Sivaganga man announces his time of death
Devanathan.Veerappan@timesgroup.com

Sivaganga:13.09.2019

Hundreds of people have gathered for an allnight vigil at Pasangarai village, 4km from Sivaganga town, after a 71-year-old man announced he would die in the early hours of Friday and sat down next to a pit dug for his ‘samadhi’. Police said they would not allow him to be buried alive.

The man, Irulappasamy, claims to be a ‘Shiva bhakta’, and has told his family (son and daughter) and friends that he will die between midnight and 4am and wants them to bury him in a seated position in the pit and build a temple over it. As the news spread, people started turning up to seek his blessings. Rohit Nathan Rajagopal, Sivaganga district SP, told TOI they are watching the developments and monitoring the crowd. There is nothing to worry about law and order, he said. Past midnight Irulappasamy, sat clad in a green lungi while people fanned him and sang bhajans. The crowd, meanwhile, was growing.

Irulappasamy said he would die between 12am and 4am on Friday

Help pours in for Coimbatore paati who sells idli for ₹1
‘Happy To Get Gas Stove After Using Firewood For 30 Years’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Coimbatore:13.09.2019

Not many entrepreneurs may want to emulate the business model that sustained her for 30 years. But 82-year-old M Kamalathal, who had been selling idlis for ₹1 each at Vadivelampalayam in Coimbatore district, felt she lacked nothing. After videos and news reports about the “idli paati” preparing the dish on a firewood stove went viral, she was flooded with offers of help from across the country.

Sharing a video clip of Kamalathal cooking at her homecum-shop, chairman of Mahindra Group Anand Mahindra said he was willing to “invest in her business and buy her an LPG-fuelled stove.”

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Coimbatore, told him that it had already issued Kamalathal an LPG connection. Retweeting this, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister of petroleum and natural gas, said, “Salute the spirit and commitment of Kamalathal. Glad to having helped her through local OMC officers in getting an LPG connection. Society must empower such hardworking people who defy all odds.” In addition, a private firm from Mumbai gave her a commercial wet grinder to prepare idli batter.

After all this unfurled on Wednesday, Mahindra on Thursday tweeted that he would be happy to support her LPG costs.

On Tuesday, Coimbatore collector K Rajamani received her at his office and offered to fulfil whatever needs she had. “She had no demands. However, her well-wishers said it would be helpful if the district administration built her a home. She said she has a patta. If she or her children bring the patta, the district administration is ready to build her a home for around ₹2.5 lakh,” he said. “Now everyone who comes to know about her wants to help her in some way. This is a positive thing,” he added.

When contacted, Kamalathal said she was happy that people were helping her. “For the 30 years that I have been running this idli shop, I have been using a firewood stove. Now they have given me a gas stove. I am happy,” she said.

Asked how she managed to sell an idli for ₹1, she said her input costs were low, so she could sell it for a low price. “There is no loss in this. I sell idlis for around ₹600 a day. I get to keep ₹200,” she said.

CROWD FAVOURITE: Seeing videos of Kamalathal, 82, running her business using firewood stove, people have got her an LPG connection

Tanuvas asked to allot seat to Class XII ST topper

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:13.09.2019

The National Human Rights Commission has directed Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas) to allot a BVSc seat to a scheduled tribe student who had topped the community in the vocational stream.

U Chandran, from Kongkadi in Erode district, studied vocational stream (agriculture) in Class XII. He scored 444 out of 600 in board exams and got 147 out of the 200 cutoff marks. Due to the quirks in the quota system and fewer seats available for vocational stream, Chandran could not join BVSc course despite being the topper among vocational stream students.

Tanuvas reserves 95% of seats available under state quota for academic stream students and only 5% seats for vocational stream students. Of 360 seats available, 18 were available for such students. Under reservation, only 0.18% goesto STcommunities–the reason why Chandran did not get the seat.

During the camp sitting of the NHRC at Chennai, the complaint was taken up by D M Mulay, member of the commission, on Thursday. Tanuvas registrar P.Tensingh Gnanaraj appeared before the commission. Mulay directed Tanuvas to consider 0.18% seat available for ST category under vocational stream as one seat and recommended allotting a BVSc seat to Chandran within 15 days. Earlier, Tanuvas authoritiessaidthey could allot a seat only if the community had 0.5% and above seats as per the norms.

“With the direction of NHRC, there is fresh hope to join the college in this academic year itself. I hope the university will accept the order and allot a seat,” Chandran told TOI after the hearing. The nearest school from his village was 40 km from his home while he was studying. “As the deadline to apply tocolleges wasover,Icould not join any college this year,” he said.

“If he joins the BVSc course, that will motivate tribal families and children in and around his village,” said S C Nataraj, director, Sudar, an NGO working to provide education to children residing in hilly areas.Tanuvas officials were not available for comment. Chandran has also filed a petition at the Madras high court seeking a direction toTanuvas to allot a seat.

Med waste at Egmore hosp raises a stench
Hospital Pins Blame On Visitors For Littering

Aditi.R@timesgroup.com

Chennai:13.09.2019

Medical waste generated at the Government Hospital for Women and Children in Egmore is piling up in a corner of the campus and is proving to be a health hazard.

On Thursday, the waste pile largely comprised food waste, soiled diapers, clothes, slippers, blood-soaked bandages, syringes and empty medicine bottles. A worker was seen handling the pile without any protective gear.

“I have been experiencing severe breathing problems since the last couple of days due to the stench from this,” said the worker who packs waste from the hospital into garbage bags before placing it in colour-coded dustbins.

The hospital records 80 to 90 deliveries a day, the highest in a government facility in Tamil Nadu. Though it has separate bins to segregate wet and solid waste from biomedical waste, officials at the hospital blamed visitors for not following instructions.

“All biomedical waste is collected in red, white and yellow bags and sent outside, only the general waste is collected here. But if syringes and bottles were found in this pile we shall immediately look into it. Only visitors could have thrown it there,” said Dr S Shobha, director-in-charge of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the hospital. The hospital has outsourced services for waste management to a private firm.

Patients complained that often crows and dogs flock around thegarbage pile. “Crows pick up waste from the pile and drop it everywhere,” said P Thilothama, a visitor. The hospital staff blamed the corporation staff and claimed that they do not turn up regularly to clear the pile. “The corporation van used to come twice a day to clear the waste, but since the last two months they only come once in the evening and sometimes do not even turn up,” the staff said.

“We collect the waste only if it is handed over to us, not when it is strewn all over. Our workers cannot enter the hospital campus and clean it for them,” said an official from the corporation.

HAZARDOUS PILE: Patients complained that crows and dogs flock around the garbage mound and enter the campus

2K VIT students get placed in campus recruitment

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:13.09.2019

More than 2,000 students of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) have been placed in the ongoing campus recruitment.

A press release said 245 companies have participated in the campus recruitment and 2,026 students have been recruited by these companies. While the placement schedule will continue till October, the release said the process began in July. Companies offering a pay package of more than ₹10 lakh were invited for the first phase of campus recruitment. Amazon, Pay Pal, Cisco and De Shaw were some of the recruiters.

Core engineering placements also have been happening along with the IT placements. MBA and nonengineering placements will start in September, the release added.

SRM students to intern at Harvard

Chennai:13.09.2019

As many as 21 BTech bio-engineering students from SRM Institute of Science and Technology will travel to the prestigious Harvard Medical School in the US on a six-month internship in January.

They received the invitation from Harvard Medical School after expressing their project interests and profiles.

Meghma Mukherjee, one of the students, said, “I will observe the behaviour of cancer cells in response to different treatments and how they interact with our immune system during the internship.”

The university said though some students had benefited from Harvard internships previously, this was the first time a large number of students had received the internship. They will be mentored by Shiladitya Sengupta, head, Laboratory of Cancer Nano Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The hospital is a teaching facility of the Harvard Medical School. TNN

Pongal train tickets hit waitlist in a jiffy

Air Fares Too Skyrocket As Travellers Target Nine-Day Break In Jan 3rd Week

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:13.09.2019

Sleeper class tickets for Pongal holidays were sold out and reservation status touched waitlist on six trains to southern destinations in less than three hours after bookings opened on Thursday for travel on January 10.

Sleeper class tickets touched waitlist on six trains – Nellai Express, Kanyakumari Express, Rockfort Express, Pearl City Express, Ananthapuri Express and Cheran Express by 11am on Thursday. Reservation for travel on January 11, 12 and 13 will start in the following days.

The Railways is expected to witness maximum bookings for travel on Monday, January 13.

Pongal festival starts on Tuesday, January 14. As January 13 will be the only working day ahead of Pongal in the third week of January 2020, several people have booked tickets on trains and flights to travel on Friday, January 10.

Those who can avail of a leave on January 13 get to enjoy a nine-day break.

There is a suggestion from different quarters that the state government should declare January 13 too a holiday so that people can travel during the festival. An official said that traffic to the southern towns is usually high for festivals like Diwali and Pongal.

Due to the heavy rush in trains, air fares have skyrocketed.

One-way fare for travel on January 10 and 11 on the Chennai-Madurai route is in the range of ₹4,300 to ₹4,800, on the Chennai-Tuticorin route it’s ₹3,200 to ₹4,100, Chennai-Trichy ₹4,300 to ₹4,800, and Chennai-Coimbatore it’s in the range of ₹3,100 to ₹4,000. The fares are likely to rise further, sources said.

Anand Menon of FCM Travel Solutions said, “This time around, Pongal is coinciding with a long weekend. The large workforce and young professionals typically head out for a refreshing weekend break – be it for adventure, spending some family time or a spiritual retreat. Most travellers book in advance as such festive holidays are largely driven by availability of an array of weekend getaways and curated experiences.”

He added, “With travel becoming more frequent than just taking one or two annual leaves, travellers prefer to explore domestic destinations like the Andamans, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Goa. International destinations with easy visa facilities have seen a rise in demand.Popular destinations include Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Malaysia, Bali, Thailand, Mauritius and Vietnam. Given these shorthaul trips are planned in advance, the fluctuation of the US currency has minimal impact.”