New traffic rules may entail steeper penalties, court visit

06/09/2019 , SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, NEW DELHI

Traffic violations after the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act, 2019, will not only have you digging deeper into your pockets to pay steeper penalties, but will also entail a visit to a court as many States are yet to pass an order that would allow police personnel to let off offenders after the payment of the fine.

State orders awaited

According to the new Act, as many as 30 offences are compoundable, including common violations such as over-speeding, not wearing helmets and seatbelts as well as not restraining children under the age of 14, among others.

However, most States are yet to issue an order granting officers the authority to discharge offenders.

As a result, regardless of the offence you have committed, you will be given a date on which you will have to appear before a court.

“So far, we have only received information from the Karnataka government that it has issued the relevant notification,” a senior official of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, data collected in the first four days since the implementation of the Act on September 1 showed that Haryana had issued 343 challans and collected ₹52,32,650 in penalties, while Odisha had issued 4,000 challans and collected ₹88,90,107.

VIP darshan ticket may cost ₹20,000 

TTD likely to open exclusive counter

06/09/2019 , G.P. Shukla, TIRUMALA

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is likely to peg the cost of each VIP darshan ticket at ₹20,000, which devotees can buy without any recommendation from any VIP.

The main intention behind the proposal is to mobilise funds for the newly floated Sri Venkateswara Alaya Nirmana (SRIVANI) Trust under which the TTD desires to take up construction of temples of Lord Venkateswara at all important cities and towns across the country.

Open to all

Highly informed sources have confirmed that a counter will be exclusively set up for the issue of VIP tickets and devotees will be free to avail any number of tickets of their choice by tendering the cost.

It will be an open-to-all facility and no kind of recommendation will be entertained in the process.

Devotees purchasing the VIP tickets across the counters will be extended all courtesies which include priority in the darshan, accommodation and laddus.

They will be allowed ahead of the normal VIPs and will be permitted to have the darshan of the presiding deity from the closest quarters (from Kulasekhara Azhwar padi) inside the sanctum sanctorum, apart from a ‘harathi’ on a par with protocol dignitaries.

To check middlemen

Though it was earlier thought to fix the cost of each ticket at ₹10,000, the management had second thoughts given the popularity of VIP darshan coupled with the fear of touts.

The TTD is confident that the new proposal is sure to check the rampant middlemen system atop the sacred town and usher in more transparency in the issue of darshan tickets.

The TTD expects an initial sales of 200 and 300 tickets on average every day.

74-year-old woman from A.P. gives birth to twins
Team of doctors at Guntur IVF clinic helps couple realise their dream

06/09/2019 , P. Samuel Jonathan, GUNTUR 


 
Rajarao and Yerramatti Mangayamma. T. Vijaya 

KumarT_VIJAYA_KUMAR 

In a miracle of sorts in modern medicine, a 74-year-old woman gave birth to twin daughters at a private hospital in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, on Thursday. Yerramatti Mangayamma realised her dream after doctors at an In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinic performed a Caesarean section operation under the supervision of specialists.

Her husband Rajarao and her close relatives were present at the hospital when the surgery was performed. The couple are from Draksharamam in the East Godavari district.

In 2016, 72-year-old Daljinder Kaur gave birth to a boy at Amritsar.

Sanakkayala Uday Shankar, an IVF specialist, said the couple approached the clinic in November 2018. “I decided to go ahead with the IVF procedure after a team of experts, including a pulmonologist and cardiologist, confirmed that she had no health issues,” Dr. Uma Shankar told reporters.

The doctors collected semen from her husband, and using the IVF technique, combined it with the ovum of another woman. The treatment met with success during the first cycle itself and the woman conceived in January. “We then started preparing the woman under the close supervision of three teams of doctors, including a nutrition specialist, cardiologist and pulmonologist,” said Dr. Uma Shankar.

The twin girls weighed 1.5 kg each and were put under observation for six hours.

The couple were married on March 22, 1962, and had since then been making rounds of hospitals. They were already into their 70s when a neighbour told them about the clinic in Guntur.

A team of doctors, including cardiologist P.V. Manohar, paediatricians Ramesh and Radha Madhavi, anaesthetist Ramesh, and gynaecologists Neelima and Keerthi, assisted during the surgery.

Muharram on Sept. 11 

06/09/2019 , CHENNAI

The State government has declared September 11 a public holiday, in view of Muharram. The Chief Kazi to the government of Tamil Nadu, in his letter, stated that since the moon was not sighted, Muharram would be observed on September 11.

Students of two colleges in limbo 

Anna University withholds results, cites irregularities 

6/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, CHENNAI

Dozens of students of two self-financing engineering colleges who were called for inquiry to Anna University on Thursday returned disappointed as the inquiry was postponed.

The final-year students of ARM Engineering College and ARS Engineering College were called for an inquiry to the office of the Controller of Examination. Both colleges are in Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai. When the students arrived, they were told that the inquiry had been postponed to September 16.

Results withheld

“Around 80 of us [final-year students] received a letter from the university asking us to appear for an inquiry. We don’t know why we were called. Our results were released on May 21 by Anna University and we were told that our final semester results had been withheld. When we asked the college, they said we should ask only the university. For four months, there was no response. The university then sent us a letter that we should appear for an inquiry on September 5. We asked for what we were called. They told us to return on September 16,” said a student who received the letter.

The student said the next semester would begin in a month and there was no intimation on whether the students would have to pay the semester fee, or whether they had arrears.

Anna University Controller of Examination M. Venkatesan said the results had been withheld for irregularities.

“We formed a committee and conducted an inspection. We found that the college had not conducted classes. We could not see the students during the inspection. We wanted to have an inquiry with the students. We communicated to the students, but principals of both colleges reacted to our letter immediately, saying the university had to give sufficient time for the students,” the official said.

“So we had to revise the dates, and the scheduled inquiry from September 5 to 7 was postponed to September 16 to 18. The college principals were intimated, but they had not communicated it to the students,” Mr. Venkatesan said.

“It appears that we could have had the inquiry, as the students had turned up in full strength,” the CoE also said.

Institute of Eminence tag for five

06/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, NEW DELHI

The Human Resource Development Ministry has awarded the status of Institute of Eminence to IIT-Madras, IIT-Kharagpur, Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University and University of Hyderabad, said an official statement.

Four private universities — Vellore Institute of Technology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Jamia Hamdard and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology — were issued Letters of Intent to grant them the status. The new greenfield Bharti Institute, a project of Airtel’s Satya Bharti Foundation, has also been issued the letter.

A separate cell but no special facilities

06/09/2019 , PRESS TRUST OF INDIA, NEW DELHI

P. Chidambaram, who was brought to Tihar Jail on Thursday evening, will get no special facilities, except a separate cell and a Western toilet as specified by the court, jail officials said. Like other inmates, he will have access to the library, and can watch television for a specified period.

After the mandatory medical check-up, he was lodged in Jail No. 7, which houses those accused in Enforcement Directorate cases. His son Karti was kept in the same cell for 12 days in the same case last year.

A jail official said food is served between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., but it is kept aside for those who arrive late owing to court procedures. The usual dinner menu is roti, dal, sabji and rice.

Mr. Chidambaram will be lodged in the cell from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Breakfast will be served between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. He can drink water from a reverse osmosis plant or buy packaged water from the canteen.