Role of pvt. hospitals in handling COVID-19 remains unclear

IMA to hold State council meeting today to discuss the issue

15/03/2020, SERENA JOSEPHINE M.,CHENNAI

Many private hospitals in the city have said there is no clarity about their role in handling the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This is despite the State Health department announcing that it had held meetings with representatives of private hospitals and the Indian Medical Association, and that treatment protocols had been shared with them.

C.N. Raja, State president, Indian Medical Association - Tamil Nadu branch, said, “Private hospitals have not prepared isolation facilities so far. IMA is having a State council meeting on Sunday, and we will be discussing COVID-19, how we can handle [it], and cooperate with the government.”

In response to queries on their preparedness, at least three major private hospitals said that as per the Central government’s instructions, they are not supposed to divulge any information. A few said they had earmarked isolation facilities, while some doctors said they were told not to treat patients with suspected symptoms of COVID-19 but refer them to government hospitals. Many doctors said no proper guidelines or information had reached them. A doctor at a private hospital in Tambaram took to social media to air his concerns. The hospital, he said, had been receiving patients with classic symptoms of COVID-19 and travel history to the Middle East for the last two weeks. “We called the helpline numbers. They said they do not check persons with minor symptoms. The patients were sent home,” he said.

A senior consultant said suspected COVID-19 patients had been referred to the government hospital. “At the GH, they were not screened or tested. The government should test at least suspected patients,” she said.

Navin Gnanasekaran, associate director of medical services, MGM Healthcare, said they had identified an appropriate area for the isolation of patients with suspected/confirmed COVID-19, and were ready to attend to in-patients. He added that as of now, the government had directed healthcare professionals to identify patients with symptoms of cold/cough or fever and determine their travel history or contact with patients who had tested positive for the virus. In case of suspicion after assessment, they will call the government hotline, and based on the advice they receive, the patient will be sent home for quarantine or referred to the government in-patient admission facility.

A senior official of a corporate hospital said, “There are certain areas of concern. The lack of testing kits is one.” “We have procured about 5,000 full body suits, protective gear, long shoe covers and goggles. But if 10 to 15 patients come in, these will be exhausted within a week,” he said.

Opening of arrival hall at airport terminal put off

AAI cites COVID-19 concerns

15/03/2020, SUNITHA SEKAR,CHENNAI

The hall has been lying unused since its inauguration in 2013.

The opening of the arrival hall at the international terminal of the Chennai airport has been put off temporarily due to the COVID-19 situation, said sources.

The hall has been lying unused ever since it was inaugurated way back in 2013, as part of phase I modernisation of the Chennai airport. It was never put to use, with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) claiming that it could not be used due to insufficient manpower in both Immigration and Customs. It was later decided that the hall would be used for departure operations, but even this has been getting delayed for several months now.

Recently, AAI officials had decided that operations would finally begin by mid-March.

‘No point now’

AAI officials said that they had to postpone starting operations at the hall due to the existing circumstances created by COVID-19.

“Even now, we are prepared for it, but immigration authorities are not in favour of implementing it now due to concerns regarding COVID-19. But even otherwise, starting operations now doesn’t really help much because the point of operating the hall was to augment capacity of the departure hall at the international terminal, to ease peak-hour congestion. Now, both aircraft movement and passenger traffic have fallen drastically, and those travelling can just go through the existing departure hall itself,” an official said.

In the last two weeks, over 90 flights have been cancelled due to the impact of COVID-19. On Saturday too, several flights to various destinations like Dubai, Colombo, Muscat, Kuala Lumpur and Kuwait were cancelled. Such cancellations are going to continue in the coming days and the number is likely to increase, he added.

I-T Dept. shocked by Tasmac’s acceptance of banned notes

Dismisses State undertaking’s explanation of law and order as reason for accepting invalid notes

15/03/2020, MOHAMED IMRANULLAH S.,CHENNAI

The I-T Department has sought tax for ₹57.29 crore in unexplained investment.

The Income Tax Department has expressed shock at the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) having accepted demonetised currency notes worth ₹57.29 crore from customers between November 9 and December 30, 2016, in contravention of the demonetisation announcement made by the Prime Minister on November 8, 2016.

After scrutinising the Corporation’s I-T returns for the year 2016-17, the department found that it had an opening balance of ₹84.23 crore as on November 9, 2016. Of that balance, ₹81.57 crore was in Specified Bank Notes (SBN or demonetised currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1,000) and ₹2.66 crore in other denominations.

Subsequently, Tasmac had collected ₹3,490.21 crore between November 10 and December 30, 2016, and the collections were deposited in bank accounts on a daily basis. Records showed that the Corporation had deposited about ₹140 crore in demonetised notes during the entire demonetisation period. After deducting the initial ₹81.57 crore, the balance worked out to ₹57.29 crore.

“The assessee is a government-owned State undertaking and it is beyond imagination how the State undertaking, managed by an IAS officer, would collect demonetised currency in contravention of the order of the Government of India,” the I-T department said in an Assessment Order passed on December 30, 2019, and accessed by The Hindu.

“Though assessee claimed that it accepted SBN from customers due to law and order problems, the assessee has failed to produce any evidence from Government of Tamil Nadu or the police evidencing any law and order issue that constrained [it] to sell non-essential commodity like liquor against invalid bank notes,” the I-T department order said.

Refusing to believe that illegal transactions could have been carried out by a State entity and since Tasmac did not provide branch-wise details of deposited demonetised notes, the I-T department said the transactions using demonetised notes should be treated as “unexplained investment,” for 2017-18.

Besides demanding tax for the unexplained investment of ₹57.29 crore, the department ordered proceedings against Tasmac.

Indian-origin students abroad grapple with rising uncertainty

Students Looking For Accommodation Amid Travel Restrictions

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai:15.03.2020

Indian students abroad who are being encouraged to move out from universities’ halls of residences are largely looking for accommodation locally and preferring to stay put rather than flying out. Help has come from unexpected quarters and in the time and age of social media, friends, family and even strangers are offering a couch and a meal. But not everyone is lucky. Stuck in cities that are completely locked out, many are homesick and waiting to return.

Residential and travel restrictions imposed across several universities in the US saw unsure Indian origin students grappling with fast-paced changes. Labelling their furniture and moving them to large common storage rooms, returning their keys and suddenly hunting for a space to live in has not been easy on them.

Amidst all that, hope and help has come from Indians in the USA. Ashok Kolla, chairman TEAM Square of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA), said, “We have helped 24 students find accommodation after their universities asked them to leave campus. These include students from Ohio, Atlanta and California.” Kolla added that the stranded students had been put up at motels run by Indians free of cost. Also, a few Indian families have come forward to take them home.

A graduate student from Bengaluru, who is currently pursuing a certificate in advance management course to get into an MBA programme at Babson College, Wellesley, Boston, confirmed that international students had been asked to leave campus. “I live outside campus and hence, was not affected.”

Rao Maddukkuri, whose son Akhil is in the third year of his undergraduate course in management sciences engineering at Stanford University, said officials had advised international students to leave, but those who could not were being allowed to stay on.

Kolkata-based Dr Sabyasachi Mitra, whose son studies computer engineering with Maths honours at Purdue University, is very anxious. “My son, Rishi, wanted to return. However, I asked him to stay back. The health infrastructure there would be better geared to fight this outbreak. Coming on a flight and going through airports will make him more risk-prone.”

Delta is temporarily suspending service between JFK and Mumbai from next Tuesday. The last flight from JFK to Mumbai will operate on Saturday (March 14). The last flight from Mumbai to JFK will operate on Monday (March16),” the airline said.

Full report on www.toi.in

STUCK: A student carries a box to her dorm at Harvard University, after the school asked its students not to return to campus after spring break and said it would move to virtual instruction for classes

Complaints against food apps up 100%

Fury Over Poor Quality Of Food

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:15.03,2020

Complaints over food quality and hygiene standards against online food ordering and delivery platforms look set to double during the current financial year with 1,955 grievances lodged between April 2019 and January 2020, as against 1,053 during the 2018-19 fiscal year.

The consumer affairs ministry recently gave the details of complaints in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The complaints were registered through the National Consumer Helpline set up by the government.

The ministry said online food ordering and delivery services have increased during the last three years. “Some instances of sale of sub-standard food being delivered through online food delivery service platforms have come to notice of FSSAI. Whenever any [such] instance is received, the same is taken up with the commissioner of food safety of states/UTs. The Food Safety and Standards Act and Rules & Regulations framed thereunder have provisions to ensure food quality and hygiene,” the ministry said.

The details accessed from NCH show that one-fourth of the 5.65 lakh complaints registered till January this year were related to e-commerce. In response to another question in the RS in December last year, the consumer affairs ministry had said that the top five companies against whom the maximum complaints were registered between April and September 2019 included two major ecommerce firms — Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd and Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd. The other three companies were from the telecom sector — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.

NCH data also show that as high as 18% of the complaints against e-commerce firms between April 2019 and January 2020 were related to no refund of paid amount and in 12% cases of wrong goods being delivered. Non-delivery or delay in delivery of products comprised nearly 21% of the complaints.

According to an official report, the maximum complaints were received from UP (14%), followed by Maharashtra (13%) and Delhi (11%).

Passengers avoid trains as neighbouring states shut down

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.03.2020

As governments in Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana have declared a near shutdown to check spread of Covid-19, people have started to defer travel. Trains from Chennai to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram have low patronage for this weekend and the coming weeks.

Seats are available for the next few days to the three cities which otherwise see a huge rush. Usually, all trains are on waitlist for 24 hours advance booking and sometimes there is a regret waitlist notification on the online site.

But all of next week, Brindavan Express, on the Chennai-Bengaluru route, has 934 to 1,000 seats available on second sitting. Shatabdi Express that departs at 6am has more than 600 seats available on AC chair car on weekdays and weekends in the coming week. Similar is the situation for trains to Hyderabad. Chennai-Hyderabad Kacheguda Express has 71 seats available for booking on AC III tier on March 16. B Rema, who was planning a trip to Thiruvananthapuram, has decided to put it off because of the checks. “The district authorities there have asked people not to step out unless it is unavoidable. My relative has told me that not many autos are plying,” she said.

A railway official said the availability of seats in airconditioned class show people are hesitating to travel. “The demand for berths is high at least during weekends to these towns because there are many who travel on weekends and book tickets in advance.”

Sleeper coaches have some demand unlike the airconditioned coaches but the tickets are not getting sold as quick as it should be at this time, said an official.

However, a senior official said “seats are likely to get filled in the coming days. Seats often gets filled slowly only in this season because of exams. “The travel picks up by mid April,” he said.

As a measure to contain spread of Covid-19, South Central Railway has issued an order saying they will not issue woollen blankets to passengers in airconditioned coaches, unless people ask for it. Passengers will be given sheets and a pillow. Railways is also taking steps to disinfect trains after every trip in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.

Overloaded share auto overturns, 1 dead, 4 injured

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.03.2020

One passenger died and four others sustained injuries after the share autorickshaw they were travelling in overturned on OMR on Friday.

The overloaded share autorickshaw was plying from Kandanchavadi to Madhya Kailash carrying 12 people including the driver.

The driver lost control and the vehicle hit a median on Rajiv Gandhi Salai at Taramani.

Police have identified the deceased as V Moorthy, 57, of Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh. The incident happened around 11pm and when auto driver Manikandan, 29, of Tsunami Colony, Semmancherry, was carrying the auto with as many as 11 passengers to Madhya Kailash from Kandhanchavadi. Most of the passengers are employees of a catering firm at Kandanchavadi. They boarded the auto from a wedding hall in the area, police said.

When the auto reached the traffic signal at SRP Tools bus stop, Manikandan lost the control of the vehicle leading to the accident. While Moorthy died on the spot and Manikandan suffered injuries on the head.

Some of the other passengers were Desikan, 44, Shanmugam, 34, and Murugesan, 39, and have been admitted at Royapettah Government Hospital. The Guindy traffic investigation wing police have registered a case and further investigation is on.