislation mandates clinical laboratories in rural areas to have at least 500 sqft for sample collection, first aid, processing and report presentation. In the urban area, space should be 700 sqft to 1,500 sqft. The lab should ensure that adequate space is provided for reception, sample collection, isolation of biohazard, radioisotope-related work as per Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) rules.

The labs’ association have moved court seeking exemption. “The overheads will go through the roof if we are made to follow the rules. Eventually, we will have to bill patients more. In rural areas, people will not be able to pay so much and we will go out of business,” said Karthirvel R, who runs a lab in Nagercoil. “We hope rules are relaxed for us,” he said.

Man murders friend, posts pic on WhatsApp

Sindhu.kannan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:06.04.2019

A32-year-old man,who allegedly murdered a man in a drunken brawl and shared the photograph of the body on a WhatsApp group boasting of the act,was pickedup in Puducherry on Friday. A search is on for four others.

On Thursday, the Nandambakkam police received a message through Whatsapp saying a man could be have been murdered and buried in bushes at Army quarters in the Cantonment area. A team arrived and, in the presence of the tahsildar, dug up the body.

Residents told police many used the vacant plottosmoke ganja andbooze,buton Wednesday night they found a few going into bushes with shovels. Police identified the body identified it as that of Nandambakkam resident Subesh, 37, a history sheeter facing a murder case and several burglary cases. Investigations revealed that Subesh and his five friends went into the bushes to drink. Due to previous enmity over a love affair, his associates plotted to murder him. Anandan and Karthik hit Subesh with empty beer bottles and murdered him. Anandan then took a picture of the body and shared it on a WhatsApp group.

‘Removal of bogus staff caused dip in numbers’

06.04.2019

AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe told TOI that if sacked faculty members send him detailed complaints, he will look into the matter.

Relaxation in teacherstudent ratio cost 22,000 engineering faculty jobs in TN. How do you see this?

You should count the bogus faculty members shown in the earlier years. When the teacher-student ratio was 1:15, many colleges were not even maintaining a ratio of 1:30. Same faculty were shown in five different institutions. After linking Aadhaar number to PAN card, fake faculty members were removed. So the actual removal of faculty members is very, very little.

Colleges have submitted that they had more than 85,000 faculty members?

Due to poor admissions, some engineering disciplines were discontinued. Engineering colleges also cannot take the burden of all these faculty members. I am not saying there are no job cuts. But we have not received any such complaints.

Will AICTE act against colleges for sacking teachers?

Wherever we received specific complaints, we have taken action against managements. If the sacked faculty members come out with the name of the college and details, AICTE will look into it.

New I-T return forms seek more data from taxpayers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:06.04.2019

The government released on Friday new income tax return forms, which seek more disclosures from those who claim exemption on a large agricultural income, directors on the boards of companies, individuals with foreign assets or bank accounts as well as those holding shares in unlisted companies.

In a major change, the facility of filing paper returns will now be available only to those over 80 years. The government has said that ITR-1 or the Sahaj form will have to be filed by resident individuals with a total income of up to ₹50 lakh from salary or pension, one house property, other sources such as interest income, and agricultural income up to ₹5,000. Individuals are required to file their returns for FY2018-19 by July 31.

For the salaried, details of some of the allowances, such as house rent, leave travel, per diem, children’s education and relocation, too, will need to be shared. Earlier the tax authorities had sought details of taxable allowances but now there is a switch to exempt allowances.

“Several changes have been introduced to seek further details for cross-validation of income/information in an enhanced automated environment. This not only promises more efficiency for the government but also less questioning from tax authorities seeking further details while processing the returns. It will also help to check income escaping cases,” said Kuldip Kumar, partner at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

₹60k cr direct tax shortfall in FY19

The Centre is expected to close 2018-19 with a ₹60,000 crore shortfall in direct tax collections with a ₹11.38 lakh crore mop-up (till Friday), compared to the revised target of ₹12 lakh crore. Only savings on the spending side can help the Centre meet its fiscal deficit target.P 17

KEEPING TAB
Additional info to help I-T dept check on non-resident tax payers

For instance, additional details need to be provided in case agricultural income exceeds ₹5 lakh, which will include the district with pin code where the land is owned, the measurement of land and irrigation details. Those with overseas assets will need to provide details of foreign depository account, foreign custodian accounts, equity and debt interest and particulars of overseas cash value insurance contract or annuity contract.

“Taxpayers need to be very careful this time and will need to collate additional details/reporting requirements well in advance this year, in order to be able to fulfil the reporting requirements prescribed in new ITR forms. We also expect greater automated scrutiny of ITRs, based on extensive data/details required and furnished in ITRs,” said Shailesh   Kumar, director at Nangia Advisors.

The tax department has also sought details from those who are nonresidents. “The tax return forms have clearly tried to bring more transparency through disclosures for globally mobile employees who avail of relief under tax treaty. Details of residence in foreign countries, along with tax identification number, additional disclosure of assets held outside India, basis of determination of residential status in India and availability of tax residency certificate from foreign countries are some of the additional details which would be required to be quoted in the return of income,” said Amarpal Chadha, partner at EY India.

This will help the government check if non-residents such as software professionals working overseas are paying taxes as information will now be available under the automatic information exchange protocol, explained PwC’s Kuldip Kumar.

Also, a break-up of cash and noncash donations made will need to be provided in case you want to claim tax benefits for contributions made under the PM Relief Fund or to an eligible blind school.

Chennai’s 'Richie Rich' candidate declares 'Rs 1.76 lakh crore' assets 

PTI

Published Apr 4, 2019, 12:53 pm IST

If taken at face value, Jebamani Janata party's J Mohanraj would have been the richest candidate in the entire country.


 
The affidavit, a copy of which has been uploaded in the Election Commission's website, was filed by Jebamani Janata party's J Mohanraj, a retired police inspector, along with his nomination for the by election on April 18. (Photo: Facebook)

Chennai: "Cash on hand Rs 1.76 lakh crore and debt of Rs four lakh crore" may sound outlandish, but the deliberate false declaration was made in his affidavit by a candidate for the by-election to the Perambur assembly segment in Tamil Nadu.

The figures, which sarcastically refer to the notional value of 2G spectrum scam and the debt burden of the Tamil Nadu government, were mentioned by the son of a freedom fighter in a bid to expose chinks in the Election Commission's screening process of the mandatory declaration.

The affidavit, a copy of which has been uploaded in the Election Commission's website, was filed by Jebamani Janata party's J Mohanraj, a retired police inspector, along with his nomination for the by election on April 18.

If taken at face value, he would have been the richest candidate in the entire country.

Asked why he made the false declaration, Mohanraj, son of freedom fighter Jebamani, alleged that the 2G Spectrum case was not properly probed and it was his attempt to draw the attention to this aspect.

On the Rs 4 lakh crore debt he declared he owed to the World Bank in the "dues" column, the 67-year old retired police inspector told PTI it was a pointer to the Tamil Nadu government's "administrative inefficiency," which resulted in a huge debt burden to the tune of about Rs 4 lakh crore.

In the 2019-20 budget, the Tamil Nadu government had said the outstanding debt by the end of March 2020 will be Rs 3,97,495.96 crore.

Mohanraj, who had declared Rs 1,977 crore as his deposits in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections when he filed his papers to contest from south Chennai, said he chose to present a fake declaration for one more purpose.

"You can declare whatever you want in the affidavit. The Election Commission will do nothing," he claimed and demanded that false declarations be made a criminal offence. Asked if action was taken against him for making such a declaration in 2009, he said, "I did not even get a notice."

He claimed that making false declarations was a criminal offence and it was made a civil matter only on April 26, 2014.

"This was done to protect a political bigwig who had concealed information about his assets while filing nomination from a Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu," he claimed.

An official had come out in the open about the bigwig and "it is in the public domain," he said.

Mohanraj said he was tired of writing to several authorities, including the Election Commission, seeking to make false declarations a criminal offence. "This (by making a false declaration to draw attention) is my way of working for the betterment of the nation," he said.

Mohanraj took voluntary retirement from the police department and said he did not mention that he owned a house in the declaration.

The only truth about his declaration was that his spouse had 13 sovereigns gold worth about Rs 2.50 lakh and Rs 20,000 cash on hand. "I mentioned Rs 3 lakh as jewel loan. But these jewels were auctioned."