Doctors working round the clock not paid and honoured enough: HC

A division bench of the Madras High Court has observed that the role of doctors in a society is incomparable with that of the others, but they are less honoured.

Published: 01st August 2019 04:37 AM 

Madras High Court (Photo | D Sampath Kumar, EPS)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court has observed that the role of doctors in society is incomparable with that of the others, but they are less honoured. The bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and V Parthiban made the observation while passing further interim orders on a PIL petition filed in 2017, by one AK Velan, seeking to restrain the doctors from going ahead with their agitations to protest against the alleged irregularities in the admission of candidates for PG courses.


Why are the doctors not properly paid? What is the salary paid to them? What about the pay scale of police and teachers? - were the other questions the bench asked. “Can you equate a doctor’s profession with others? Working round the clock, they should be paid more. Their lives are also at risk and there is no security for them,” the bench said, adding that they should be given preference.

Rush of devotees pushes up Kancheepuram room tariffs

Even budget hotels are quoting upwards of ₹8,000 a night

01/08/2019, SANJAY VIJAYAKUMAR,CHENNAI

About 34 lakh devotees have visited Sri Devarajaswamy temple so far.

As thousands throng the Sri Devarajaswamy temple in Kancheepuram to catch a glimpse of a fig wood idol of Varadaraja Perumal, even a stay at a budget hotel is an expensive proposition for visitors.

Online hotel booking sites show tariffs in ordinary hotels quoting upwards of ₹8,000 per night, with over 90% already booked.

According to the State government, about 34 lakh devotees have visited the temple for a darshan of the wooden idol of Varadaraja Perumal, popularly known as Athi Varadar, which is taken out of the temple tank once every 40 years and displayed for 48 days. It has been attracting devotees since July 1.

The numbers are expected to go up as the idol is moved to a standing position from Thursday.

An online hotel booking site claimed that Kancheepuram was the top choice for those looking for rooms between July 31 and August 4. “Prices might be higher than usual for the dates you've selected,” it warned.

Expensive stay

For a three-star hotel, the prices for a night’s stay ranged from ₹8,100 to ₹11,000 plus taxes on July 31. On Booking.com, The Naagaa Residency Deluxe quoted a rate of ₹11,718 plus taxes for a room and said only limited rooms were available. When contacted, an official at the hotel said bookings could be done only through online sites.

Parents protest, stall second round of medical counselling
They say a college’s prospectus listed the wrong annual fee

31/07/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The second round of the single-window counselling for admissions to medical and dental courses was stalled around 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday as sections of the aspirants’ parents protested demanding their wards be admitted to a private college.

On Tuesday, counselling began for 261 MBBS and BDS seats that were returned from the all-India quota to the State by the Directorate General of Health Services and the vacancies arising from students not joining in allotted colleges. A total of 20 seats were allotted on Tuesday.

However, parents complained that the Rajah Muthiah Medical College, a private medical institution, had in its prospectus mentioned the annual fee as ₹5.80 lakh, whereas at the counselling they were informed the fee was only ₹4 lakh. Citing this, some of them said they had not originally opted to be wait-listed for the college as the fee was high.

“Now, we hear the fee is only ₹4 lakh. I could have managed to pay it. But since we had not opted to get wait-listed during the first round of counselling, we are being denied a seat,” a parent from Namakkal, whose daughter had secured a NEET score of 468, said.

Medical Selection secretary G. Selvarajan said the private college had reduced the fee structure just two days ahead of counselling, following a Supreme Court ruling.

Though the prospectus listed the old fee, candidates who opted for the college were informed during the counselling about the change, he said.

One section of parents said had the government opted to implement the 10% Economically Weaker Section quota in medical admissions, the State would have gotten more seats.

Officials said only 1,054 of the 2,246 eligible candidates attended. Counselling for the remaining seats would be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

Siddhartha cremated in family estate

Body was recovered from Nethravati river near Mangaluru; 

thousands pay their last respects

01/08/2019, 

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,

HASSAN/MANGALURU/CHIKKAMAGALURU

Search ends: The body of V. G. Siddhartha being removed from the banks of Nethravati river near Hoigebazar on Wednesday. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTSPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Café Coffee Day founder and billionaire entrepreneur V.G. Siddhartha, whose body was traced in Nethravati river near Mangaluru 36 hours after he went missing, was on Wednesday cremated in his family’s coffee estate in Chatanahalli village in Hassan district.

His eldest son Amartya Hegde lit the funeral pyre after the last rites were performed in an atmosphere marked by quiet grief, as his mother Malavika Hegde and grandfather and former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna struggled with their emotions.

Earlier in the day, thousands of people paid their last respects to Siddhartha at Coffee Day Global Ltd, a firm owned by him in Chikkamagaluru. Siddhartha’s biggest entrepreneurial innovation, CCD, had its roots in the coffee-growing hilly districts of Chikkamagaluru and Hassan, where his father owned large estates.

Mobile phone recovered

It was in the early hours of Wednesday that the body of Siddhartha was found by a group of local fishermen in Nethravati river.

He had gone missing from the bridge across the river on Monday evening and an intensive, all-day search by a 300-strong team on Tuesday had failed to find the body. Three fishermen found it floating near the Hoigebazar area, where the river joins the Arabian Sea, at 6.30 a.m. They brought it ashore and informed the police. The police have also recovered his mobile phone.

The police are continuing investigations into the circumstances leading to his death, with a letter purportedly written by him blaming the Income Tax Department for his “succumbing to the situation”.

10% quota case for statute Bench?

Three-judge SC Bench reserves orders

01/08/2019,

KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL,NEW DELHI

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice S.A. Bobde on Wednesday reserved its orders on the question of referring a batch of petitions challenging the validity of a constitutional amendment providing 10% economic quota in government jobs and educational institutions to a Constitution Bench.

The Bench, however, refrained from staying the 103rd Constitutional Amendment of 2019 providing 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the “economically backward” in the unreserved category.

At the end of a day-long hearing, Justice Bobde clarified that the Bench would first pass orders on whether or not to refer the challenge to a Constitution Bench. Once that order is pronounced, the court would specifically hear arguments on the question of stay of the quota law. Earlier, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan made a strong pitch for referring the issue to a Constitution Bench. Mr. Dhavan argued that economic reservation violates the 50% reservation ceiling limit fixed by a nine-judge Bench in the Indra Sawhney case. Further, the 1992 judgment had barred reservation solely on economic criterion.

Responding for the government, Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal submitted that the amendments were in tune with past decisions of the Supreme Court.

Accused in student’s murder sent to juvenile home

The boy allegedly confessed to having committed the crime

01/08/2019, STAFF REPORTER,KODAIKANAL

After a 16-year-old boy was killed by his classmate on the campus of a residential school here on Monday night, the police on Wednesday arrested the suspect, who allegedly confessed to having committed the crime.

The police registered a case under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and sent the accused to a juvenile home in Salem. The school announced that it will remain closed till Monday in the light of the incident which created panic among teachers, students and parents. Inquiries revealed that there were some simmering petty issues between the two boys. In the recent past, the school had taken disciplinary action against the accused.

A post-mortem was conducted on the body of the victim at the Kodaikanal Government Hospital. “On Monday night, the accused allegedly attacked the victim on the head with a wooden stump, due to which the victim suffered a fracture in the skull. He also stabbed the victim on the neck with a pair of scissors, but that injury does not seem fatal. Though the post-mortem report is awaited, the cause of death seems to be internal bleeding caused by the skull fracture,” said a senior police officer monitoring the probe.

‘Counselling is key’

“Such events in a boarding school can be averted by providing psychological counselling to students who have problems. The school had identified that the (accused) boy had certain behavioural problems and had taken disciplinary steps, but had the school also recommended psychological counselling for him, he would not have committed a murder,” said Dheep, founder of TOPKIDS, Holistic Personality Development & Counselling Centre, Madurai.

“Counselling is important for adolescents, especially if they are found to have anger-related issues, which could be a result of emotional distress. The boy who has been remanded in a juvenile home should be given counselling. An inquiry by psychologists should be conducted before the commencement of a judicial inquiry. Though theoretically it is a norm for juvenile homes, how effectively it is followed remains a question. Most people come out as hardened persons rather than reformed individuals from juvenile homes,” he added.

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