DREGS OF A TANK

RUNNING DRY: Reflecting the looming water scarcity in the city, a duck struggles to quench its thirst at an almost dry Kapaleeswarar temple tank in Mylapore on Saturday. Peak summer is still away but the levels of lakes are significantly low as compared to last year. The combined storage at the Poondi, Cholavaram and Red Hills reservoirs is 632mcft now. It was 3,279mcft water last April

As pilots fail to turn up, flyers wait inside aircraft for two hours

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:07.04.2019

Passengers of a Chennai-Delhi Indigo flight (6E 2976) had a tough time after they were forced to remain inside the parked aircraft for about two hours as the pilots failed to turn up on time on Saturday morning.

As the airline staff struggled to arrange an alternative, the cabin crew offered snacks and beverages to the passengers.

The flight, which was scheduled to depart at 6.30am, finally took off at 8am. Passengers boarded the flight at 6am via shuttle buses. “There was an update about 30 minutes after the flight was supposed to take off that there was going to be a delay due to operational reasons,” said Ankita Bose, a passenger.

On further questioning, the crew said the pilot wasn’t unavailable and then that he was at the international terminal going through customs. Passengers began to get agitated as there was no clarity about the reason or how long they would have to wait, she said. The air conditioning worked intermittently and a few passengers complained of stuffiness.

A statement from Indi-Go said, “Due to operational reasons, an alternative crew was required to be arranged to operate this flight. This caused a delay of one hour and 36 minutes. Our crew kept the passengers informed of the delay. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers.” An airport official said, “In such situations, airlines try to bring in the alternative crew as quickly as possible and operate the flight because disembarking of passengers will mean further delay and loss of take-off slot for the flight during the early morning peak hour.”

Osmania Medical College top official nabbed by ACB

By Author   TelanganaToday |

 Published: 4th Apr 2019 8:53 pm

Hyderabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested Bhukya Balaji, Head of the General Medicine Department at the Osmania Medical College (OMC) for allegedly demanding money from medical students to pass them in the semester examination.

On March 2, Balaji called some students and told them that the exam did not go well and they were at risk of failing in the examination. He asked them to meet him the next day. When students met Balaji, he took their hall tickets and their contact numbers.

On March 3 evening, Balaji called and informed students that he was taking a risk to get them passed for which he demanded Rs.50,000 from each. When the students told him that they could not afford to pay such a huge amount, Balaji did not agree and insisted on to pay the amount.

He forwarded a photograph of a cheque in the name of one Rathlavath Srinu’s account name through WhatsApp to students and asked them to send a screen shot of the transaction to his WhatsApp number. On the same day, students transferred an amount of Rs.75,000 to Srinu’s account through Tez/Google Pay.

Based on a complaint received from students, the ACB registered a case after due preliminary inquiry and searches were carried out at Balaji’s office in OMC in Koti and residence in DD Colony. Police said many incriminating documents showing collection of money from medical college students were seized.

Documents related to sale and purchase of properties in his name and his family members were also found, according to a press release issued by ACB. The ACB officials produced Balaji before the special court for ACB cases after which he was remanded in judicial custody.

Anyone, who is acquainted with any facts and complaints pertaining to the same case, can forward them to ACB on WhatsApp number: 79010 99398. In case of demand of bribe by any employee of medical education department, the students and public can contact ACB’s toll-free number 1064 for taking action as per law.

Fake ticket racket in STC: 3 staff suspended

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | ZAKEER HUSSAIN

Published  Apr 6, 2019, 2:25 am IST

However, officials here then quizzed the conductor on duty that day on that particular route and a careful examination of the ticket.

The conductor on that TNSTC bus route from Salem had endorsed the cash payment behind the ticket, but the passenger had reportedly not cared to collect the remaining amount on alighting at Coimbatore that day.

SALEM: An alleged racket in printing of counterfeit tickets for buses operated by the State-owned Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) has come to light in Salem division, leading to the suspension of three departmental staff working as cashiers in the Erumapalayam depot here.

Official sources said on Friday that the racket in printing fake bus tickets was detected when a passenger had come to the superintendent’s office at the new bus terminus here, showed the ticket he had purchased on board a Salem-Coimbatore bus recently. He demanded that the department return the cash owed to him as he had given a Rs 2,000 currency note for purchasing the ticket priced at Rs 101, while travelling from Avinashi to Coimbatore.

The conductor on that TNSTC bus route from Salem had endorsed the cash payment behind the ticket, but the passenger had reportedly not cared to collect the remaining amount on alighting at Coimbatore that day.

However, officials here then quizzed the conductor on duty that day on that particular route and a careful examination of the ticket revealed that it was a counterfeit bus ticket.

Further inquiries revealed that three employees in the Erumapalayam, who had been recruited for the post of conductor few years ago, had been working as cashiers in the depot for want of staff and their involvement in printing of counterfeit bus tickets was suspected.

The three staff members had allegedly colluded in printing counterfeit bus ticket books based on serial numbers from earlier printed tickets and circulating the bogus tickets, sources said, adding, pending further investigation, all the three were placed under suspension.

Insurance firm ordered to pay Rs. 1.18 crore to scientist’s kin

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

APRIL 06, 2019 00:00 IST

A court here has directed an insurance firm to pay Rs. 1.18 crore as compensation to the family of a scientist who was killed in a road accident three-and-a-half years ago.

According to prosecution, Karthik, 51, was a scientist working with Indian Space Research Organisation’s Propulsion Research Complex at Mahendragiri on Tirunelveli–Kanniyakumari border.

Fatal ride

The ISRO scientist was fatally knocked down by a speeding lorry at Vettoornimadam near here as he was proceeding to his relative’s house on his motorbike on October 24, 2015.

When the victim’s wife, seeking compensation, filed a case, Chief Judicial Magistrate Pandiarajan on Thursday directed United India Insurance to pay Rs. 1.18 crore to the family of the deceased within a month.

Medicos do a novel formation with bikes

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

THANJAVUR, APRIL 06, 2019 00:00 IST

Students of Government Medical College here formed the image of a hand with protruding index finger by using their motorcycles on the college campus on Friday as part of Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation programmes organised by the District Election Wing.

The image sought to highlight the importance of having the indelible ink on the index finger without fail on polling day.

Strong room inspected

In Tiruvarur, where a by-election to the Tiruvarur Assembly Segment is to be held along with the Parliamentary elections, Election Observer (General) for Assembly by-election Chandrakanth Dange inspected the strong room at the taluk office where the EVMs are kept.

He verified the records pertaining to the equipment and also inquired about the security cover provided at the taluk office.

Show cause notices issued to 92 poll duty personnel

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

THANJAVUR, APRIL 06, 2019 00:00 IST

Show cause notices have been served to 92 persons who failed to turn up for the first session of election duty training programme held on April 3 in Thanjavur district.

Disclosing this in a press release, District Election Officer and Collector A. Annadurai said 11,662 persons were drawn from education and other departments for poll duty and intimations were sent to them to attend the first session of the election duty training held on April 3.

However, 92 persons did not turn up at the training centres allotted to them and hence show cause notices were served on them, he added.

In the second session of training to be held on April 7, demonstration of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine would be conducted to help the polling staff to get accustomed with the functioning of the machine apart from the regular electronic voting machine components.

Necessary arrangements had been put in place for casting of votes by those deployed for polling duty on April 18 and the polling duty staff were advised to use the postal ballot facility without fail.

A total of 125 persons from Central government Offices, Central government-owned establishments and banks had been appointed as micro observers at 102 polling booths which had been identified as sensitive booths out of the 2,287 polling booths to be set up in Thanjavur district.

Tiruvarur

The second session of training for the 6,380 persons drawn for polling duty in 1,168 polling booths in Tiruvarur district would be held at the designated centres on April 7. The duty letters would be issued to them by the respective department heads, according to District Election Officer and Collector T. Anand.