HC allows prisoner to undergo surgery

03/01/2020 , Staff Reporter, Madurai

Hearing the plea of a woman seeking adequate treatment for her husband who sustained a fracture in his left leg, the Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday granted permission to the man to undergo a surgery at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in .

In her petition, R. Muthumari from Madurai said that her husband M. Rajeshkumar alias ‘Appalam’ Raja, a history-sheeter lodged in Madurai Central Prison required urgent medical attention. Though he was receiving treatment at the GRH, she wanted her husband to be transferred to a private hospital for better treatment.

Taking into account the medical emergency, Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira observed that the man required treatment as he was a patient. The court directed the Dean of GRH to see to that the surgery on the man to treat his fracture shall be conducted on Saturday.

The court said that following the surgery, the man can be moved to the post operative care in the General ward of the GRH for further treatment. The wife and children of the man alone shall be permitted to visit him during the treatment, the court said. The case was adjourned to January 13 for further hearing.

Private hospitals threaten to stop cashless facility from Feb. 1 

‘₹1,200 crore pending in dues under CGHS, ECHS’ 

03/01/2020 , Special Correspondent, Bengaluru

With dues to the tune of ₹1,200 crore pending for treatment of patients under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), private hospitals across the country have threatened to stop cashless facility under the scheme from February 1.

If implemented, it will impact around 36 lakh Central government employees, including their dependants, and pensioners under CGHS and over 52 lakh ex-servicemen and dependants covered by ECHS in over 1,000 empanelled hospitals and nursing homes in 71 cities. Of these, over 1.23 lakh beneficiaries are from Bengaluru.

Two weeks time

“We have given the Centre a deadline of two weeks and are hoping for a response. Our dues have accumulated since 2014 and if not cleared at the earliest, we will be constrained to suspend cashless services,” Alexander Thomas, president of Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI), told The Hindu.

A letter flagging pendency of bills was sent to the Union Ministry of Finance in July 2019. But not much has moved since then, prompting the hospitals to take a call on stopping cashless services.

A majority of the empanelled hospitals are in Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

Hospital representatives claimed that the pendency had worsened since the launch of Ayushman Bharat or Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana healthcare scheme.

Giridhar Gyani, APHI Chief Executive Officer, said the healthcare industry was on the brink of financial unsustainability due to pendency of dues.

Kavalan app: personal safety at a click, but what about data? 

While the police tout the app as a must-have for women, privacy concerns persist over its demands for information
 
03/01/2020 , R.Sivaraman, M. Soundariya Preetha, 
CHENNAI/COIMBATORE 



In the wake of the rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinarian in Hyderabad, the Kavalan SOS app of the Tamil Nadu Police has seen a huge jump in downloads. An intensive campaign conducted by the police across the State has also contributed to the spike.

The app is being promoted by the police especially amongst women and children. Anyone who feels vulnerable or threatened can press an alert button for police personnel to reach them at the earliest, they claim.

As on date, the number of downloads has touched 9.5 lakh. Post the Hyderabad incident and a promotional burst, an average of 10,000 people are reportedly downloading the app every day.

And, after filtering the test alerts, the State police control attends to 150-200 complaints from the alerts triggered by the Kavalan SOS app.

Data security

Some people have expressed apprehensions over the need to give the app access to personal details on the phone, and have even complained of difficulties in downloading the app/ accessing services. Mobile numbers of close relatives or friends and email IDs are collected while registering.

A.S. Fathima Muzaffer, a social worker, said, “Allowing access to phone calls and device location is not an issue for me. But recording audio, accessing storage, media files and accessing contacts — that seems to be intruding into the privacy of an individual.” Without allowing such access, it will not be possible to use the app at all, she added.

A technologist, who is closely associated with the back-end of the app, said this does pose a risk to privacy of the user and claimed that the data of the app is maintained by a private party.

“The registered person provides an alternative mobile number, location access, and address details. Hence, there is no need to ask for access to media files. If the download reaches 15 lakh to 20 lakh, it will become huge data and can be mined for various purposes. The app should be designed in such a way that the data is secure and there is no need to provide access to media or contact files,” he said.

Since the collection of information is for a specific purpose by a law enforcement agency, it would be exempt from privacy laws. “The department should have adequate measures in place to keep the information secure. Police department should have a data protection policy,” said Na.Vijayashankar, an expert in cyber law.

Chennai City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan said contact details of relatives or close friends as emergency numbers are optional and these are taken so that police personnel can alert them.

Fears allayed

“Moreover, all details collected will be stored in the secure server of the police department, which is handled by Technical Services. These details are collected only for the purpose of providing safety to citizens. The information is collected only for the purpose of reaching out or securing the person in distress.”

A senior police officer of Technical Services of Tamil Nadu Police clarified that no third party can access the information and there was no chance of misuse. “After collecting the details, we do not read any data on anybody’s mobile phone. Moreover, we are not collecting any background information,” he said.

He added that any technical glitches while downloading would be attended to duly and the application would be updated after receiving feedback from users.

Another officer said that in order to simplify the registration process, the app had been modified to support the latest Android version. The gathering of alternative numbers, email and work location had been done away with after users flagged privacy issues, he added.

Quick response

Once the person in distress triggers an alert, staff in the control room which is manned by a private firm receives a message and pass it on to police officers. The police locate the nearest patrol vehicle, police officer or police station to reach out to the victim.

The call centre staff also alert close relatives or family members if numbers are available.

During emergency, pressing the SOS button on the home page will automatically send the current location of the person in trouble along with a video to the Kavalan team.

Within a minute, the team will contact the person. Simultaneously, the location will also be sent to pre-registered emergency contacts as SMS alerts.

Shahnawaz Khan, Director of AMTEX, which handles the software and call centre support for the app, said, “We cannot go beyond a limit while invoking privacy. The details we ask for are absolutely for people’s own safety. All these details are stored in a very secure server. People are sharing everything on Facebook and Instagram these days. When it comes to safety, we need to be a little more cooperative.”

AIADMK suffers a setback in rural local body polls 

DMK ahead in panchayat unions, district panchayat wards
 
03/01/2020 , T.K. Rohit, CHENNAI

The ruling AIADMK suffered a setback in the rural local body polls held in 27 districts with the DMK racing ahead in panchayat unions and district panchayat wards as per results/trends available around 11.30 p.m. on Thursday.

Crowdsourced trends were available only for 350-odd of the 515 district panchayat member posts and 2,900-odd of the 5,090 panchayat union ward posts, while the State Election Commission declared the results for much fewer posts. The complete tally of results is expected to be available only by Friday evening.

The DMK had won in 727 of 1,632 seats the results of which were declared for the post of panchayat union ward members as of 11.30 p.m. The AIADMK was lagging by nearly 170 seats, as its candidates had won only in 556 seats.

The AIADMK’s defeat at the hands of its arch rival DMK, that too in the rural areas, considered the ruling party’s main vote bank from the time the party was founded nearly five decades ago, came as a shock to the establishment with Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami taking stock of and deliberating with senior leaders in the evening.

The victory, even if not so huge, is likely to be a huge boost for the DMK ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, as the party has remained out of power for the last two terms.

At the time of going to print, the DMK’s gains in panchayat unions came largely from Tiruchi with 109 seats, Thanjavur (72), Pudukottai (48) and Dindigul (47). The largest tally for the AIADMK was from Thoothukudi with 43 seats, Thanjavur (40) and Theni (38).

The DMK’s allies, the Congress and the CPI, won 39 and 24 seats respectively in panchayat unions. The AIADMK’s allies, the DMDK and the BJP, won in 33 and 24 seats, respectively.

There are a total of 5,090 seats for the post of panchayat union ward members across the 27 districts where polls were held.

The DMK also won 15 seats for the post of district panchayat ward members, while the AIADMK won 6. The BJP, the CPI and the CPI (M) won one seat each out of the total tally of 24 for which results were announced. There are a total of 515 seats in this category. Except a few districts, the two parties were neck and neck with the counting continuing well past midnight.

DMK president M.K. Stalin complained that the results were deliberately being delayed.

Man flies home from Singapore to cast vote in Tamil Nadu local body polls

You might remember the scene from the movie Sarkar, in which Vijay, who is an NRI, comes to India on the day of the elections, just to cast his vote.
 
Published: 31st December 2019 05:41 AM |

By Sowmya Mani

Express News Service

PUDUKKOTTAI: You might remember the scene from the movie Sarkar, in which Vijay, who is an NRI, comes to India on the day of the elections, just to cast his vote. In a small village of Vadakadu in Pudukkottai, a man working in Singapore came to his village to cast his vote.

Tamizh (26) is working in a construction company in Singapore. For the election, he specially flew down to India on 28th December and is flying out in two days. “It is our duty as a citizen to vote. I feel proud to be an Indian and will do anything to exercise my right to vote,” said Tamizh.

He spent almost Rs 50,000 to ensure that he votes. He says his bosses were very cooperative and sanctioned his leave. He hopes that everyone follows his lead. “If I can come from Singapore, people can travel a few kilometers to vote,” he adds. He also came down for the Lok Sabha elections in April 2019.

Attendance system to keep NEET fraud at bay?

The Health Department is planning to introduce biometric-enabled attendance system linked with Aadhaar card for medical students.

Published: 01st January 2020 05:27 AM |

By Sinduja Jane

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Health Department is planning to introduce a biometric-enabled attendance system linked with Aadhaar card for medical students. In the backdrop of the National Testing Agency (NTA) seeking permission from the Centre to use Aadhaar data for NEET in 2020, the move is expected to keep a check on impersonation and ensure that those who take the test are the ones who attend classes.

Earlier, the Directorate of Medical Education was working to introduce biometric attendance system linked with Aadhaar number for teaching faculty, following an order from the Medical Council of India’s Board of Governors to prevent duplication of teaching faculty.

However, in the wake of impersonation cases surfacing, the Health Department is planning to introduce the new system for MBBS students from the first year. The Aadhaar-inked biometric fingerprint attendance machines will be installed at all hospitals and institutions of the Directorate of Medical Education, Directorate of Public Health, Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services. However, a few doctors are sceptic of the proposal. “We are not sure how much fool-proof it will be. As of now, a few medical colleges have biometric attendance for faculty but, a majority of doctors fake fingerprints. A few doctors have also raised objections to the proposal,” said a government doctor.

Madras HC refuses TNSTC to disburse penal interest for delay in pension benefits

Justice M S Ramesh was passing orders on petitions filed by several retired employees, seeking direction to the TNSTC to pay the said penal interest. 

 ublished: 02nd January 2020 12:13 PM

By Express News Service

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, in separate cases, refused to permit the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to disburse the penal interest for delay in settling pension benefits to its employees in monthly instalments. The interest, accrued at a rate of six per cent, should be paid within three months.

Justice M S Ramesh was passing orders on petitions filed by several retired employees, seeking direction to the TNSTC to pay the said penal interest. He said that he is not in agreement with the representation made by the standing counsel of the TNSTC, who prayed the court to permit the TNSTC to disburse the interest on the belated payment in liberal monthly instalments citing the financial burden cast on the TNSTC.

The judge said that there already was a duty cast upon the TNSTC to pay the terminal benefits on the date of retirement itself. Since the belated disbursement of the benefit already put the retired employee to serious prejudice, entertaining the present request for disbursement of the interest on the belated payment in instalments could cause further prejudice to the retired employee.