Overnight hike in LPG price leads to chaos

Consumers Who Booked Cylinders Before Increase Asked To Pay Up

Aditi.R@timesgroup.com

Chennai:13.02.2020

An overnight hike in LPG prices has put several consumers who had booked their cylinders earlier in a fix as agencies have begun demanding that they pay the difference amount of ₹147 at the time of delivery. The consumers had paid the prehike amount of ₹734 online.

Price of a non-subsidised LPG cylinder weighing 14.2 kg in Chennai has increased by ₹147 to ₹881according to Indian Oil website. The price hike has been the steepest since January 2014 and consumers, especially those who have paid for the cylinders online, are having a hard time making the revised payments.

“When I booked an LPG cylinder yesterday, it was ₹759 and I paid the amount online. I also received a booking confirmation message on my mobile,” said Ganesan, a government employee. “But on Wednesday, the delivery boy asked me to pay ₹145 more since the price was hiked at midnight. Would they return the difference amount if the price had dropped,” he asked.

T Narendranath, a resident of Alwarpet, also booked a cylinder and paid online on Monday. But on Wednesday, when the delivery boy came to his house, he had to return because Narendranath and his family were away and their house help at home did not have money to pay the hiked rate. “We had paid the earlier price online so that when we return home we will have the cylinder. But now it seems like we have to go home and request the agency to deliver once again,” he said.

Narendranath also complained that when he went to re-book the cylinder online, he had to make a new payment. “They would neither adjust this with the old payment nor would we get back the money we paid online. The only option we have is to pay the difference in cash. The authorities should have thought through all this before making the announcement,” he said.

K Parthiban, who also paid for the cylinder online, complained about the steep hike. “People who earn well can afford to buy the cylinders but what about others? The caretakers of my house, who draw a monthly pay of ₹4000, are already worried about making ends meet,” he said.

An official from the oil industry said the steep price hike and increase in online payments by customers was the reason behind the confusion. “But customers only have to pay the amount mentioned on the printed bill and not a rupee more,” he said.

When I booked an LPG cylinder yesterday, it was ₹759 and I paid the amount online. I also received a booking confirmation message on my mobile. But on Wednesday, the delivery boy asked me to pay ₹145 more since the price was hiked at midnight. Would they return the difference amount if the price had dropped?

GANESAN

Chennai resident

Govt issues guidelines for appointment on compassionate grounds
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:13.02.2020

Following court directions, the government issued comprehensive guidelines for the legal heirs of government staff, eligible for consideration under compassionate grounds.

An order issued by chief secretary K Shanmugam said the legal heirs of government staff who died in harness, retired on medical invalidation (within age of 53), defence personnel killed/disabled in action and who died in harness were eligible for consideration. The legal heir or dependents of missing government servants may be considered when a competent court declared the missing government staff was dead in view of the provisions of Indian Evidence Act 1872. That apart, legal heirs of government staff who die under suspension and yet to reach the age of superannuation, and the dependents of the persons belonging to SC killed in communal clash, will also be considered.

The legal heirs of those staff, who are retained in service after the date of superannuation, under temporary appointment, consolidated pay, daily wage, contract appointment and whose services not regularised, those not coming under regular time scale of pay, are not eligible. The order said the legal heirs/close relatives of the deceased government staff are also eligible for compassionate. This included, son/unmarried daughter/wife/husband/legally adopted son/legally unmarried adopted daughter/widowed daughter/divorced daughter/deserted daughter. Father/mother and unmarried brothers and unmarried sisters of the unmarried deceased government staff also eligible.

Police set up spl team to fight fake news on social media
Residents Urged Not To Believe Rumours
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:13.02.2020

“Beware, don’t encourage people who approach your doorstep asking you to take a blood test for diabetes. They could be anti-social elements, belonging to a particular banned outfit roaming around to spread HIV.” – Tamil Nadu police. Such messages, purportedly from the law enforcers for effect, have been flooding social media platforms over the past few days and causing panic.

The city police have decided to act against such messages which are alarming and designed to disturb the public peace. A special team has been set up and will monitor and bust such fake news doing the rounds in social media. Police will also keep urging members of the public not to believe any rumours. “These fake messages don’t look like random rumours, but seem to be carefully composed. They look official enough to deceive people” said a police officer.

The subject could be about kidnappers on the prowl to take away children, about burglars set to strike at houses or about the safety of women. Recently, senior officers were surprised to see two messages with the logo of the state police asking the members of public to be wary of the child lifters, particularly in the northern parts of the state. Another one spoke about police providing exclusive cab services to women to ensure their safety. Both were found to be false. “We know these are fake messages, but still we conducted checks as the message appeared genuine,” said the officer.

The special team, comprising officers and staff from the social medisa monitoring wing, will check with personnel across various districts and after ensuring no such information had been passed will post the clarification message on the police’s social media accounts like Facebook and twitter. “Sometimes the messages are disturbing; some even land on our phones,” the officer said.

The team will monitor fake message and also probe the source of such messages. Once the culprit is found, he/she will be taken to task for spreading rumours.

“Our aim is to create awareness in the minds of the public and also to ensure they don’t get duped,” said police commissioner A K Vishwanathan.

AICTE: 50% seats vacant, no new engg colleges for 2 years

Hemali.Chhapia@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:13.03.2020

The All India Council for Technical Education has put the brakes on engineering education. With a glut in BTech institutes across India, no fresh applications for setting up new institutes will be accepted till 2022. The decision draws upon the experience of the admission season of 2019-20 which saw every other seat in this technical stream remain vacant.

India is home to the second largest cohort of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates after China. But estimates show the country is the world’s capital in terms of engineering capacity. Put together, India has a total of 27 lakh seats in the undergraduate (14 lakh), diploma (11 lakh) and postgraduate

(1.8 lakh) space, but only 13 lakh students took admissions in 2019-20, with seven lakh of them joining undergraduate programmes. “In view of the large number of vacant seats in various programmes during the last few years and the likely future demand, the council shall not grant approval to new technical institutions at the diploma/ undergraduate/postgraduate level in engineering and technology,” stated the new AICTE handbook that defines the guidelines for the coming academic year.

ENGINEERING SPACE NEEDS RE-ENGINEERING

‘Ban on new BTech institutes should be reviewed after 2 years’

The council’s committee headed by IIT-Hyderabad chairman B V R Mohan Reddy suggested that the ban be reviewed after two years.

In 2019, merely six lakh graduates found jobs during campus placements, according to AICTE data. Between 2015 and 2019, a total of 518 engineering colleges shut down.

Experts say the technical education sector needed a massive revamp. “The hopeless engineers and sluggishness in the industry are leading to a massive breakdown of technical education in India,” said G D Yadav, former vice-chancellor, Institute of Chemical Technology.

The National Perspective Plan also states that existing colleges asking for new programmes or for increase in student intake in engineering and technology will be turned down, barring those that are starting courses in emerging areas. The Reddy report stated if one looked at seats available versus students admitted, the number stood as low as 49.8%. “Creating any further capacity is a big drain on investments since, at the very basic level, it involves the creation of physical infrastructure like buildings and laboratory infrastructure. We recommend that we do not create any new capacity starting from the academic year 2020. The creation of new capacity can be reviewed every two years after that.”

When the sun of the new millennium rose, shining on the aspirations of a young India, it marked the golden age for professional education. In the early part of the previous decade, hundreds of new institutes came up and thousands of aspirants queued up to join them. That was a time when the country was bullish on education and India added tens of thousands of seats to its professional colleges every year. Two decades hence, the picture is one of stark contrast in technical professional colleges.

Father’s Pensionary benefits not exempt from Attachment towards Payment of maintenance to children 

February 4, 2020



The Kerala High Court has held that a father’s pensionary benefits are not immune from attachment towards payment of maintenance to children.

A Division Bench of Justice K.Harilal and Justice C.S. Dias was considering the question whether the father’s pensionary benefits are exempted from being disbursed towards arrears of maintenance payable to his children.

This was in an Original Petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, challenging the orders of an Execution Court which directed KSRTC – petitioner’s employer- to deposit the maintenance arrears in the Court, and permitted his children to withrdraw the same.

The petitioner raised the contention that pension is immune from seizure/attachment under Section 11 of Pensions Act and Section 60 (1) (g) of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The court said that since the petitioner is a retired employee of the KSRTC, it is KSR-Part III which is applicable for disbursement of pension and not Section 11 of the Pensions Act. As per Rule 124 of the KSR, pension is not liable to seizure/attachment at the instance of a creditor for any demands against the pensioner.

However, the Court said that the claim of wife and children for maintenance cannot be regarded as a debt and they cannot be treated as creditors.

This conclusion was arrived at on the basis of definitions of ‘creditor’ and ‘alimony’ given in Halsbury’s Laws of England, Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary, and several judicial precedents such as Chaturbhuj v. Sita Bai, Ramesh Chander Kaushal v. Veena Kaushal & Ors.

On this basis, the judgment authored by Justice C S Dias observed :

“In light of the definition of the word “creditor”, and that payment of alimony is not a debt or liability and that it is not one founded on a contract, express or implied, but is a legal means of enforcement of the obligation of the husband and father to maintain his wife and children, we hold that the respondents 2 and 3 cannot be branded or labeled as “creditors” of the petitioner. The liability of the petitioner to maintain his children is statutory and sacrosanct falling within the sweep of Art.15 (3) and Art.39 of the Constitution of India, as observed in Ramesh Chander Kaushal (supra)”.

“If wives and children are treated as creditors falling within the exemption to Rule 124 of the Rules, it will render laws relating to payment of maintenance redundant. Such a suppressive interpretation cannot be permitted”, the Court said.

In this regard, the judgment also noted that Section 39 of the Transfer of Property Act gives a person who has the right to receive maintenance a charge over the property belonging to the person bound to maintain such person.

The court also examined Section 60 (1) (g) of the CPC where the court observed that the legislature has knowingly included the words “family pension fund” under the said section.

“Therefore,it is held that wife and children do not fall within the fold of the exemption to Section 60 (1) of the Code, as family pension fund that is payable to the family/dependents of the pensioner is exempted from attachment only by a person falling outside the purview of family”, the Court observed on this aspect.

The Court also observed that the liability of the husband/father to maintain his wife/children is statutory as well as Constitutional, falling within the sweep of Art 15(3) and Art. 39 of the Constitution of India. While dismissing the petition the court said that the children have charge over the properties of the father and their right to be maintained by the father (petitioner) overrides all such exemptions in the law.

Ex railway staff arrested for sexually assaulting 16-yr-old girl for months in Chennai

Shankar Rao had abandoned the girl at the Chennai Central station after doctors told her she was pregnant.

news Crime Tuesday, February 11, 2020 - 09:35
 
The Chennai police arrested a former railway employee for sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl with learning disabilities and impregnating her. The police found out about the crime on Monday, when the girl was spotted at the Dr MGR Chennai Central station, trying to contact her family.

As per reports, the police arrested 45-year-old Shankar Rao who had allegedly confined the girl in his house for five months and sexually assaulted her. The police came to know of the incident on Monday, when the girl was trying to contact her grandmother from a public phone in Dr MGR Chennai Central station. She was rescued by the Childline staff and handed over to the Child Welfare Committee in Chennai, where she narrated her ordeal.

According to the CWC, the girl lived in Visakhapatnam and had gone missing in October 2019 on the way to a pilgrimage with her parents. Shankar Rao met her near a bus stand in Visakhapatnam and brought her to his house in Thiruvottiyur where he sexually abused her for over four months. On Monday, the girl had complained to Shankar Rao that she had severe stomach pain and he had taken her to a hospital where the doctors told her that she was pregnant. Shankar Rao then brought her to the railway station and abandoned her.

A member of the CWC told that while questioning the girl, they realised that she had learning difficulties. However, she had the address of the man and hence the police were able to nab him from his house. As per the police, Shankar Rao worked as an electrician in Southern Railways but was sacked in 2017 allegedly on disciplinary grounds. His wife had separated from him since he was an alcoholic and was irregular to work. The Thiruvottiyur police have registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and remanded him to judicial custody.

யார் இந்த கேஜ்ரிவால்?- பாஜகவையும், காங்கிரஸையும் அசைத்துப் பார்த்த டெல்லி அரசியல்

புதுடெல்லி 12.02.2020

2020 சட்டப்பேரவைத் தேர்தலிலும் கேஜ்ரிவால் பெரும் வெற்றி பெற்றுள்ளார். இதன் மூலம் 3-ம் முறையாக அவர் முதல்வர் பதவி ஏற்கவுள்ளார்.

ஹரியாணாவில் ஒரு நடுத்தரப் பொறியாளரின் குடும்பத்தில் 1968-ம் ஆண்டு பிறந்தவர் கேஜ்ரிவால். கோரக்பூரில் உள்ள ஐஐடியில் இயந்திரவியல் பொறியியல் பட்டம் படித்தவர், டாடா ஸ்டீல்ஸ் நிறுவனத்தில் ஜாம்ஷெட்பூரில் 1989-ம் ஆண்டு பணியில் சேர்ந்தார்.

பின்னர் அரசுப் பணித் தேர்வுக்குத் தயாரானதால் தனியார் பணியை விட்டு விலகினார். கொல்கத்தாவில் சில ஆண்டுகள் வசித்த அவர் அன்னை தெரசாவின் மிஷனரீஸ் ஆஃப் சாரிட்டீஸ், ராமகிருஷ்ணா மடம் ஆகியவற்றில் இணைந்து சமூகப் பணியாற்றினார்.

அரசுப் பணி

1995-ம் ஆண்டு மத்திய பணியாளர் தேர்வாணையத்தின் குரூப்-1 தேர்வில் தேர்ச்சி பெற்ற அவர், வருமான வரித்துறையில் உதவி ஆணையரானார். 2000-ம் ஆண்டில் மேல்படிப்புக்காக விடுமுறையில் வெளிநாடு செல்ல முடிவு செய்தார். ஆனால் அரசுப் பணி விதிமுறைகளால் பல்வேறு இடையூறுகளைச் சந்தித்தார்.

வருமான வரித்துறையில் பணியாற்றிய நிலையில் கேஜ்ரிவாலும், மணிஷ் சிசோடியாவும் சேர்ந்து 1999-ம் ஆண்டு பரிவர்தன் என்ற அமைப்பை உருவாக்கினர். அதன் மூலம் ஊழலுக்கு எதிரான பிரச்சாரத்தை அவர்கள் நடத்தினர்.

2002-ல் மீண்டும் வருமான வரித்துறை பணியில் சேர்ந்த கேஜ்ரிவால், ஓராண்டாக எந்தப் பொறுப்பிலும் நியமிக்கப்படாமல் இருந்தார். 18 மாதக் காத்திருப்புக்குப் பிறகு ஊதியமில்லா விடுப்புக் கோரி விண்ணப்பித்தார். பின்னர் 2006-ம் ஆண்டு பதவியில் இருந்து விலகினார்.

ஊழலுக்கு எதிரான இயக்கம்

இந்த நிலையில்தான் அண்ணா ஹசாரேவின் ‘ஊழலுக்கு எதிரான இந்தியா’ இயக்கம் பெரிய அளவில் தாக்கத்தை ஏற்படுத்தியது. 2010-ம் ஆண்டில் டெல்லியில் காமன்வெல்த் விளையாட்டுகளுக்கான ஏற்பாடுகளில் ஊழல் நடந்ததாகக் கூறி போராட்டம் நடத்திய கேஜ்ரிவால், அடுத்த ஆண்டே அண்ணா ஹசாரே, கிரண் பேடி உள்ளிட்டோர் முன்னெடுத்த ஊழலுக்கு எதிரான போராட்டத்தில் தன்னையும் இணைத்துக் கொண்டார்.

ஜன்லோக்பால் மசோதாவை நிறைவேற்றக் கோரி நாடு தழுவிய அளவில் போராட்டம் நடைபெற்றது. அண்ணா ஹசாரேவின் நெருங்கிய சகாவான கேஜ்ரிவால், பிறகு ஹசாரேவிடம் இருந்து விலகி 2012-ம் ஆண்டில் நேரடிய அரசியலில் கால் பதித்தார்.

எளிமையான தோற்றம், சாமானியர்களை அணுகும் போக்கு, அடித்தட்டு மக்களை ஈர்க்கும் பேச்சு என அரவிந்த் கேஜ்ரிவாலின் செல்வாக்கு உயர்ந்தது. மக்களைக் கவரும் உத்திகள் மூலம் எளிதில் ஈர்ப்புள்ள அரசியல்வாதியானார்.

15 ஆண்டுகளாக தொடர்ந்து டெல்லியில் காங்கிரஸ் கட்சியின் வசம் இருந்த ஆட்சி மீது மக்களுக்கு ஏற்பட்ட அதிருப்தியை தனக்குச் சாதகமாகப் பயன்படுத்திக் கொண்டார். 2013-ம் ஆண்டு சட்டப்பேரவைத் தேர்தலில் ஆம் ஆத்மி 28 இடங்களில் வெற்றி பெற்றது. பாஜக 31 தொகுதிகளை வென்றது. 8 தொகுதிகளை வென்ற காங்கிரஸ் ஆதரவுடன் கேஜ்ரிவால் டெல்லியில் ஆட்சியில் அமர்ந்தார்.

காங்கிரஸ், பாஜகவுக்கு மாற்று

காங்கிரஸ் ஆதரவுடன் ஆட்சிக்கு வந்த நிலையில், அப்போது மத்தியில் ஆட்சியில் இருந்த காங்கிரஸ் கூட்டணியின் ஊழலை கடுமையாக விமர்சித்தார். இதனால் கேஜ்ரிவாலின் முதல் ஆட்சி 49 நாட்கள் மட்டுமே நீடித்தது. வெளியில் இருந்து ஆதரவளித்த காங்கிரஸ், ஆட்சியைக் கவிழ்த்தது. குடியரசுத் தலைவர் ஆட்சி அமைந்தது.

பின்னர் மத்தியில் காங்கிரஸ் தோல்வியடைந்து பிரதமர் மோடி தலைமையில் 2014-ம் ஆண்டு பாஜக ஆட்சி அமைந்தது. 2015-ம் ஆண்டு டெல்லி சட்டப்பேரவைத் தேர்தல் நடந்தபோது கேஜ்ரிவால் மீண்டும் பெரும் வெற்றி பெற்றார்.

மொத்தமுள்ள 70 தொகுதிகளில் 67 இடங்களை ஆம் ஆத்மி கைப்பற்றியது. பாஜக வெறும் 3 இடங்களில் மட்டுமே வென்றது. காங்கிரஸ் எந்த இடத்திலும் வெற்றி பெறவில்லை.

தற்போது 2020 சட்டப்பேரவைத் தேர்தலிலும் கேஜ்ரிவால் பெரும் வெற்றி பெற்றுள்ளார். இதன் மூலம் 3-ம் முறையாக அவர் முதல்வர் பதவியை ஏற்கவுள்ளார்.