TN med univ convocation on Thursday

Chennai:03.03.2020

Thirty-two years since its establishment, Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University will hold its annual convocation for the first time on its own campus in Guindy.

At the 32nd convocation of the state medical university, which will be held on Thursday, degrees will be given to 17,590 candidates, vice-chancellor Dr Sudha Seshayyan said on Monday. The degrees will be handed over by Indian space scientist K Kasturirangan, former head of Isro. He will also deliver the convocation address, while senior Indian physicist R Chidambaram, former principal scientific advisor to the Union government, will speak on “artificial intelligence in medicine”.

Until 2019, convocations were held at the centenary auditorium of the University of Madras. The university will be able to save ₹2 lakh spent on renting the hall besides transportation and other charges, officials said.

The event will be declared open by the university chancellor and Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit at 11am in the presence of pro-chancellor and health minister C Vijayabaskar. TNN

State med univ to use AI to curb malpractice in exams

Software Works Real-Time, Will Be Tested In PG Tests In May

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.03.2020

In an attempt to curb malpractice and improve surveillance during examinations, the state medical university will launch an indigenous artificial intelligence-driven system, which can monitor examination venues real-time and prompt officials about “suspected” malpractices. The project will be piloted in May for the postgraduate medical examination and will be used from August for UG examination.

The technology can provide directions through instant alerts during exams, university vice-chancellor Dr Sudha Sehayyan said on Monday. The university, in association with the Madras Chamber of Commerce, is working on a software that will raise an alarm when it senses interaction between two students in the exam centre, passing of answer scripts, moving of seats or any other abnormal movement during the examination.

“We are hoping to make the process more stringent to reduce malpractices. We can debar colleges from holding exams and students too will be asked to repeat examinations or be debarred if malpractices are detected,” she said.

In February, the university had asked 35 exam centres holding MBBS exams in the state to livestream the tests. A team of officials were monitoring the livestreams from a control room in Guindy as 12,000 students wrote their semester exams. While it did help in creating a feeling that they were being watched, it was not adequate to catch malpractice such as mass copying or using gadgets to find answers.

The medical university conducts examination for medical, dental, AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy) and other medical-related streams in around 500 centres.

Medical students are given bar-coded answer scripts and question papers are sent to examination centres half an hour before the examinations.

Exam centres must download the question papers using a unique password and print them out only minutes before they hand it over to the students to prevent any leaks. The universities will also send a digital footage of the examination hall to the university for reference.

Jaya death probe panel, well paid, idle for 10 months

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.03.2020

For about 10 months now, members of the Justice (retd) A Arumughaswamy commission, formed by the government in 2017 to probe the circumstances surrounding former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s death, have been sitting idle at their office in Chepauk.

On April 26, 2019, the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings of the commission after hearing an appeal filed by Apollo Hospitals. The hospital group had argued that only a medical board should look into the former CM’s treatment issues.

The government continues to pay salaries to the commission’s staff, all deputed from different departments. This includes Justice Armughaswamy himself and two police personnel for security. Another extension of four months was given to the commission last week.

Sources said the government is trying to get the stay vacated but the next SC hearing is yet to come up. Every day, the 10-15 staff come to their office at Kalas mahal and and check the Supreme Court registry in anticipation of the hearing date.

“The tentative date was February 25 and then it was pushed to March 3 and then 17 and now 24,” a source said.

The commission members correspond with government officials on the next course of action as well as getting the affidavits ready, a source said. The initial mandate of the commission was to file a detailed report within six months. Official sources said despite documenting testimonies of more than 100 witnesses including doctors from the hospital, the commission cannot start work on writing the report as it would be a violation of the SC stay order.

Retired Madras high court judge K Chandru said for the government it was important to keep the issue alive as it was started to ensure that some mouths were kept shut. “All commissions of inquiry are a waste of public money,” he said.

FULL OF FILTH

The meat you eat comes from a house of horrors

Piling Refuse, Broken Roof And Non-Existent Floor, Pulianthope Slaughterhouse Is Bursting At The Seams

Ayyappan.V@timesgroup.com

03.03.2020

Most of the meat that comes to your table may be cut and processed at illequipped abattoirs where workers are forced to stand in a slush of blood and dung as they go about their work.

Though the mutton and beef that come out of slaughter houses are certified by a vet, the conditions in which the animals are slaughtered, skinned and cut go unmonitored. Chicken is handled in the most unhygienic conditions at stalls and markets. They are transported to the city in filthy, stinking cages mostly from Salem and Namakkal.

The abattoir at Pulianthope, the city’s oldest and largest, that gets around 500 goats and 300 cattle on weekends is in a mess and years of neglect has made it a health hazard for nearby residents.

On Monday, TOI saw piles of bones, hooves and refuse all over. In the absence of a proper platform, workers spread animal skin on the ground so that the meat doesn’t get soiled when chopped. Dogs have made the sheds their home and were found lying on the floor where meat is handled.

A meat vendor who has a stall inside the abattoir and lives in the neighbourhood said: “The refuse is not removed. We get scorpions and snakes in our homes. The stench makes it tough to live here.”

Traders who bring their cattle and goats to slaughter are helpless and worried as their pleas to the Greater Chennai Corporation and politicians for a new building at the same location are not being heeded. Tiles have fallen down from most parts of the roof, which can collapse anytime.

“The abattoir does not have basic facilities. As there is no proper platform to cut the meat, they are forced to spread the skin on the ground and chop the meat,” said Perambur MLA Thayagam Kavi. He said a toilet is ready but could not be used because there was no water and sewerage connection.

As the abattoir is in bad shape, retail sellers are uncomfortable selling meat that comes from Pulianthope. In many markets -- including at Zam Bazaar in Triplicane -- they slaughter goats adjacent to stalls because buyers want the meat to be clean.

S Salauddin, president, Chennai Mutton Merchant (retailers) Association, said, “The abattoir in Pulianthope is in bad shape. It is not able to handle the number of animals. The meat that comes from there is cut in an unhygienic manner. It turns red fast. But we have no option but to sell it when demand is high on weekends.”

“We have asked the government to open abattoirs in Adyar, Porur, Tiruvotiyur, Mogappair so neighbourhoods there and get quality meat,” he said.

Salauddin said the abattoir at Pulianthope should not have stalls. “These stalls were opened as piece market for the poor who used to sell the balance meat from slaughtering for a living. But now it has become a business,” he said.

B Sampath, secretary, Chennai Mttiraichi Vyaparigal Sangam (beef traders association) said: “We are helpless. We have made representations to authorities to improve the condition. But they are not doing it.”

The corporation has plans to improve the facility and build new sheds. “Three to four years ago we had repaired the floor but because the cattle are heavy, it got damaged. The renovation plan is likely to cost Rs 1 crore. We met representatives of the traders’ associations but will have a meeting soon about the development work,” an official said.

IN DISREPAIR: The Pulianthope abattoir has nothing common with a state-of-the-art slaughterhouse. Animals don’t have a pen, meat is sold in the open and animal refuse is not removed for days raising a stench. (Right) Food safety officials raiding a fish market to crack down on use of formalin

Nirbhaya convicts to live a little longer as hanging deferred again
Aamir.Khan2@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:03.02.2020

Any condemned convict shouldn’t meet his creator with a grievance in his bosom that the courts of this country had not acted fairly in granting him an opportunity to exhaust all legal remedies, a Delhi court said on Monday while deferring, till further orders and for the third time, the hanging of all four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

On February 17, the court had said the hanging would take place at 6am on March 3. After Monday’s hearing began, additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana initially rejected a plea to defer the execution. But subsequently, he was informed that one of the convicts had moved a mercy plea with the President following the rejection of his curative petition in the Supreme Court. “The conundrum of executing the death sentence against the condemned convicts does not seem to be over. Within half an hour of dismissal of the application of Pawan and Akshay seeking postponement of hanging, their counsel (A P Singh) informed court that Pawan’s mercy plea had been moved with the President of India,” the court said.

11 men get life for Ranchi gang rape

In one of the fastest trials, a Ranchi court on Monday awarded life terms to 11men for the gang rape of a law student on November 26, 2019. The twelfth accused, a minor, is facing trial in a juvenile court. P 7

Game of hide & seek must be dealt with hard hands: Nirbhaya counsel

When the court turned towards special prosecutor Irfan Ahmed, he said under a provision of the Delhi Prison Rules, it is for the government to decide whether to stay or not. “This game of hide and seek on behalf of defense should be handled with hard hands,” he said.

The court earlier asked Singh to show it the rule which explicitly stated that mercy plea could only be filed after dismissal of curative. It also asked him about the provision at the current stage for the court to interfere. “Under what provision shall court come to your rescue?” it asked but could not find an answer from the counsel. Singh urged the court that he had the only option to come to court as it had only issued death warrants.

In its order, the court noted that it would be “axiomatic to state that the extreme penalty of capital punishment is irreversible in nature”. For the court the remedy of mercy plea is an important legal remedy available to the convict and guided by the cherished legal principle Ubi jus ubi remedium – where there is a right, there is a remedy. “I am of the opinion that the application is very much maintainable,” the court said.

Even going by a prison rule, a trial court is required to fix the date of a prisoner’s hanging post rejection of a mercy petition. The court said, “I am of the opinion that the death sentence cannot be executed pending the disposal of the mercy petition of the convict.”

After birth of twins, no maternity benefits for 2nd pregnancy: HC

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:3.3.2020

The Madras high court has ruled that a woman giving birth to twins counts as two deliveries, while denying maternity benefits to a CISF employee when she had a third child after a second pregnancy. Under the rules, a woman government employee can claim maternity benefits only for her first two deliveries.

“When twins are born they are delivered one after the other, and their age and their inter-se elderly status is also determined by virtue of the gap of time between their arrivals, which amounts to two deliveries and not one simultaneous act,” the first bench of Chief Justice A P Sahi and Subramonium Prasad said in a judgment last week.

The issue pertains to an appeal moved by the Union home ministry challenging the order of a single judge extending 180 days of maternity leave and other benefits to a woman member of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) under the rules governing Tamil Nadu government servants.

‘Try to consider case as exception as child may be deprived of benefits’

Challenging the order, the home ministry contended that the claim of maternity leave is by a member of the CISF, for whom the maternity rules of the Tamil Nadu government would not apply. She would be covered by the maternity benefits provided under the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, the ministry said.

When the appeal came up for hearing, the bench said, a second delivery, which, in the present case, has resulted in a third child, cannot be interpreted so as to add to the mathematical precision that is defined in the rules. The admissibility of benefits would be limited if the claimant has more than two children.

“This fact, therefore, changes the entire nature of the relief which is sought by the woman petitioner, and has been overlooked by the single judge,” the court added.

The court set aside the impugned judgment of the single judge, and allowed the writ appeal. If the appellants had power to grant any relaxation in exceptional circumstances, it may be worth consideration, the court said, as it entails financial consequences that may result in deprivation of benefits to the newborn child, who is no way concerned either with the framing of rules or the choice of parents to have a child.

Nirbhaya Case: Plea Moved In Delhi HC Seeking NHRC Inquiry Into Alleged Torture Against The Convicts

Nirbhaya Case: Plea Moved In Delhi HC Seeking NHRC Inquiry Into Alleged Torture Against The Convicts: A plea has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking court's direction to National Human Rights Commission to conduct an inquiry into the physical and mental conditions of the four convicts in the...