Governor’s reference to ‘dual citizenship’ triggers a debate
There is no sanction in the Constitution, say experts

08/01/2020, T. RAMAKRISHNAN

Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s address on the first day of the Assembly session on Monday.R. RaguR. Ragu

Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s address to the Assembly on Monday, in which he advocated dual citizenship for Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka living in Tamil Nadu, has triggered a debate on the advisability of such a proposal.

According to Prof. V. Suryanarayan, founding Director of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras, the Governor could have avoided the reference in his customary address. Prof. Suryanarayan, who has been studying the subject for years, points out that there is no sanction in the country’s Constitution for dual citizenship. The Centre may never agree to the idea, he feels.

It is for the first time that the matter was included in the Governor’s address, even though it was floated by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in April 2016 during her campaign for the Assembly elections. But, the issue did not figure in the address of Governor K. Rosaiah in June 2016 to the Assembly, despite Jayalalithaa retaining power. However, it was included in the memorandum submitted by Jayalalithaa to Prime Minister Narendra Modi around the same time.

The rationale behind the demand is to help the refugees get employment or run businesses in the country “without any hindrance.” Since then, the issue has been raised by her successors, O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami.

In the light of recent criticism by the Opposition on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act excluding from its ambit the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, Mr. Palaniswami raised the issue during his meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah.

To substantiate his position that the Governor should have avoided the reference, Prof. Suryanarayan recalls instances wherein Governors of other States did not toe fully with the text of what their State governments had prepared. To illustrate a few cases, in March 1969, the then West Bengal Governor Dharma Vira skipped portions of the address to the Assembly. In January 2018, Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam left out certain portions of his address which, he felt, used a strong language used against the Central government.

Naturalisation option

However, the academician strongly supports the idea of giving Indian citizenship to refugees who prefer it. He suggests: “If the Central government withdraws its instruction to the State government — issued first in 1983 and reiterated in 2007 — not to entertain applications for citizenship from the refugees, a large number of willing refugees will be eligible to apply for citizenship, under the option of naturalisation.” Differing with him, former Madras High Court judge K. Chandru, says Governors can communicate objections to the governments if they feel certain references are not proper. However, once the text is approved finally, there is not much choice left for them.

Asked whether it is proper on the Governor’s part to refer to a matter, which falls exclusively under the domain of the Union government, Mr Chandru says that even on foreign policy or matters of international implications, the Tamil Nadu Assembly in the past adopted resolutions, some of which got included in the Governor’s addresses too. Recently, the Kerala Assembly adopted a resolution, calling upon the Centre to repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

Two prominent jurists, wishing to remain anonymous, say there is nothing wrong in such a reference, as such an address reflects “aspirations” of the State government. After all, the demand for dual citizenship is “only a recommendation” of the government, they add.

4 Nirbhaya case convicts to be hanged on Jan. 22

Court issues death warrants on a plea by victim’s parents

08/01/2020, SOIBAM ROCKY SINGH,NEW DELHI

All four convicts in the December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case will be hanged on January 22 at 7 a.m. inside Tihar jail, a Delhi court ordered on Tuesday.

Additional sessions judge Satish Kumar Arora issued the death warrants for convicts Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta on a plea by the victim’s parents to expedite their execution.

Before passing the order, the judge conducted a video conference call with the convicts, who are lodged in Tihar, to hear their side of the argument.

The victim’s mother, who was present in the court when the verdict was pronounced, said the decision would restore faith of women in the judiciary.

On December 18 last, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition filed by convict Akshay Kumar Singh against its 2017 judgment upholding his death penalty.

In July 2018, the top court dismissed the review petitions of Mukesh, 30, Gupta, 23, and Sharma, 24, saying no grounds have been made by them for a review of the 2017 verdict.

A juvenile convict in the case has been released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term. One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, died earlier in Tihar Jail.

Panel gives green signal to 150 pvt trains on 100 routes

Dipak Dash & Sidhartha TNN

New Delhi:08.01.2020

A high-powered panel has cleared the road for rolling out nearly 150 private trains on 100 routes, including Mumbai-Delhi and Howrah-Delhi sectors, which will compete with Rajdhani.

While two Tejas trains have been handed over for running by Railways-controlled IRCTC on the Delhi-Lucknow and Mumbai-Ahmedabad routes as an experiment with the “private sector”, the committee’s report is expected to pave the way for a massive competition to the services currently being offered by the state transporter.

The panel was set up by railway minister Piyush Goyal after Railway Board chairman VK Yadav flagged private trains in the government’s 100 days’ agenda.

The recommendations put out for stakeholder consultations have proposed that Indian as well as global players, with experience in railway or travel and tourism sectors be permitted, provided they have a minimum net worth of ₹450 crore. Other performance parameters, such as a maximumpermissible 15-minute delay, beyond which passengers will have to be compensated, have been proposed. On the IRCTCoperated Tejas trains, a similar facility has been offered.

The routes have been divided into seven clusters with a clear plan to develop infrastructure in less-utilised stations such as Panvel near Mumbai and Tilak Bridge and Okhla in Delhi for running long-distance trains.

The train routes have been primarily identified on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes as the railways is hopeful of freeing up tracks by December 2021, when both Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors will become fully operational and take over the burden of handling goods traffic. The railways has also approved the plan to improve the existing tracks on these two routes to allow trains to run at 160 kmph, which has been proposed as the speed limit for private trains.

Full report on www.toi.in

Interim relief for Tamil University VC as HC stays order

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:08.01.2020

A division bench of the Madras high court has granted an interim stay on a single-judge order which set aside a government order (GO) that appointed G Balasubramanian as the vice-chancellor (VC) of Tamil University at Thanjavur.

Balasubramaniam, in his petition stated that he was appointed as the VC of the university on October 5, 2018. A candidate K Ravindran who applied for the post of VC filed a petition before the high court Madurai bench challenging the GO on ground that he did not possess the required qualification in conducting not less than one international level event as per clause 5 of the eligibility criteria.

Balasubramaniam stated that Ravindran also raised another ground that the senate nominee and syndicate nominee of the search committee who were holding positions earlier in the university are ineligible to be members of the search committee as per provisions of the UGC regulation and as per Section 12 of the Tamil University Act, 1982. He said that the single judge had allowed the petition and quashed the GO appointing him as VC on December 20, 2019, citing that the senate and syndicate nominee of the search committee were earlier holding positions as syndicate member and VC of the university by misinterpreting Section 12 (2) of the Act.

NEONATAL HEALTH
TN TAKES A GIANT LEAP IN OFFERING BETTER NEONATAL HEALTHCARE

More Babies Are Being Saved In TN Than Earlier Due To Institutional Interventions

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

08.01.2020

Nano babies weighing less than half a kg and sumo babies weighing a little more than 5kg are not uncommon in neonatal units of Tamil Nadu. What is uncommon is how the state’s healthcare infrastructure is helping fragile newborns recover and get back home safe and sound.

While risks such as low birth weight, preterm births, high risk delivery and infections have risen due to a combination of factors including poor lifestyle, more babies born in the state are now able to survive, said several neonatologists.

The infant mortality rate – number of child deaths per 1,000 live births – in Tamil Nadu has been on a steady decline. Tamil Nadu recorded the second lowest IMR in the country in 2017 with 16 deaths per 1,000 live births. Kerala registered the lowest, 10. The number of underweight babies being brought in for intensive care in the state has gone up both in private and government tertiary care units.

“More babies are being saved in TN now than earlier,” said director of public health Dr K Kolandaswamy. But it wasn’t long before some districts in Tamil Nadu reported higher number of infant deaths owing to inadequate human resources and healthcare infrastructure. There weren’t enough doctors or trained nurses, transport facility for babies or adequate number of intensive care units, said Dr Kolandaswamy, who is also the registrar of births and deaths in the state.

While most private hospitals have managed to set up facilities with advanced equipment in bigger cities like Chennai and Coimbatore, the state administration has taken intensive care to the rural areas by establishing 73 neonatal care units. These units provide intensive care for newborns in medical colleges, district headquarters and subtaluk hospitals. Each of these intensive care units have at least four paediatricians. “Unlike many other states, 65% of deliveries in TN take place in government hospitals and almost 98% of deliveries are institutionalised. Enhancing care in government hospitals would mean keeping out-of-pocket expenditure low,” said K Senthil Raj, director of National Health Mission (Tamil Nadu).

In 2018, the state had 1.11 lakh admissions to its neonatal units, of which 6,000 infants had died, a 1% decline in deaths from what the state-run units saw in 2017, said Dr S Srinivasan, coordinator, State Nodal Centre-National Rural Health Mission. “This year, the mortality has dipped further,” he said.

To match what Kerala has achieved, the state has to push itself further to monitor every pregnancy, identify high risk groups and ensure early care. The state has taken some pro-active steps including protocols to tag high risk pregnant women. Every pregnant woman is registered with the state government. Those visiting government hospitals are categorised as red (high risk), yellow (moderate risk) and green (safe). Those in high risk category are advised to deliver only at a government-run tertiary care centre.

Apart from state-led institutional interventions, doctors said the health of the mother needs to be improved too in order to achieve low infant mortality levels. Increase in hyperte4nsion, gestational diabetes and anaemia among women are some of the leading factors for pre-term births and conditions such as birth asphyxia. As part of maternity benefits, women living below the poverty line are being given protein supplements, multi-vitamin syrups and dry fruits in two trimesters. These supplements help boost haemoglobin levels in the blood. Doctors said at least a quarter of pregnant women have anaemia, and an equal number of them have pregnancy-related diabetes.

“These can impact the health of a child. Earlier, we used to see the average underweight baby was around 2kg, now it’s between 900gm and 1,200gm,” said Dr Rahul Yadav, a neonatologist at Rainbow Childrens’ Hospital. It may not be easy to save them, but with resources that Tamil Nadu has built in neonatal childcare, saving them is no more a tall order.



Unlike many other states, 65% of deliveries in Tamil Nadu take place in government hospitals and almost 98% of deliveries are institutionalised

K Senthil Raj | DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HEALTH MISSION, TAMIL NADU

Madras univ students continue to protest
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:08.01.2020

More than 50 students of University of Madras and its affiliated colleges protested for the second consecutive day on Tuesday demanding the arrest of perpetrators of attack on students and faculty members of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

They also demanded the withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and urged the Centre not to undertake the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizen (NRC).

“First, the students of Jamia Milia and Aligarh Muslim University were attacked and now, JNU students were targeted. If these attacks are allowed to continue, any protesting student could become a target. The Union government should immediately arrest the perpetrators,” a student said.

Expressing solidarity with JNU, students from IIT Madras, University of Madras and Presidency College had protested on Monday. Students, academics and activists also held a candle light vigil.

2.65kg gold worth ₹1.10cr seized at city airport

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:08.01.2020

Customs officials seized 2.65kg gold worth ₹1.10 crore from six passengers at Chennai airport on Monday night and Tuesday.

On Monday night, Ashaff Ali Khan, 51, of Sri Lanka, who arrived from Colombo by a Sri-Lankan Airlines flight (UL123), and Mohamed Azarudeen, 21, and Kalandar Abbas, 36, of Ramanathapuram, who arrived from Colombo on an IndiGo flight (6E 1204), were intercepted and questioned. Ten bundles containing gold in paste form were recovered from them.

On Tuesday morning, Mohamed Ramzeen, 51, of Sri Lanka, and Thajilamin,41, of Ramanathapuram, who arrived from Colombo by a SriLankan Airlines flight (UL125) were intercepted and questioned. Seven bundles containing gold paste were recovered.

In another case on Tuesday, Nagoor Gani, 22, of Chennai, who arrived from Sharjah on an Air India flight (AI 968), was intercepted. Two gold cut bits weighing 60g were recovered from his pants pockets. Three bundles of gold paste were hidden in his rectum.