Vandalur flyover nears completion, may ease traffic

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.05.2019

Traffic woes along Vandalur-Kelambakkam stretch might come down soon as the flyover constructed at the road junction is nearing completion.

The six-lane flyover, being constructed at a cost of ₹55 crore, is expected to be opened for public by July end.

On an average, more than 1.2 lakh vehicles were using this stretch along Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road. But vehicle density has almost doubled after Outer Ring Road (ORR) was opened for traffic said officials from the state highways department. Besides trucks proceeding to Chennai Port via ORR, vehicles from the major Special Economic Zones (SEZs) — Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) and Mahindra World City — converge at this road junction creating congestion every day during the peak hours.

This, with private buses, brings traffic almost to a standstill during festive season, Saturday evenings and Monday mornings.

To overcome this, a flyover was proposed at the junction in September 2016 so that heavy vehicles can use it to reach ORR directly.

Vehicles proceeding towards Chengalpet from Chennai can also avoid traffic congestion at the junction near Vandalur Zoo and Crescent college.

The approach road on north side of the flyover begins 50 metres away from ORR's approach roads. The other end is 700 metres away. The elevated portion alone is 270 metres. According to the approved design, the entire flyover is made up of nine decks. Slab between two pillars of a flyover is called a deck. Of this, seven have been completed and work is underway to construct the approach road decks on both the sides. The total width of the flyover is 23 metres and three lanes will be made available on both the sides.

As work is underway, a traffic signal was installed at the road junction recently to make things better, say local residents.

“Earlier, vehicles travelling towards Chennai from Kelambakkam would take a left and a U-turn which was available few metres away,” Murugan from Vandalur.

This interrupted vehicle flow along arterial GST flow and vehicle queue extended for a kilometres during peak hours. Now it is better, he added.


REMOVING BOTTLENECK: The six-lane flyover under construction at the Vandalur-Kelambakkam junction

Guv appoints VC for Mother Teresa varsity

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.05.2019

Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Tuesday appointed Vaidehi Vijayakumar as the vice-chancellor of Mother Teresa University in Kodaikanal. The appointment is for a period of three years.

Vaidehi Vijayakumar has more than 12 years of teaching experience at Anna University. She has also been a visiting professor in several foreign universities including Ryerson University, Canada, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

She has guided 24 PhD research scholars and presented 266 papers at international level research and academic events.

Governor Banwarilal Purohit appointing Vaidehi Vijayakumar as VC of Mother Teresa University, Kodaikanal, at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday

60% of students in Anna varsity’s marks-for-money scam are NRIs

Fraud Came To Light After Anonymous Complaints

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.05.2019

The latest marksfor-money scam at Anna University was unearthed after the authorities were alerted by anonymous complaints that students who had arrears of more than 20 papers had cleared them at one go.

The university on Tuesday suspended four professors — former additional controller of examinations (ACOE) S.Srinivasalu, and deputy controllers of examinations K. Selvamani, from the department of computer science, K.Kulothungan, from the department of information science and technology, and Pugazhendi Sugumaran C, from the electrical and electronics engineering department — for their role in the scam.

This follows an inquiry by a three-member committee headed by professor A Ramachandran from Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research that was set up to investigate the claims made in these anonymous petitions. To their shock, the committee members found that a NRI student had cleared 25 arrear papers at one go in April 2017 semester exams. In fact, more than 60% of students who got marks for money were non-resident Indians, the inquiry found.

The probe panel found discrepancies in more than 500 answer scripts of the April and November 2017 exams — the handwritings on the first page and the answer scripts did not match, the colour of tear-off slips did not match, etc..

“The answer scripts have been manipulated it all possible manner. When the committee expanded the scope of the inquiry to other suspicious cases in which students cleared many papers in one or two attempts, they found that the same pattern existed in all those papers,” an inquiry committee member told TOI.

“During the preliminary enquiry, the committee found malpractices in more than 500 answer scripts. The scam could have happened for many years. But, the answer scripts before April 2017 were disposed of by the officials involved in the scam,” he added.

After unearthing the extent of the scam, the university appointed a nine-member committee to assist the inquiry. After a detailed process, it recommended suspension of the four professors, sources said.

Some professors said there were instances of faculty members being approached to fail NRI candidates so that the scamsters could target them.

The amount was exchanged in dollars and officials from the centre for international affairs should also be probed, said some professors.

One senior professor said that due to the corrupt administration provided by one of the previous vice-chancellors, middlemen took control of the university and corrupted all the systems. “The university needs more such actions to restore normalcy,” he said.

REIMBURSEMENT DENIED

Court quashes 91 state orders rejecting insurance claims of govt employees
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.05.2019

The Madras high court has pulled up the state government for rejecting reimbursement claims of government employees and pensioners under the Tamil Nadu Government Employees Health Insurance Scheme for unjustified reasons.

Justice R Suresh Kumar quashed 91 such orders, passed by district-level committees, rejecting the claim applications on flimsy, unworthy and unsustainable grounds. The committees have been directed to reconsider the applications and order reimbursement by the insurer with 6% interest.

According to the petitioners, who are either government employees, pensioners or their kin, are covered under the compulsory government insurance scheme which is notified once in four years.

As per the terms of the present scheme, cashless treatment can be availed of by the members in the network hospitals. If the hospital is not in the network, reimbursement can be claimed. The state deducts the premium for the insurance directly from the employee’s salary account.

The petitioners had undergone treatments in various non-network hospitals across the state and their reimbursement claims were rejected by the committee prompting them to approach the court.

Many of the claims were rejected mainly on the ground that non-emergency treatment was availed through non-network hospitals which is not permissible as per the scheme condition.

Refusing to concur, Justice Suresh Kumar said, “This court wants to remind once again that courts have taken the view that it is for the medical expert to decide as to which case is an emergency one to be attended immediately and which case is not. Neither the administrators nor this court has got any expertise to decide as to whether a particular case was to be treated immediately at the given point of time or could have been postponed for some time enabling the patient to approach the network hospital and it is the matter to be solely decided only by the medical experts.”

Five floors of Billroth hosp face demolition as HC reiterates order
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.05.2019

Nearly two weeks after the Madras high court ordered at least five top floors of Billroth Hospital’s Shenoy Nagar building to be demolished, another division bench reiterated the order and refused to stay demolition.

“Merely because the hospital has submitted the application for regularisation (of the unauthorised floors), it would not preclude the authority concerned to take appropriate action against the hospital for violation of the building construction regulations, in the manner recognised by law,” said a vacation bench of Justice R M T Teekaa Raman and Justice P D Audikesavalu on Tuesday. Earlier this month, a division bench had ordered the demolition and said officials who aided illegal buildingsweretraitors.Ithas also directed the hospital not to admit any patients.

On Tuesday, however, the division bench extended the time for shifting patients up to June 15 and said demolition should starton June16under thesupervision of court-appointed amicus curiae T Mohan.

The hospital has claimed that since 2004 it had been functioning from an eight-storey building in Aminjikarai. As the fourth to eighth floors were not regularised, the hospital applied for regularisation in 2006. However, the application and subsequent appealwere rejectedfor discrepancy. Thereafter, no coercive steps were taken against the hospital. On June 22, 2017, the government passed notified rules under Section 113C of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act through which regularisation of buildings built on or before July 1, 2007, were permitted. When the plea came up for hearing, pointing out an interim order passed by the first bench of the court headed by Chief Justice V K Tahilramani directing the CMDA to process the regularisation application of the hospital but not take final decision without the leave of the court, the bench refused any relief to the hospital.

On another plea by the hospital seeking to vacate interim orders issued by a single judge of the court directing the hospitaltoceaseoperationsin theillegally constructed floors, the bench said: “We do not find any acceptable reason to vacate the directions.”

MBBS counselling to go online this year: Health min
Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.05.2019

Counselling for undergraduate medical courses, including choice selection and seat allotment, in the state will go online from the 2019-20 academic year, said health minister C Vijayabaskar on Tuesday.

The state will also get 300 more medical seats this year as the Centre has permitted Madha Medical College and Annapoorna Medical College to resume admissions after nearly three years. The two institutions will admit 150 students each, taking the number of additional MBBS seats in the state to 800 more compared to 2018. In 2019, Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University will have 24 government colleges and 16 self-financing colleges offering 3,400 seats, including 2,250 seats in government colleges. “That’s the largest in any state,” said the minister.

With regard to counselling, aspirants need not visit Chennai from different parts of the state. The state selection committee will allot students state quota seats in government and self-financing medical colleges based on their choice according to the scores secured in NEET 2019 and the 69% rule of reservation. “As this is the first year, we have made all the arrangements for online counselling at centres in all districts where students can visit and file applications and lock colleges of their choice,” Vijayabaskar said. All government medical colleges and DOTE centres will be open to students for this, he said.

The department is now testing a software, he said. Earlier this year, the state government had made applications for postgraduate graduate courses available online. “We did not do the counselling online because admission for PG [post graduate] seats is more complex. It has different courses and colleges,” said directorate of medical education Dr A Edwin Joe. “In the UG [under graduate] programme students will have to select only colleges of their choice,” he said. The online counselling is already being done by the Delhibased directorate general of health services for admission of students across the country in government medical colleges, central government institutions and in deemed universities. All states surrender 15% of their seats in government colleges for admission under the all India quota. Students from across the country compete for these seats and admission is done based on merit as per the NEET score as per the Supreme Court judgment.

Anna University suspends 4 profs for marks-for-cash scam
Ram Sundaram & Ragu Raman TNN

Chennai:29.05.2019

Anna University on Tuesday suspended four professors after an in-house inquiry found they had been running a marks-for-money scam — charging ₹25,000 to ₹1 lakh to ensure students not only passed, but scored well. The scam could have been going on for years, but officials said they had found evidence of wrongdoing only for the exams held in April and November 2017.

The professors — former additional controller of examinations (ACOE) S Srinivasalu and deputy controllers of examinations K Selvamani, from the department of computer science, K Kulothungan, from the department of information science and technology, and Pugazhendi Sugumaran C, from the electrical and electronics engineering department — are accused of helping NRI students do well by replacing their original answersheets. Staff at the ACOE tore off the original answer scripts and destroyed them. New answer scripts were then attached. In some cases, students who have got single digit scores were given up to 85 marks during revaluation, said a professor who has knowledge of the inquiry findings.

Anna University vice-chancellor M K Surappa took a tough line. “We found evidence of serious malpractices in exams and deviant academic conduct of these faculty members. The extent of corruption in this case is shocking. Such practices will not be tolerated,” said Surappa.

› More reports, P 5