Complaint of violent behaviour against MKU professor

07/11/2019, SANJANA GANESH

Madurai Kamaraj University Registrar in-charge R. Sudha registered a complaint on Wednesday against Professor and Head of Department, English Language Studies, V. Kalaiselvan, alleging violent behaviour and verbal abuse.

In her letter accessed by The Hindu, the Registrar in-charge said that the professor used abusive language against administrative staff in the department and tried to throw a chair from a higher floor but refrained after realising that he was being recorded on mobile phone. The Registrar in-charge, who was present at the scene, alleged that he used “unparliamentary language.”

The letter stated that staff members of the department had already raised several complaints against Mr. Kalaiselvan in the last four years; particularly, three letters were sent in July 2015. All letters pertained to Mr. Kalaiselvan locking up four rooms and removal of posters from the Department of French from the notice board in the School of English and Foreign Languages.

When contacted by The Hindu, Ms. Sudha said that she had raised the issue with the Vice-Chancellor and hoped that the matter would be resolved.

Refuting all allegations, Mr. Kalaiselvan said that Ms. Sudha had shifted rooms of her department between the School of English and Foreign Languages and School of Indian Languages without seeking his permission. He added that this issue had been recurring for many years. “The Nagamalai Pudukottai police have registered a CSR against Ms. Sudha; Ananth, Engineer; Ragul, Professor of French; Ranjith, Assistant Professor, and Maharajan, a temporary staff, for raising threats against me,” he said.

A total of 65 faculty members from the university also condemned the actions of Mr. Kalaiselvan and said that he be relieved from his current post of Chairman, School of English and Foreign Languages and Director in-charge of Human Resource Development Centre.

Vice-Chancellor M. Krishnan said that he had taken cognisance of Ms. Sudha's complaint and would place the issue at the Syndicate meeting to be held on November 7.

Vijayawada hotels to log out of Swiggy

Other apps could be next, they say

07/11/2019, STAFF REPORTER,VIJAYAWADA

Vijayawada Hotel Owners’ Association on Wednesday announced that all the hoteliers in the city would log out of online food delivery app Swiggy from 6 a.m. on November 11.

Addressing a press conference here, Association president P. Ravi Kumar and secretary Sanjay Mehta Jain said the delivery apps were mounting pressure on them to increase the commission.

‘Huge burden’

This has become a huge burden for the hotel owners due to the increase in prices of ingredients and operating costs. “Online apps like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats and others had started businesses about a year-and-a-half ago with zero commission. They then began to charge 10% and increased it to 18%. Now, with their hold in the city becoming stronger, they are taking it to 25%.

“In addition, we have to bear the costs of order cancellations, telephone charges, and many other hidden charges,” Mr. Ravi Kumar said.

Hotel owners associations have already brought this issue to the notice of Competition Commission of India which is pursuing the case, he said.

“To start with, we have decided to stop logging in to Swiggy from November 11 and later we will extend it to other apps if things are not set right. We need the government to intervene and regulate the food delivery companies so that fair business practices are followed,” Mr. Jain said.

An e-mail and a message sent to Swiggy for clarification elicited no response.

Hotlines to link doctors at govt. hospitals to police

07/11/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

‘Hotlines’ to enable doctors and nurses to seek immediate police assistance will be set up at 80 government hospitals in the first phase.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami launched the ‘Hotline’ that has been set up at the government district headquarters hospital at Tiruvallur and government hospital at Tambaram.

To ensure the safety of all health staff including doctors and nurses of government hospitals and to enable them to work without fear for providing services to the public, the Health Minister had announced in the Assembly earlier this year that ‘Hotline’ would be established.

Scanner inaugurated

The CM also inaugurated PET-CT scan machine at the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai and newly constructed buildings through video conferencing.

High Court to close all its gates for 24 hours
07/11/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The Madras High Court has decided to keep all its five gates closed from 8 p.m. on Saturday to 8 p.m. on Sunday and not allow access to the general public during that period of time.

It is an annual exercise undertaken to assert the right of the court over its property and prevent people from claiming easementary right of way.

Since the High Court campus at Parry's Corner here has entries and exits on all four directions and people use it as a thoroughfare on a daily basis, there's every possibility of any person claiming easementary right.

Hence, the court creates an artificial break for a day every year to prevent the general public into the campus.

The exercise is carried out during weekends in order to not cause any kind of inconvenience to the litigants and others.

A notification issued by Registrar (Administration) K. Indumathi for this year states that the doors shall be closed from 8 p.m. on November 9 to 8 p.m. on November 10 and “general public will not be allowed access to the High Court premises during the said time.”

Notices shall be put up on the gates during that time informing people about the closure.

DME re-issues circular, asks deans to adhere to duty timings for PGs, interns

Doctors’ body files case in HC, says interns, PGs work 36-hour shifts

07/11/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

With government medical colleges across the State not adhering to stipulated duty timings for post graduates (PG) and house surgeons, the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) has recently re-issued its 2015 circular asking all deans of medical colleges to follow the timings.

The circular was first issued on July 9, 2015. The DME noted that the instructions on duty timings for PGs and CRRIs (Compulsory Rotatory Residential Internship) have not been adhered to. The deans of government medical colleges were requested to follow the duty timings. The regular duty time for PGs and CRRIs are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on all days except admission day. After 2 p.m., they are on call duty as per their duty roster.

On admission days in the respective units, all PGs and CRRIs will work from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. After this, they should divide into two batches — the first batch would work from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. and second batch would work from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., the next day.

Post-admission day, the regular duty would follow.

G. R. Ravindranath, general secretary of Doctors Association for Social Equality, who recently filed a public interest litigation petition in the Madras High Court in this regard said, “CRRIs and PGs continue to work on a 36-hour-long duty. Long working hours is causing a lot of stress in them. They should have stipulated duty timings, and the government should implement the existing order on timings.”

With the court case filed, officials said the circular was re-issued as a reminder for all heads of institutions under the directorate.

PWD set to embark on State-wide project to build medical colleges

Work on six institutions, at a cost of ₹1,950 crore, will begin in December

07/11/2019, , K.LAKSHMI,CHENNAI

In early December, the Public Works Department will begin work on constructing six medical colleges across the State.

The institutions will come up in Ramanathapuram, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Tiruppur, Namakkal and the Nilgiris, at a cost of ₹325 crore each, and will be attached to the existing hospitals in the respective districts.

PWD officials said the department had received ‘in-principle approval’ for the projects. Tenders will be floated this month.

Recently, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare gave its nod for establishing six government medical colleges in the State at a total cost of ₹1,950 crore.

While the Centre’s share of the project cost will be ₹1,170 crore, the State government will provide the remaining ₹780 crore.

150 seats each

As per the policy note of the Health and Family Welfare Department (2019-2020), there are 24 government medical colleges with a total of 3,350 MBBS seats. Officials of the Health and Family Welfare Department said the new institutions will have 150 seats each. An official said, “We want the colleges to be ready as early as possible.”

According to the PWD, the new colleges will have three types of buildings — institution, hospital and residential. Most of them will have six-storeyed buildings and a 300 to 700-bedded hospital block attached to them.

PWD officials said each college will have 10 to 13 blocks, including hostel buildings, quarters, the administrative block and the faculty block. The hospitals, including the one in Ramanathapuram, will have separate blocks for a gymnasium, a bank, a post office and an auditorium.

The new colleges will also be equipped with a sewage treatment plant and a solar power plant. Disabled-friendly features will be incorporated into the constructions.

The college coming up in the Nilgiris alone will have single or two-storeyed buildings as it will be situated in a hilly area. The total plinth area of these colleges will vary between 3 lakh and 10 lakh sq.ft. The project is expected to be completed in 18 months.

On Wednesday, the Health and Family Welfare Department issued orders for the appointment of deans-cum-special officers for the new medical colleges in Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, the Nilgiris and Tiruppur.

Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said the State government was working on issuing the administrative sanction.

“About 60% of the funds will be allocated by the Central government. The process for allotting the remaining 40% of the project cost using the State government’s funds is under way,” he said.

(With inputs from Serena Josephine M.)

Those under 40 at risk of strokes too: doctors

‘Stress due to work, consumption of junk food and alcohol among the triggers’

07/11/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

A patient who underwent treatment at the Apollo Speciality Hospitals, OMR, with his doctors on Wednesday. M. Vedhan

Strokes and cardiac arrests can no longer be considered diseases of old age, say doctors.

At Apollo Speciality Hospitals, OMR, in the last two years, out of 400 patients, who suffered strokes, nearly 15% were aged below 40, according to S. Karthikeyan, interventional neurologist.

“We are seeing young persons suffering strokes and heart attacks. It is important to start checking blood pressure and sugar levels from 30 years of age. The risk factors include stress due to work, consumption of junk food, smoking and alcohol. Genetic factors too play a role,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Preying on the young

In fact, Dr. Karthikeyan along with interventional cardiologist Arul E.D. recently treated two young patients, who suffered stroke and heart attacks at short intervals. Doctors said the two patients — aged 32 and 34 — were presented with acute weakness of left upper and lower limb along with chest pain. They were diagnosed with myocardial infarction and acute stroke that needed immediate intervention through thrombolysis. An angioplasty was later done to remove the blocks in their hearts.

As Devachandran J, consultant critical care, said he was seeing more and more persons aged 40 and below with either heart attack or stroke, heart attack after a stroke or stroke after a heart attack.

Lifestyle causes

“Prevention is better than cure. There are factors such as lack of exercise, smoking, working in shifts and improper diet. If you are leading a sedentary lifestyle, get a health check-up done,” he added.

Doctors emphasised that both conditions could be treated with prompt medical help. As separate conditions, stroke and myocardial infarctions have their own risks of morbidity and mortality. But what happens if a person has both simultaneously? Is the heart important or the brain?

Rare case

The doctors recently treated a 83-year-old man, who had acute stroke and acute myocardial infarction simultaneously. “He came in with right side weakness, and ECG showed that he had evidence of heart attack,” Dr. Karthikeyan said.

Doctors performed angioplasty to remove the clot in the blood vessel in his heart within 15 to 20 minutes and performed mechanical thrombectomy to remove the clot from his brain and stabilised him. Dr. Arul said that this was an extremely rare case that had an incidence of 0.009%.

They also treated a 64-year-old patient who had myocardial infarction and stroke in a short interval.