A third of Vidhana Soudha Secretariat staff logs in late, blames traffic for delay

Departmental heads to consider late-coming as leave or cut commensurate amount from salaries

07/08/2019 , Special Correspondent, Bengaluru 


 
The Karnataka Government Secretariat Employees’ Association also listed traffic blockades caused by VIP/VVIP movement around the Vidhana Soudha for the delay. File Photo

After nearly one third of the secretariat staff in the Vidhana Soudha were found to be coming late to work, the secretariat employees’ association has sought relaxation of timings by 30 minutes — citing severe traffic jams caused around the Vidhana Soudha in the morning rush hour. Employees, the association claimed, are under severe stress to reach office and that is also leading to serious health complications.

Over 900 of the about 2,500 staff members were found to be late after their biometric attendance was scrutinised since January this year, they have now been issued notices to explain the delay, sources in the secretariat said. Government employees have to report to work at 10 a.m., and are given a relaxation of 10 minutes after which the biometric attendance logs them absent.

After the issue came to light during the scrutiny, department heads were given the list of such ‘absentees’ or late comers to act upon. Failure to provide a convincing reply would mean that days on which employees were late would be treated as leave or commensurate salary would be cut, a communiqué from the Chief Secretary to the departmental heads said in the last week of July. The heads were given 15 days to complete the process.

Stunned by the notices issued to the employees, a first of its kind in recent years in such big numbers, Karnataka Government Secretariat Employees’ Association has written to Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar to consider their plea in extending the swipe-in time to 10.30 a.m. from 10.10 a.m. currently. The association — reiterating its commitment to time discipline — also pointed out to traffic blockades caused by VIP/VVIP movement aroundthe Vidhana Soudha for their delay.

“We will have to answer the notices. But the association has requested the Chief Secretary to consider our plea before acting against us. While the biometric attendance time is 10 a.m., employees get a relaxation till 10.10 a.m. We have sought it to be extended to 10.30 a.m., and the mandatory 7 hours 30 minutes can be calculated from the time of swiping in,” an association office-bearer told The Hindu.

According to him, many staffers travel daily from places like Mysuru, Mandya, Ramanagaram and Tumakuru districts since they cannot sustain their families here. “Even those residing in Bengaluru are staying in far-off areas as housing is affordable there.”

Across the city, traffic movement has slowed down considerably due to various infrastructure works, the association, in its memorandum said, adding that at times, biometric machines did not work. “Considerable time is spent in entering the Vidhana Soudha owing to checking at gates, considering it is a vital installation,” the memorandum added.

However, a senior official, who travels from Mysuru daily, said, “Irrespective where you travel from, discipline has to be maintained. I come from Mysuru daily and am at office by 9.45 a.m. There are people who come from Bengaluru city at 11 a.m. ever day and also leave early. How do you discipline them? There are also cases where officers may come a little late but also leave late while logging in for over seven and a half hours. All this has to be considered in the disciplinary process.” This action was expected as employees had been warned before, he added.

Mr. Bhaskar, who is in New Delhi with Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, was not available for comment.

A BJP stalwart with Socialist roots
Hours before fatal heart attack, she had expressed happiness at removal of special status for J&K
 
07/08/2019 , Special Correspondent , NEW DELHI 




Former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj passed away here on Tuesday after suffering cardiac arrest. She was rushed to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation was administered but doctors were unable to revive her, hospital officials said. She was declared dead at 10.50 p.m.

Just a couple of hours earlier, she had expressed happiness at the removal of special status for Jammu & Kashmir, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making it possible “in her lifetime” to see the event.

Long career

Ms. Swaraj, 67, had a long career in politics. She was known for her skilled oratory and was, at 25 years, the youngest-ever Cabinet Minister in the Haryana government led by the late Devi Lal. A lawyer by training, she was part of the legal team put together by the Opposition when socialist leader George Fernandes was arrested during the Emergency. Since she and Swaraj Kaushal, who was also involved with the Socialists, were part of the legal team and had to travel to Mumbai together, their law professor and later Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand suggested that they get married, a story later recounted by her with much relish.

While she was considered a latecomer to the BJP, having started out in the socialist ranks, she held the confidence of top leaders and was chosen by the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to take on UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Bellary in 1999. While she lost that election, she won hearts, narrowed the victory margin of the Congress and provided a foothold to the BJP in that area.

She was variously Information and Broadcasting, Parliamentary Affairs and Health Minister in the Vajpayee government and also served as Delhi Chief Minister in 1998, a position she lost to Sheila Dikshit who also passed away recently.

Ms. Swaraj and Ms. Gandhi tangled again in 2004, after the UPA came to power, with the former threatening to shave her head and live on berries if the latter became PM. As the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha between 2009 and 2014, however, the two did repair their relationship.

Ms. Swaraj was seen as part of the old guard of the BJP but fit in well as a responsive Minister for External Affairs, who nevertheless ceded the limelight to Prime Minister Modi in foreign policy.

A kidney transplant some years ago saw her opt out of electoral politics, and later from the Cabinet formed by Mr. Modi in his second term.

Petition filed in SC against Centre’s notification on J&K
Advocate says the move was unconstitutional and illegal 

07/08/2019 , Legal Correspondent, NEW DELHI 



A writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging the August 5 notification of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order of 2019, which amends Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and scraps its 65-year-old predecessor — The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order of May 14, 1954 — as unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary.

The petition filed by advocate M.L. Sharma is likely to be mentioned before Justice N.V. Ramana on Wednesday. The Chief Justice of India and Justice S.A. Bobde, the second senior most judge, are sitting in a Constitution Bench in the Ayodhya title suit appeals. Justice Ramana is ranked third in seniority.

Mr. Sharma said his petition refers to how the political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir were detained/arrested before the issuance of the August 5 notification. There was no meaningful legislative or representative debate, he submitted.

By junking the 1954 Order, the notification takes away the special rights and privileges enjoyed by the residents of Kashmir. It has effectively allowed the entire provisions of the Constitution, with all its amendments, exceptions and modifications, to apply to the area of Jammu and Kashmir, the petitioner contended. The 2019 notification superseded the 1954 Order and declared that “all the provisions of the Constitution, as amended from time to time, shall apply in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir”.

The August 5 notification has been issued under Article 370 of the Constitution. In short, the government employed Article 370, which had once protected the 1954 Order giving special rights to the people of J&K, to scrap the more than 60-year-old Order. The government justified the notification by saying that it closes the “chasm” between residents of J&K and citizens of other parts of the country.

The August 5 notification tided over the obstacle of a non-existent ‘Constituent Assembly’ by amending the expression in the proviso to ‘Legislative Assembly’. An amendment in Article 370 should have undergone the constitutional amendment procedure envisaged under Article 368 of the Constitution, the petitioner said.

HC sets aside action against IISc. professor
 
07/08/2019 , Bengaluru

In a setback to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday set aside the action initiated against senior professor Giridhar Madras, 51, in a sexual harassment case. It also directed the authorities to initiate action against the director and members of the inquiry committee for violating the rule prohibiting disclosure of the contents of a complaint of sexual harassment and inquiry proceedings.

IN BRIEF

07/08/2019 , Thiruvananthapuram 



Court grants bail to Sriram Venkitaraman

A magistrate court here on Tuesday released IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman on bail. He was in judicial remand at the intensive care unit of the Government Medical College Hospital here since Sunday after the police arrested him for drunk driving that caused the death of journalist K.M. Basheer in collision here early on Saturday.

A powerful courtroom drama 

An understated Ajith excels in his role as a lawyer 

07/08/2019 , Srinivasa Ramanujam



Nerkonda Paarvai

Director: H. Vinoth

Cast: Ajith Kumar, Shraddha Srinath, Abhirami Venkatachalam, Andrea Tariang, Vidya Balan

Storyline: A retired lawyer has to help out three girls who have been sexually assaulted by three young men

Traditionally, the title of a Tamil mass hero film conveys very little. It would typically be the name of the lead character (as has been the case with many Rajinikanth films) or something that would describe that one outstanding quality of the hero.

When was the last time, really, that we had a lyrical title for a “mass hero”?

The remake of Hindi superhit Pink in Tamil is called Nerkonda Paarvai, something that a lyricist like Thaamarai might have come up with for a romantic song in a Gautham Menon film. But in this H. Vinoth directorial (he’s the man who gave us the riveting cop thrillerTheeran: Adhigaaram Ondru), it’s about society’s collective gaze on women.

Or it could be that piercing gaze of Bharath Subramaniam (Ajith Kumar) who does nothing but that for the first fifteen minutes into the film.

He has recently moved into a residential complex, and across the road stay Meera Krishnan (Shraddha Srinath), Famita (Abhirami Venkatachalam) and Andrea (Andrea Tariang).

The film, post an opening musical festival song, kickstarts with quite some intrigue — the three girls seem anxious, while elsewhere, three boys are driving away, with one of them severely injured in the head and bleeding.

The music keeps getting ominous even as we get hints on what happened. The girls’ landlord gets a phone call from a stranger threatening him to vacate them from the premises, and he checks on them — him ringing the doorbell almost rudely cuts into their laughter. Little do they know that that’s probably the last time they’ll share such cheerful banter.

Without actually throwing too much light on the incident in question, Nerkonda Paarvai — much like the original — sharpens its focus by concentrating on the unnerving plight of the three girls who are caught in an issue they don’t know the way out of. At first, they don’t really trust Bharath Subramaniam, but after they find out about the famous lawyer he once was, they gradually start believing in him.

The first half clearly establishes the characters, with Nerkonda Paarvai’s refusal to bow down to the star status of its leading man clearly showing. When the mass sequence arrives, it does so in typical Tamil cinema style, but the justification saves it. There is even a bike sequence that his fans will undoubtedly love — and that fight and sound will only get us ready for the real mass... inside the courtroom.

When Bharath steps in to court to argue this case, he isn’t confident. He fumbles. And he has no points when it’s time for him to speak.

It’s quite refreshing to see him fumble. Ajith’s a star, and someone who has thulped a dozen guys barely a scene ago, but inside a courtroom — an environment he’s been away from for a while — he is clearly Bharath, the once-glorious lawyer who is as impassive as the cockroach that’s crawling up one of the court benches.

The court sequences are where Ajith displays a quiet confidence, something that we haven’t quite seen in his last few projects.

In stark contrast to him is the opposition lawyer, played by news anchor Rangaraj Pandey, whose character is pretty much an extension of him on television. He is undoubtedly loud, but in a few scenes, he’s so good that we hate him.

What doesn’t work in Nerkonda Paarvai are the portions featuring Vidya Balan. While the pairing is endearing, it doesn’t quite sit with the narrative; it seems forced and feels like an afterthought. The courtroom sequence dialogues and the other girls make up for it though — both Shraddha and Abhirami get one meaty scene that they ace.

Mrs. YGP, doyen of education, passes away at 93 

Recipient of several awards, including Padma Shri, the founder of PSBB Group of Schools made great strides in imparting education with Indian values
 
07/08/2019 , Staff Reporter, CHENNAI 


 
Mrs. Y.G. Parthasarathy was a source of inspiration for many.

Acclaimed educationist, journalist and patron of the arts, Mrs. Y.G. Parthasarathy, who founded the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Group of Schools driven by her desire “to Indianise school education”, died in a city hospital on Tuesday afternoon. She was 93.

Her son Y. Gee. Mahendra, actor and theatre personality, said she was taken to the hospital on Monday after she complained of breathlessness. “She was stable and talking to us. In the afternoon, she asked for something to eat, but then just collapsed. It was a cardiac arrest,” he said.

She received several awards including the Achievement Medal for Leadership and Commitment to Excellence in Education by the U.S-based Centre for Excellence in Education, the Union government’s ‘Vayoshreshtha Samman’ award, and the Rotary Club of Madras’ Paul Harris Fellow Award. She was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2010.

Born as Rajalakshmi in the family of Diwan Bahadur T. Rangachari, Mrs. YGP, as she was popularly known, was the first woman in her family to graduate. In 1948, she married Y.G. Parthasarathy, the doyen of Tamil theatre and the founder of United Amateur Artistes, the theatre group that became the launchpad for many film personalities. The only girl in her batch of postgraduate diploma journalism class at the University of Madras, she was one of the first women in the field of journalism in Tamil Nadu.

Indian values

In 1958, she started the PSBB Group of Schools in an effort to impart education intertwined with Indian values. In an interview to The Hindu in 2001, she said her humble contribution was towards “changing the school system from a convent or an Anglo-Indian culture to an Indian one, which takes pride in Indian culture”. What started as a humble beginning in a thatched-roof set up in 1958, has now become a reputed group of schools with campuses not just in Chennai. The school also started Bharat Kalachar as its cultural wing in 1987, a unique initiative then to promote arts among students.

Mohan Rajan, chairman and medical director of Rajan Eye Care Hospital, a student who went on to be her associate for nearly five decades, said she was a source of inspiration and motivation for all. “I admired the determination and conviction she had. She started the school in 1958 with 13 students in a hut, but she had the determination to make it big and established the gold standard in education in this part of the world,” he said.

As a person who broke many gender barriers, Mrs. YGP, when she was disallowed to become the principal of PSBB school since a woman was not allowed to become the principal of a boys’ school (PSBB was a boys’ school then), did not hesitate to escalate the matter to the highest level, directly with Indira Gandhi, to get permission.

Hundreds of students, both past and present, their parents, and teachers, congregated at the Bharat Kalachar auditorium, where her mortal remains were placed, to pay their respects. Mr. Mahendra said this was telling of how many lives she had impacted. “I thought her death was a loss for my family but I now see how many more lives she made a difference to. She had a significant role to play in the formation of our drama troupe too, which had many actors like former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and Cho Ramaswamy,” he said.

“We can never associate some people with death and there was a certain permanence about her. She will live on through the institutions she has founded and her students. She will always be remembered,” said actor Kamal Haasan.

She is survived by her sons Y. Gee. Mahendra, Y.G. Rajendra and their families. Her last rites will be performed at her T. Nagar residence and the cremation will take place at 4 p.m. at the Besant Nagar crematorium on Wednesday.