Coming soon: double discharge platform at Guindy rail station

Commuters will not have to climb the foot overbridge to get to Metro

03/03/2020, , R. SRIKANTH,CHENNAI

Smooth transition: A double discharge platform is being constructed on the western side of the Guindy railway station. B. Velankanni Raj

Commuters using suburban trains and disembarking at Guindy railway station will no longer have to take a circuitous route and climb the foot overbridge to reach the Metro station.

Southern Railway, to provide easy access to commuters to the Guindy Metro station located within the compound of the suburban railway station, is constructing a platform on the west side. Called a double discharge platform, the facility is already available at important stations such as Park, Tambaram, Mambalam and Egmore. It helps in providing quicker access to multi-modal transport facilities.

A senior official of Southern Railway said all these years the provision of island platforms (entry and exit through only one platform) resulted in commuters being forced to use foot overbridges at railway stations. He said that since the operation of 12-car rakes began, from the earlier nine-car rakes on the Tambaram-Beach section, the foot overbridges had seen congestion at some stations.

In order to provide better access to Metro stations and bus stops near the railway stations and to decongest the the foot overbridges, the railway department has proposed to construct double platforms. As part of this project, Mambalam and Egmore have now been provided with double discharge platforms.

More coming

The railway official said work on the new platform on the western side of Guindy railway station would be completed this month. Double discharge platforms are proposed to be constructed at Chetpet, Nungambakkam, Kodambakkam, Saidapet, St. Thomas Mount, Palavanthangal and Chromepet too. Work will soon start at these stations as well, he added.

Delhi court defers hanging of 4 Nirbhaya case convicts

One of them has moved a mercy plea before the President

03/03/2020, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Waiting for justice: Parents of Nirbhaya outside the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi on Monday. Sushil Kumar Verma

A Delhi court on Monday deferred the execution of the death sentence of the four Nirbhaya gang-rape case convicts indefinitely.

The four condemned men were supposed to be hanged to death on March 3 at 6 a.m.

Hours before what was to be their execution, additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana put on hold their execution when informed that one of the four, Pawan Gupta, had moved a clemency petition before the President on Monday.

The mercy plea was filed shortly after a five-judge Supreme Court Bench, led by Justice N.V. Ramana, dismissed Pawan’s curative petition for lack of merits.

The decision was taken by circulation by the judges in their chambers at 10.25 a.m. on Monday.

“We have gone through the curative petition and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out... The application for oral hearing is rejected. The application for stay of execution of death sentence is also rejected,” the short order on the curative petition said.

Even if the President rejects the mercy plea of Pawan before 6 a.m. on March 3, the law laid down by the Supreme Court in its Shatrughan Chauhan judgment of 2014 requires the convict to be given 14 days to set his affairs straight and “prepare” for the execution.

Recently, the Centre had blamed the Chauhan case judgment for being “convict-centric”. It urged the Supreme Court to revisit the 2014 verdict and make it victim and society-centric.

Again, Pawan can legally challenge the rejection of the mercy plea in the Supreme Court. The fate of the other three convicts would also depend on how long his challenges continue to hold up.

The government has appealed to the Supreme Court for permission to separately execute convicts who have exhausted their legal and administrative remedies without waiting for their co-convicts in the same case to finish theirs in due time. This appeal is pending in the court.

Organ donation

Separately, a Bench of Justices R. Banumathi and A.S. Bopanna dismissed a PIL petition filed by former High Court judge Michael Saldanha for directions to the government and the jail authorities to give the Nirbhaya convicts’ organs for medical research.

“To execute a person is the saddest part for the family. You [petitioner] want their body to cut into pieces... Have a humane approach to these things... Organ donation has to be voluntary,” Justice Banumathi addressed the petitioner.

Treasurer of trust jailed for diverting funds

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.03.2020

The chief judicial magistrate of Coimbatore has convicted a treasurer of a Nilgiris-based charitable trust to three years of imprisonment with ₹51,000 penalty for diverting foreign funds received by the trust for social services. Sulo C Daniel, treasurer of Reach In the Nilgiris Trust has been directed to undergo the sentencing for violation of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

According to the prosecution, Sulo has diverted over ₹50 lakh received by the trust as foreign contribution for her personal gain in collusion with the prime accused and chief functionary of the trust Paulson Yesudian. Since Yesudian had left the country and even summons could not be served to him, the prosecution split the cases into two and proceed with the case against Sulo alone.

She was charged for offences under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) r/w Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC and sections 23(1) and 25 r/w sections 4, 6 and 13 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

Concluding the trial, chief judicial magistrate A S Ravi said, “This court feels that the recipients of money are members, but the purpose for which, the funds were transferred has not been explained and no proper account has been submitted for the amounts spent and the purpose for which, those funds were diverted to them also not explained.”

This apart, it is also not explained that as to why and as to how, the funds were diverted to personal account of the members of the society and Sulo. Dishonestly converting the society funds, entrusted with the accused, into the personal account is itself an offence, which constitutes the ingredients under section 405 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC, the court added.

Noting that the offence cannot be rectified by redepositing the money into the society account, the court said, “By redepositing the said amount, Sulo forced this court to believe the prosecution that she misappropriated the society funds. Even assuming that it was spent for the welfare of the society or for the purpose of the society, they should have produced account for the money spent.”

Medavakkam residents want median removed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.03.2020

Troubled by haphazard vehicle movement, Medavakkam residents have demanded that the highways department remove portions of the median at two intersections on Mambakkam Main Road to ensure smooth flow of traffic and for the safety of schoolchildren. The stretch, off the arterial Velachery-Tambaram Main Road, is one of the busiest roads in the area, frequented especially by parents and other vehicles ferrying schoolkids.

“There are five schools in the neighbourhood and residents use Mambakkam Main Road to reach them,” said M Guru, who uses the stretch frequently.

TOI visited the stretch and noted that motorists have to traverse dangerously at the intersections from Babu Nagar 1st Main Road and 3rd Main Road. A week ago, there was an accident near a temple along the stretch due to unregulated movement of vehicles, residents said. They are of the opinion that their demand to secede a portion of the median is not an extraordinbeen affected due to delay in completion of the flyover on Velachery-Tambaram Road.

Residents are pining that a change in guard in the district administration will put an end to their woes. The village panchayat, which was with the Kancheepuram district, is now part of the newly carved Chengalpet district. “We have started petitioning the new district administration to elevate our neighbourhood into a town panchayat. Despite having a population of more than 50,000, the area is still a village panchayat,” said a resident.

NEEDING A FIX: Residents said oddly placed medians at two intersections on Mambakkam Main Road have left vehicles moving haphazardly, putting schoolgoers at risk

ary request. Residents also urged that steps must be taken soon to construct speed breakers on the stretch and relay access roads.

When asked, a state highways department official said traffic police have to assess the complaints of the residents for the centre median to be cut off.

Unchecked parking of vehicles, including water tankers, along the road has made life of motorists harder. Widening the road proved useless as carriageway space is reduced. Traffic on the stretch has also

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.