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Vizag railway station gets first-of-its-kind gaming zone
 
06/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, VISAKHAPATNAM 


 
Children playing video games at the Gaming Zone at Visakhapatnam Railway Station on Thursday.K.R. Deepak

A ‘Gaming Zone’, set up on Platform 1 of Visakhapatnam Railway Station, was opened for the public by Divisional Railway Manager Chetan Kumar Shrivastava on Thursday.

A first-of-its-kind initiative in the Indian Railways, the facility was set up by Waltair Division under non-fare revenue to provide paid entertainment to waiting passengers and children.

The project was developed under NINFRIS (New, Innovative Non-Fare Revenue Ideas Scheme) of the Ministry of Railways to improve passenger convenience and service apart from promoting innovative ideas and concepts for enhancement of non-fare revenue. The ‘open tender’ was bagged by ES Fun Time at a cost of ₹3.6 lakh per annum. The facility is spread across a 400 sft area. The gaming zone is for bonafide passengers/rail users who can utilise the facility on payment of ₹50 per game, during their visit to the railway station.

The zone offers modern gaming facilities and Virtual Reality (VR) games, such as car racing and gunfighting. Other games like Hit Mouse, Doraemon, DoraemonFriend, Musical Play, Basketball and Air Hockey are also available. Mr. Shrivastava said that the goal is to provide entertainment to passengers and children besides utilising the vacant space for generating revenue.

Traffic fines: ₹30 lakh in 5 hours

06/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, Bengaluru 


 
Minsk Square on Thursday evening. SOMASHEKAR 
G.R.N.SOMASHEKAR G R N

Motorists beware. The Traffic Police have announced that they will be strictly implementing the hefty penalties under the amended Motor Vehicles Act. In a span of five hours, the police, on Thursday, collected ₹30.11 lakh as fines for traffic violations.

On September 4, the first day the new fines were levied, the total collection reached ₹21.8 lakh within a few hours.

Traffic police had booked 2,978 cases till Thursday 1 p.m. The bulk, 2,639, were for riding without a helmet. That alone accounted for ₹26.3 lakh.

At a press conference on Thursday, City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao told presspersons that the traffic police will be tough and are conducting special drives to ensure that people follow the rules.

“The special drive is not to earn revenue but to act as a means of deterrence,” he said, adding that the city’s traffic problems have become infamous nationally.

“This is due to pedestrians not following rules and a lack of traffic sense especially among two-wheeler riders,” he said.

Many motorists feel that the high penalties will only embolden people to bribe police personnel in an attempt to avoid the high fines. A senior police official said any cop caught accepting bribes will be severely punished. “Citizens are welcome to file complaints with us,” added Mr. Rao.

This monsoon, Mumbai has got more rain than annual average 

06/09/2019 , Tanvi Deshpande, Mumbai 



has received more than 3,000 mm rainfall this season, way beyond its annual average of 2,514 mm. The last time this happened was in 2011.

Schools and colleges remained closed on Thursday. Rain has largely abated and the Met Department has scaled down its alert from orange to yellow.

The Hindu reported on Thursday that the city received more than the entire month’s rainfall in the first four days of September (496.5mm). This brings the total rainfall in Mumbai since June 1 to 3078.2 mm — 1117.3 mm above normal. Mumbai has already received 122.4% of its annual average rainfall.

The city received 242.2 mm rainfall in the 24 hours leading up to 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, the second highest in a decade. The highest was 303.7 mm in 2017. The all time record for the highest 24-hour September rainfall is 318.2 mm in 1981.

According to data from BMC’s automated weather systems, some areas that received the highest rainfall between 3 p.m. on Tuesday and 3 p.m. on Wednesday are Vikhroli (354 mm), Borivali (330 mm), Marol (314 mm), Wadala (310 mm), Andheri West (304 mm), Kandivali (303 mm) and Dharavi (300 mm).

There is still a month to go for the monsoon season to end, tweeted K.S. Hosalikar, Deputy Director General, IMD, on Thursday. “As on date, Santacruz has received 3078.2 mm and Colaba has received 2162.2 mm.”

The IMD had issued an ‘orange alert’ (heavy to very heavy rain) for Mumbai for Thursday, but scaled it down to ‘yellow alert’ (heavy rain at a few places). Between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., Mumbai received only 8.9 mm rainfall.

Headmistress, teacher arrested for electrocution of boy in school
Kin of the deceased accept body

06/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, RAMANATHAPURAM

The headmistress and a teacher of the Government High School near Uchipuli in the district were arrested on Thursday, a day after a Class VIII boy was electrocuted while operating the electric motor in the school.

A day after the boy – R. Kartheeswaran, son of Ramesh, a construction worker – was electrocuted, police arrested Headmistress A. Rosemary, 55, and teacher G. Tamizharasu, 44, who allegedly asked the victim and other boys to operate the electric motor installed to pump water into the overhead tank.

Acting on the complaint lodged by Mr. Ramesh, Uchipuli police arrested them under Section 304 (culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code. They were produced before Judicial Magistrate Radhakrishnan here in the evening and remanded in judicial custody at Ramanathapuram District Jail.

Though the HM was in Ramanathapuram to attend a meeting convened by the Chief Educational Officer when the accident occurred, she was arraigned in the case as she was the head of the school, the police said. Sources in the CEO office said that she would also be placed under suspension in view of her arrest.

The CEO had already ordered the suspension of Tamizharasu and Abilasha, the victim’s class teacher. Abilasha’s name, however, did not figure in the FIR. When contacted, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Rameswaram) S. Magesh said that she would be arraigned in the case if necessary, after a detailed investigation.

Meanwhile, the family members of the boy, who had been refusing to accept the body, demanding compensation and action against the teachers, accepted the body on Thursday.

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.