IAS officer arrested for scribe’s death in accident

Inebriated Kerala officer rammed bike

04/08/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT 

,THIRUVANTHAPURAM

Sriram Venkitaraman

The Kerala police on Saturday arrested high-profile IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman on the charge of alcohol-impaired, reckless driving resulting in the death of K.M. Basheer, a journalist.

The car allegedly driven by 33-year-old Mr. Venkitaraman slammed Basheer’s motorbike in front of the Public Office Complex around 1 a.m. The victim, bureau chief at the Malayalam newspaper Siraj, was flung off his bike and killed almost instantly.

Mr. Venkitaraman was reportedly returning from a party and was accompanied by a woman friend. He was arrested from a private hospital, where the police had admitted him after the accident, and charged under Section 279 (rash driving) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC.

Nurse chases bike, nabs chain snatcher

TNN | Aug 3, 2019, 04.57 AM IST

CHENNAI: A 24-year-old nurse caught a man who tried to snatch her three-sovereign gold chain near Red Hills on Thursday night.

The woman, Vinodhini, works at a private hospital at Gandhi Nagar, Red Hills.

Police said Vinodhini was returning from the hospital at 8pm and took a deserted road to reach a bus stop. Two bike-borne men who followed her snatched her chain and phone. But Vinodhini chased the bike before it gathered speed. She pulled the pillion rider by his t-shirt and brought him down. The rider lost control of the bike and the duo fell off the vehicle. She held on to the pillion rider, who had snatched the chain, and cried out for help. Panicked, the rider sped away. Passersby bashed up the chain snatcher before handing him over to the police.

The Sholavaram police identified him as Govindarajalu, 35, from Kavangarai near Puzhal. He is a repeat offender. Police have launched a hunt for the absconding rider.

NEET coaching: Govt to hold screening test, weekly exams

TNN | Aug 4, 2019, 04.17 AM IST

CHENNAI: After drawing a blank in medical admissions, the school education department has prepared a plan to send more students to MBBS courses next year. It wants to select students for NEET coaching through a screening test and will conduct weekly tests at schools.

As per a circular issued by the directorate of school education, the screening test will be conducted on August 7. “The question paper and answer keys for the test will be sent to chief education officers. They should send the scores to the directorate by August 12,” the circular said. It further instructed conduct of weekly tests for students from government and government-aided schools on Fridays.

The department imparted NEET coaching to 19,355 students at 412 centres across the state. It gave residential coaching to the 2,700-odd students at 14 places.

An official said the screening test was not new and was conducted last year. “We have to select students for coaching classes. But if any student wants to attend coaching, we will accommodate him or her,” the official said

For the past two years, the government has provided NEET coaching in collaboration with Speed Medical Institute. As of now, the department has not tied up with any private agency. “The department has trained teachers and materials to conduct the coaching at schools,” an official said.

This NEET, 32 students trained by government-backed coaching centres scored above 300 compared to just 10 last year. The number of qualified students also increased from 1,333 last year to 2,000-plus. However, no student was able to secure a seat.

“Due to the lack of support from the school education department, many students could not get MBBS seats. We prepared speed learning app, study materials and question banks, but nothing reached them,” said Dr Vinayak Senthil, managing director, Speed Medical Institute. He said the institute incurred a loss of Rs 20 crore for NEET coaching. “Though state government allocated Rs 20 crore for it, we have not received any money. They paid Rs 1.96 crore to the internet service provider as bandwidth charges in April,” he said.

Officials said making payment to the institute was difficult since it did not come through a proper tender process. “They have not given us the desired results. Now they cannot talk about the lack of support and payment,” an official said.

New WhatsApp feature to identify ‘viral content’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:04.08.2019

Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has started rolling out a new feature that will let users identify if the message they have received has been forwarded over five times. The new feature, available both on Android and iOS, had been in the pipeline for over a year.

“We’ve recently introduced an update to our forwarded message label that helps people identify when they’ve received messages that were previously forwarded several times. These highly forwarded messages will be marked with a double arrow icon and users will receive a notice when they are forwarding such a message,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

Full report on www.toi.in

‘Need more docs & PHCs to face health challenges’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:04.08.2019

WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan cycles very often in Geneva, but in her hometown in Chennai she dreads taking her bicycle out, except on weekend mornings, she told a handful of audience, here on Saturday.

The audience comprising senior doctors, health activists and legal experts laughed, but that line summed up the panel discussion, ‘Is India’s vision on healthcare holistic?’, organized by the Chennai International Centre. Insufficient primary health care (PHC) services, scanty human resources and public health policies that don’t meet current needs are some of the challenges facing the healthcare in India, experts said.

“India is ill-prepared to take on the burden of diseases,” she said in her opening remarks. “In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the shift of burden from communicable disease to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) happened in the 1990s. In Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Odisha, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the number of deaths due to NCDs is more than 50%. Yet. many states are not prepared for the new challenge,” she said. “Countries, including Sri Lanka, Bangaldesh, Nepal and Brazil, have better longevity compared to India,” she added.

Former Union health secretary Kesav Desiraju said scarcity of human resources – doctors, nurses, mid-wives and allied health workers – across the country is affecting healthcare services. “We have fewer human resources than we need, and they are not in places where we need them most,” he said. Although more than 70,000 people pass out of medical colleges, not many join government service. “Many mid-wives aren’t able to conduct deliveries. We need innovative policies. The syllabus for nurses hasn’t changed in more than 60 years,” he said.

Health economist and researcher Shailender Swaminathan said the government should monitor outcomes of treatment in private hospitals empanelled under insurance schemes. “Many countries, including the US, monitor performances,” he said. The out-ofpocket expenditure on healthcare too hasn’t come down substantially in many states, he added.

Experts said government’s focus on healthcare should be beyond hospitals. Pointing out the Thailand health model promoting home dialysis, Dr Swaminathan said states here are outsourcing dialysis units in district hospitals to private sector. “There is growing evidence to show that this isn’t making a difference,” she said.

At the end of the session, moderated by Reach director Dr Nalini Krishnan, panellists said India should think of innovative policies such as providing healthy food through PDS system, levying tax on sugar, tobacco and alcohol for health awareness, improving data collection and research, and providing better environment for better lifestyle.

End strike or you may lose jobs, govt tells docs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:04.08.2019

As doctors of AIIMS and Safdarjung, two central government hospitals, continued to boycott work for the third consecutive day on Saturday in protest against the National Medical Commission Bill, the Union health ministry warned them of punitive action, such as suspension or even termination of service, if they didn’t report to work immediately.

Following the ministry’s direction, the two hospital administrations also issued stern memorandums to the resident doctors asking them to promptly resume work at their respective departments.

In the past three days since the protests over the Bill began, more than 1,000 routine surgeries have been postponed or cancelled across the city’s public hospitals, according to health officials. No new patient is being admitted; doctors are taking care of those already admitted and attending to emergency cases only.

“All members of Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) and student union are hereby directed to resume their duties in their respective departments with immediate effects, failing which strict disciplinary action like suspension/termination of services, vacation of hostel accommodation, etc may be taken,” AIIMS administration said in the memorandum. This was echoed by Dr Sunil Gupta, medical director at Safdarjung Hospital, in another memo random.

Patients and their families are helpless. “What is our fault in all this? I travelled with my 70-year-old father from Dilshad Garden to AIIMS at 7am on Friday because we had an appointment. But when we reached, the doctors simply told us to come on August 14,” Sanjay Paswan, a 34-year-old man, said.

UGLY SCENES: The ongoing protest by doctors outside AIIMS, New Delhi, turned violent on Saturday after a scuffle broke out between them and the cops, injuring a few of them

Athi Varadar: Autos with rate cards to help devotees

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:04.08.2019

Municipal administration minister S P Velumani on Saturday said rate cards have been displayed in autorickshaws plying around the Devaraja Perumal Temple in Kacheepuram to prevent fleecing of the huge number of devotees visiting for the Athi Varadar festival.

Apress release said the minister chaired a review meeting regarding work to provide basic amenities at the temple. So far, 44 lakh devotees have visited Athi Varadar, with weekends witnessing the highest footfalls of close to three lakh.

Briefing reporters after the meet, Velumani said the number of devotees visiting the temple town is likely to rise in the coming days. “In view of this, 11 two-wheeler parking lots with drinking water and toilet facilities have been set up at a cost of ₹35 lakh. As many as 45 small buses are being operated to ferry devotees from the temporary bus terminuses to the temple,” he said.

Noting that nearly 500 temporary toilets have been established across Kancheepuram for the convenience of visitors, he said about 25 tonnes of solid waste is being cleared on a daily basis. This is apart from the 70 tonnes of waste generated at the town. He further said about 200 lakh litres of water is being distributed at Kancheepuram town everyday.


Minister Velumani said 200 lakh litres of water was being distributed at Kancheepuram town everyday