As orders dry up amid crackdown, flex printers fear loss of business
The biggest loss would be from commercial advertisers withdrawing cancelling or not placing orders. “Parties order banners infrequently.

Published: 17th September 2019 06:30 AM |

By SJayakumar Madala

Express News Service

TIRUCHY: For Krishnan, a printing agent in the city, September is usually a busy month as orders keep flowing in. With several auspicious days and birthdays of political leaders in the month, his printing machines operate non-stop. But September of this year has been dull, several shops, including Krishnan’s, have not received any orders for banners or hoardings in the last few days.

“Usually we have a good number of orders in September due to the many auspicious days and birthdays of political leaders. But over the past five days, we have not received orders for even a single banner to be placed in front of wedding halls,” lamented Krishnan.

The birthday of DMK leader CN Annadurai on September 15 was celebrated without banners or flagpoles in Tiruchy city announcing the occasion. The September 17 birthday of Periyar is also not likely to be advertised through banners. “We are at risk of incurring huge losses as investments of up to Rs 20 lakh are made to buy printing machines and pay salaries to workers. Now, all them would become jobless.”

The biggest loss would be from commercial advertisers withdrawing cancelling or not placing orders. “Parties order banners infrequently. The major orders come from commercial establishments. With further restrictions expected, many regular customers would choose not to place orders,” said Pranav, an advertising agent.

Sun TV directed to pay fine, run apology

Viewers complained about a serial

18/09/2019, STAFF REPORTER,CHENNAI

The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) has imposed a financial penalty of ₹2.5 lakh on Sun TV as well as directed them to run a video apology after examining complaints from viewers about the content in the serial Kalyana Veedu.

According to the order, complaints had been received based on episodes which aired on May 14 and 15, and June 28 which had shown a woman ordering a group to gang rape her sister in order to seek revenge. The complaints which the Council had received noted that such content would encourage atrocities against women and should not have been aired in a channel being watched by millions.

The council, on examining the video clips based on the complaints, has said in their order that the content violated the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) guidelines which bars content that glorifies violence, as well as incite or encourage viewers to obscene or indecent behaviour.

A notice was issued to the channel and they had subsequently been called for a hearing. In their reply to the council, Sun TV and Thiru Pictures had clarified that all precautions had been taken to ensure that the dialogues were not vulgar and obscene. They apologised to the Council and the order stated that they have consented to agree with their decision as well.

Video apology

A 30 second video apology in Tamil for six consecutive days will be run from September 23 to 28 at the start of every episode of the series when they get aired as well as if they get repeated. The show airs on Sun TV at 7.30 p.m. The order further specified the content of the apology, which states that the channel regrets the prolonged depiction of women’s torture including scenes of gang rape in the episodes of Kalyana Veedu telecast on May 14 and 15 as well as the act of revenge shown on June 28.

Teacher held for hurting student with knife

18/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

 MAYILADUTHURAI

A teacher at a government-aided middle school in Keezhaiyur was arrested by the Sembanarkovil police on Tuesday, a day after he allegedly inflicted wounds on the hands of a physically-challenged Class III female student with a knife, apparently as punishment. Acting on a complaint lodged by the student's parents, the police arrested Bhaskar, 42, and registered cases against him under sections 294 b (using obscene words in public), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred) of the IPC. He was remanded in judicial custody.

Strike call hits life in Sankarankovil

Residents want the town to be made headquarters of Tenkasi district

18/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,TIRUNELVELI

Normal life in Sankarankovil, Karivalamvanthanallur, Sivagiri, Thiruvenkatam, Veerakeralampudhur and other towns came to a grinding halt as a strike was observed on Tuesday.

After the State Government announced creation of Tenkasi district from Tirunelveli district, Sankarankovil residents urged it to make their town as headquarters of the new district. However, the government that appointed a Special Officer for the Tenkasi district and posted him at Tenkasi to complete preliminary formalities is yet to make a formal announcement on the headquarters.

So, residents formed a coordination committee with traders, workers of powerlooms, advocates, various organisations and representatives of various political parties including the AIADMK to achieve their demand of separate Sankarankovil district. The committee declared a general strike at Sankarankovil, Thiruvenkatam, Sivagiri, Veerakeralampudhur taluks on Tuesday to highlight their demand for separate district. The bandh call had tremendous response as all shops remained closed in these areas.

After taking out a rally from Sri Sankaranarayanar Temple, the rallyists reached the taluk office and submitted a petition to Tahsildar Athinarayanan seeking a separate Sankarankovil district. They justified their demand with a series of arguments.

Sankarankovil, the second largest town of Tirunelveli district, generates more revenue for the Central and the State governments, besides housing a good number of manufacturing units, including over 5,000 powerlooms with 15,000-odd workers, horticultural products, match and cracker industries, brick kiln units etc.

Lodge plaint on impersonation: DME to college

18/09/2019, SERENA JOSEPHINE M.,CHENNAI

The Directorate of Medical Education (DME) has directed the Government Theni Medical College to lodge a police complaint on a case of alleged impersonation involving a first-year MBBS student of the institution. Simultaneously, the college should conduct a high-level inquiry into the case, the DME said.

Last week, the dean of the Government Theni Medical College received an anonymous letter stating that a first-year MBBS student had gained admission through impersonation. College authorities found that the photograph submitted to the college office at the time of admission did not match with the student.

Official sources said the college authorities conducted an inquiry with the student. “A youth from Mumbai had reportedly impersonated the student during the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). After gaining admission to Theni Medical College, the same person came to the college office and submitted the documents that carried his photograph. The photographs are not cross-checked at the time of students joining classes, and they give only an admission slip. Only on checking the photograph did we come to know that a different student had joined the MBBS course,” an official source said.

The authorities also found that the student had made previous attempts to clear NEET. A senior college authority said: “We have a doubt on a student. So, we have referred the case to the Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education, and are waiting for their reply.”

The DME has asked the college dean to proceed with legal action to ascertain the facts.

Reconsider minimum age for admission to professional courses: HC

18/09/2019, MOHAMED IMRANULLAH S.,CHENNAI

The Madras High Court has impressed upon the need for the Centre and State governments, as well as statutory bodies such a Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India and Nursing Council of India, to reconsider the fixation of 17 years as the minimum age for admission into medical, dental, nursing and other courses.

Justice G. Jayachandran said, the minimum age criterion should be revisited at the earliest in view of vast changes taking place in the education system with academically bright students cracking tougher examinations at a young age. Such children’s education should not suffer a break due to the age factor, he added.

The petitioner, S. Malathi, of Nagapattinam, was educationally qualified to be admitted for a bachelor’s course in nursing at a private college. However, she was denied admission since she would be two months short of completing 17 years as on December 31 this year.

Her counsel argued that the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University was not competent to fix the minimum age for admission into nursing in the absence of any instructions from the Nursing Council of India.

On the other hand, the university counsel Ilayaraj Kumar contended that the minimum age was fixed only based on the council’s mandate. The judge held the petitioner would have to wait for one more year to get admission into a nursing course as per the law in force.

Karaikal Exp. gets upgrade

18/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,CHENNAI

The Southern Railway has given an upgrade to the rake of the Chennai Egmore-Karaikal Express, which was flagged off on Tuesday.

The rake modernised under the Utkrisht phase-II project has better sanitation facilities and other passenger amenities. A release issued by Southern Railway said the Chennai Division had identified the Karaikal Express for enhancing passenger comfort with Utkrisht coaches.

The coaches have epoxy flooring, longer lifespan, eco-friendly bio toilets, auto air freshner system to maintain better hygiene and colourful coating on the wash basin. The coaches have been fitted with fire extinguishers and charging points were provided in all reserved coaches.