Officials help ill-treated elderly man regain bequeathed property
After signing a will, Nallasami faced abuse from his son

06/01/2020, , VIGNESH VIJAYAKUMAR,NAMAKKAL

An official returning land documents to Nallasami in Namakkal.

A 71-year-old man in Namakkal has regained a property he had bequeathed to his grandson, thanks to the efforts put in by officials of the district administration.

V. Nallasami had a house in Natarajapuram, where he stayed with Vasudevan, one of his three sons. Recently, Mr. Nallasami petitioned the District Collector, requesting that a will, providing for the transfer of ownership of the property to his grandson, be nullified. In the petition, Mr. Nallasami alleged that Mr. Vasudevan used to ill-treat and attack him in an inebriated condition.

The petition, submitted to the district administration in October, was referred to Namakkal Revenue Divisional Officer M. Kottai Kumar. Following inquiries, the official found the petitioner’s claims to be true. The authorities then took steps to invalidate the will under the provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

According to revenue officials, after Mr. Nallasami transferred the property to his grandson's name, Mr. Vasudevan's attitude towards him changed. Mr. Nallasami’s son attacked him in an inebriated state and asked him to leave the house. “Mr. Vasudevan also asked his siblings not to visit the house. Based on the complaint, we have now issued orders to declare the will void, and had returned the documents to Mr. Nallasami on Saturday,” Mr. Kumar said.

The official added that the property was worth ₹2 crore. Mr. Nallasami was living in the ground floor, while Mr. Vasudevan and his family were living in the first floor. “We have now instructed Mr. Vasudevan and his family to vacate the house within a certain period. We have issued an order to the local inspector to ensure Mr. Nallasami’s safety. We have asked the police to check up on him regularly,” he added.

Florist files case against Raj Bhavan for non-settlement of dues

06/01/2020, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

A florist has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court alleging that the secretariat in the Raj Bhavan was yet to settle his dues to the tune of ₹1.82 lakh for having supplied flowers between December 2014 and June 2015 when Konijeti Rosaiah was in office as the Governor of the State.

Justice C.V. Karthikeyan has granted time till January 28 for the government counsel to get instructions from the Deputy Secretary to the Governor and the comptroller of Governor’s household on the issue.

Sterling Flowers, represented by its manager Basheer Ahmed, of Pammal, filed the case.

Regular supplier

In his affidavit, Mr. Ahmed said that he had been a regular supplier of flowers, hybrid flowers and decoration articles to the Raj Bhavan for over 15 years. He reportedly supplied flowers on many occasions on credit despite the accumulation of dues, which ran to a few lakh rupees.

According to the petitioner, as many as eight invoices raised by him between December 2014 and June 2015 for a total amount of ₹2.82 lakh remained unsettled for long. Subsequently, the Raj Bhavan paid him ₹1 lakh, but did not settle the rest despite sending several reminders till September 2019, he claimed.

Police bust gang selling drugs to college students

Three involved in the racket arrested

06/01/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The Vadapalani police arrested three persons for possessing and selling drugs to college students in the city.

A senior police officer said that based on several complaints about drugs being circulated among students, a police team detained a person moving in a suspicious manner on the Jawaharlal Nehru Salai near Vadapalani junction.

During investigation, Harish, a resident of Mogappair, said two other college students were involved in selling synthetic drugs imported from the Netherlands to students of various private colleges in and around Ramapuram and Porur through social media.

The police arrested Vishal Arunkumar of Maduravoyal and Vijay of Ramapuram.

Police are further investigating.

AIADMK sees local body results as warning signal

D.Govardan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:06.01.2020
A joint statement issued by AIADMK party coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami, after the rural local body results were out last week, was high on confidence, if not elation. While the ruling AIADMKled alliance finished second, what should be worrying its leadership is the fact that it conceded large ground of its traditional vote bank in rural Tamil Nadu to the opposition DMK.

AIADMK leaders, down the line, concede in private that it is a matter of worry. But, while agreeing that the results have set off alarm bells ahead of the assembly polls next year, not many are willing to see it as a setback.

“The results have thrown up mixed reactions among partymen,” said a senior AIADMK leader. AIADMK is happy that EPS, OPS, minister K A Sengottaiyan and those with financial muscle including P Thangamani, S P Velumani and M R Vijayabhaskar delivered well in their districts. The party holding its forte in the “kongu” belt has also come as a relief.

“But, the losses in Thanjavur and Krishnagiri, where party deputy coordinators R Vaithilingam and K P Munusamy are in control, indicate that these leaders neither have the connect with the people nor with the cadres,” the leader said. With the party settling down to functioning under the “dual leadership”, there is little for EPS to fear in retaining his hold over the government.

A section in the party feels the results should set off alarm bells that all is not well in the party and it needs to work harder and reach out to people more vigorously. “It is kind of a mid-term health check-up. There are warning signals, but the results are not a setback,” quipped a former AIADMK MP.

In fact, state dairy minister K T Rajenthra Bhalaji appreciated the vigour with which DMK cadres fought the polls. “The fight was only between AIADMK and DMK. While we were satisfied with the belief that we will win, one has to appreciate DMK workers for their tireless efforts. We will have an internal discussion on this,” Bhalaji told reporters in Sivakasi on Sunday.

AIADMK is a waning moon, says Stalin

Slamming AIADMK leaders for calling the DMK a waning moon (thei pirai), DMK president M K Stalin on Sunday said that the rural civic poll results have shown who was waning in the political arena. Unveiling the bust of his father and late chief minister M Karunanidhi in Chennai on Sunday, Stalin said the party will win the civic polls in the nine districts that were left out in this phase. however, charged that there was a concerted effort to downplay the victory of the DMK by painting the results as an equal win for the DMK and the AIADMK. TNN

Screw of nose stud stuck in woman’s wind pipe removed without surgery

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:06.01.2020

A nose stud screw, that got stuck inside the respiratory tract of 55-year-old woman, was removed by a team of doctors at the Pudukottai Government Medical College Hospital without operation on Saturday.

The doctors removed the the screw using a bronchoscope equipped with a video camera.

The patient, Pushpam of Patammal Viduthi in Karambakkudi of Pudukottai district, was suffering from dry cough for the last one month. After she developed haemoptysis, where the patient coughs out blood-tinged sputum, she approached the hospital last Thursday.

On examination, it was found that the screw of a nose stud was stuck in the woman’s wind pipe. The bronchoscopy process was carried on Saturday.

“Endoscopic removal is a big achievement as it avoided the problems of major surgery. Bronchoscopy doesn’t require any preparation. We sprayed the airway to anesthetise it and the screw was pulled up,” said Dr A L Meenakshi Sundaram, dean of Pudukottai Medical College Hospital .

“We had the advantage of having the thread visible in front. Since the diameter of the head is wide, we could catch hold of the head and pull it up through the bronchus. The moment the screw was removed, the lungs started expanding,” he said.

The screw had collapsed the passage and that segment of the lung wasn’t getting sufficient oxygen and she had repeated cough.

The X-Ray itself showed the screw.

The treatment was done free of cost at the hospital, Sundaram added.



X-Ray showing the screw stuck in Pushpam’s (inset) wind pipe

NEET PG 2020 slightly tougher than last year, say medical aspirants

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:06.01.2020

A section of candidates from Chennai who attended NEET Postgraduate on Sunday found the paper to be slightly tougher compared to previous years.

Medical aspirants to whom TOI spoke opined that the test to be moderately difficult as it had more clinical/ case-based questions than anticipated.

The test was conducted at 16 centres in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Admission to Master of Surgery (MS), Doctor of Medicine (MD) and other PG medical courses will be based on the test scores.

The test had 300 questions (divided into three sections), each carrying four marks. Of this, around 120 were clinicalbased questions that need more time to answer. Around 40 other questions were either image-based or direct choicebased questions, said candidates.

“Responses from our students suggest that the paper was moderately difficult and those who prepared well had no issues in completing on time,” said K Vinayak Senthil from SPEED institute, which trains NEET PG students. Some found questions based on recent updates to be a little bit tougher and time-consuming, he added.

Sakthivel, a candidate from Anna Nagar said, “Wuestions from obstetrics & gynaecology (O&G), surgery and ophthalmology were more difficult and that many hadn’t appeared in previous years’ question papers.” Basic science questions (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry pathology and microbiology) were easy, helping them focus more on tougher questions, he added.

TN man who made it big in Kerala gives land worth ₹1cr to homeless
Devanathan Veerappan & Aswin J Kumar TNN  06.01.2020

Madurai/Thiruvananthapuram: K Abdullah (born Subramani), 51, was in his early teens when he left Puliyankudi near Kadayanallur in Tenkasi district and arrived at Kadakkal in Kollam district in Kerala to earn a living. A Class I dropout, all he could do was help out in a snack shop. Through hard work and sheer perseverance over the years, Abdullah rose in life and went on to set up a chain of wholesale grocery stores.

Thirty-five years on, Abdullah is paying back to the society that made him what he is now. He has purchased a 1-acre plot, which is now worth ₹1 crore, where 87 houses will be built for homeless families in Kadakkal panchayat under the Kerala government’s Mission LIFE (Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment), which envisages a comprehensive housing scheme for all landless and homeless people in the state. Documents for the land parcel will be handed over to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan next week.

Abdullah spent his early years making and selling snacks. Later, he bought a push cart and started selling snacks on his own. The business slowly prospered and Abdullah bought five shops.

Land will help build multi-storey apartment to house 87 homeless people

A few years ago, he transferred four of his shops to people who worked for him, at a nominal price.

“Abdullah used to be in the forefront when it comes to charity. He used to help a home for the differently abled in a nearby village by providing them food and basic needs,” Biju, Kadakkal panchayat president, told TOI.

“It’s not about having money, it’s about how you spend it. If your money could be useful to those who really need it, then your assets become meaningful. I had spent countless nights under a leaking roof in my house. My circumstances did not let me study further and I had to start working at a very young age,” said Abdullah.

“One cannot help all the people around him, but certainly one can help at least a few people to alleviate their sufferings,” said Abdullah, whose family fully supports his philanthropic activities.

Abdullah’s parents Karupaiah and Muthammal, who still live in his native place, had named him Subramani. He changed his name to Abdullah after he embraced Islam in 2001. He has two children – Sabija, who is married, and Mohammed, who is a pharmacy graduate.

“I’ve had business transactions with some people in local villages for more than 20 years. They have helped me in many ways to come up in life,” he said.

Biju said there are 127 homeless people in the panchayat, of which 87 will get houses in multi-storeyed buildings to be constructed in the plot under Mission LIFE.

Abdullah’s gesture has come at a time when the mission was finding it hard to find land and close a bargain for land deals due to soaring prices.

“I never think I lose something when I spend money for others, I actually feel richer,”’ says Abdullah.

If your money could be useful to those who really need it, then your assets become meaningful

K ABDULLAH