MKU registrar will continue: VC

TNN | May 8, 2020, 04.35 AM IST

Madurai: The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) vice-chancellor M Krishnan on Thursday said the resignation of registrar (in-charge) N Sankar Natesan has not been accepted and he will continue to discharge his duties at least till the colleges reopen.

On May 1, after a five-month stint, Natesan submitted his resignation. “I have not accepted his resignation. Amid current situation, there needs to be no confusion. There is no violation of due process. Once colleges reopen, we will re-advertise for the post of permanent registrar,” Krishnan told TOI.

“I received information on Wednesday that my resignation was not accepted. The post of registrar is a key position and as per rule I have to continue to discharge my duties until someone else is appointed,” said Natesan.

Natesan, who is also professor and head, department of Genetic Engineering at MKU School of Biotechnology, had previously said that he wanted to focus on scientific research. However, his sudden resignation had stirred controversy in MKU circles.

The university is still yet to get a full-time permanent registrar since the post was last held by V Chinniah from 2017 to 2019. During the last MKU syndicate meeting held on January 29, it was decided to re-advertise to the post of permanent registrar as all candidates interviewed that day were found unsuitable.

HR&CE dept asks staff to return to work

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  0805.2020

The Hindu religious and charitable rndowments (HR&CE) department on Thursday asked 33% of its officials to rejoin duty in offices of joint commissioner, assistant commissioner as well as deputy commissioners. The department manages more than 38,000 temples in the state.

HR&CE commissioner Phanindra Reddy in an order said staff reporting for duty must wear masks, use sanitizer and follow social distancing. The staff have been split into two groups and will work for four days each for the eight days left this lockdown. Temples have remained closed to devotees since March 25. Priests perform pujas and important temple events are being live-streamed.

Tasmac queue tokens given out in govt school in Salem

Mayilvaganan.V@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore:  08.05.2020

When crowd surged in front of a Tasmac outlet in a village in Salem district on Thursday, the official machinery thought it fit to shift token distribution for the tipplers to a government school about 500 metres away. The tipplers were asked to queue up inside the panchayat union primary school at Kamalapuram near Omalur, where Tasmac staff issued them tokens.

The official apathy, which resulted in the school being put to such use, irked the residents of Kamalapuram. A group of agitated villagers took up the issue with police and Tasmac staff, who stopped after issuing tokens to about 300 people.

“This is the height of government apathy. If authorities treat school as an extension of a Tasmac outlet, won’t tipplers be emboldened to enter the campus at night and consume alcohol,” asked K Selvakumar, district coordinator of Palli Kalvi Pathukappu Iyakkam. Selvakumar also questioned the education department authorities for agreeing to open the gates of the school for a nonacademic purpose like this.

Soon after the issue surfaced on social media, there was blame game among the officialdom. Senior Tasmac officials said they were not aware that the school was being used for token distribution and passed the bucks to local staff and police. “Tasmac staff were instructed only to issue tokens in front of the outlet. But it was local police who instructed them to shift token distribution to the school playground as a large number of people started gathering,” said G Vediyappan, district manager, Tasmac.

Salem collector S A Raman said he has ordered a probe into the incident. “I have sought an explanation from Tasmac as well as panchayat union officials. I have told education department officials to inquire and submit a report. Strict action will be taken based on the report.”

INQUIRY ON: Crowd at panchayat union primary school at Kamalapuram where the tokens were distributed to tipplers for the Tasmac outlet 500m away

Not wallet, fish out mobile to pay for bus ticket post lockdown

Ram Sundaram and Shanmugasundaram J TNN

Chennai:  08.05.2020

Government bus conductors have been told to avoid exchanges of currencies and opt for e-payment options like Google Pay, Paytm for issuing tickets after services resume.

An internal circular explaining standard operating procedures (SOPs) to be followed by all state-run transport corporations once lockdown was lifted has advised authorities to popularise monthly passes and day cards as an alternate to usage of currency notes, which might transmit virus.

This indicates that Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Chennai might restart daily pass scheme, which was put on hold two years ago due to technical reasons.

Over 8 lakh people subscribed to seasonal passes when the scheme was active, says official data. This was almost one-fourth of MTC's total daily patronage. "So, it will be not a herculean task for MTC to expand this post-lockdown," said R Rengachari, a transportation activist.

A senior transport department official said, "We are working to migrate to the new mode of ticket selling methods and exploring the possibilities of using e-payment and mobile-based app ticket purchase options. It is in a primitive stage, but the corporation is trying its best to materialise it at the earliest".

The circular, issued by state transport secretary Dharmendra Pratap Yadav, has also barred entry of passengers, who don't cover their mouths with a cloth or mask. They can enter buses only through the back gate and exit through the front.

Conductors should act as 'crowd managers' at halts and inside the bus so that seat occupancy didn't exceed 50% at any point of time and distance between two standing passengers was at least 6 feet.

"This means only 5 to 6 people can stand inside a bus at a time. So, passengers who wait for long at bus stops will not listen and push us aside to get in. This will lead to more chaos," said A Arunagirinathan from Centre of Indian Trade Union, TNSTC Coimbatore.

As far as drivers were concerned, their cabin will be separated from the rest of the bus with the help of a transparent screen or curtain and they should ensure that buses were parked at 5-metres gap. "This was practically impossible in a crowded interchange point as it will need at least 100 feet," Arunagirinathan added.

The circular also mandates disinfection of buses, use of sanitisers and thermal screening of workers at the end of every trip.

FIGHTING COVID-19

WHY COVID TESTS AREN’T CONCLUSIVE

Issues With Sample Collection And Testing Kits, Inexperienced Staff Can Throw Up Wrong Results, Say Experts

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  08.05.2020

On Wednesday, 15 of the 25 samples tested by the lab at the Government Villupuram Medical College turned negative in the confirmatory test hours after the lab technicians had confirmed that the screening tests were positive. At the Covid-19 control room, officials were already suspecting technical errors when districts such as Chengalpet, Cuddalore and Ariyalur were reporting a sudden spike as a spill over from the Koyambedu cluster.

For instance, cases in Ariyalur went up from 34 on May 5 to 222 on Wednesday and 246 on Thursday. Cuddalore, where there were 39 cases on May 3, touched 356 cases and Villupuram, which had 53 cases, had 205 cases. “In some cases, positivity rate was higher than 70% of the samples tested,” said a public health official.

When the announcement about mismatch came in, there was a loud murmur. “It used to happen earlier but the numbers weren’t this large,” said health minister C Vijayabaskar. “We are now seeing a wave of new cases. Labs are also seeing variations. Yet, we told the lab not the declare sample negative, but to repeat the test for the second time,” he said. The department is planning to send a team of senior microbiologists and virologists to labs for standardisation of testing.

Senior virologists and doctors say a number of factors from sample collections, technical issues with the kit or machine and inexperienced staff can cause ‘errors’.

The RT-PCR test available in the market follows two methods -- one-step and two-step protocols. In the two-step testing kit used by government labs in Tamil Nadu, the first step called ‘screening’ looks for one antigen-coding gene envelope from the patient’s nasal or throat swab sample. If this turns out to be positive, the same sample is moved for a confirmatory test which looks for another antigen-coding gene - RdRp. If RdRp is also positive, the patient is declared positive. Else the virologist declares the sample negative.

“In our tests RdRp turned negative in several cases,”

said a senior doctor at Villupuram Medical College. “We were not able to conclusively declare them as negative because almost all patients are asymptomatic,” the doctor said.

Though rare, National Institute of Virology (NIV), an apex referral lab for Covid-19, says it has received such complaints. “If confirmatory tests are negative, after screening shows positive, we ask labs to collect the second specimen from the same individual and repeat the tests,” said the lab’s senior virologist. An internal control or ‘house-keeping gene’ plays a very decisive role in confirming the test results. “The gene RNAseP (RP) is like a host cell or house-keeping gene. This serves as an internal control in each test. PCR is valid only if this returns positive. Else test is declared inconclusive,” he said.

The problem, virologists say, may be due to combination of reasons. The simplest reason that doctors point to is the case of false negatives. “Sometimes healthcare workers may not have collected enough material (nasal or throat secretions) on the swab. If this happens, the machine may spin a false negative result at the time of discharge. There is up to 30% chance of false negative or missing out on detection of an infected patient due to error in drawing throat or nasal samples,” said infectious diseases expert Dr Subramanian Swaminathan.

TN raises retirement age of staff to 59, puts off ₹5,000cr payment

Julie Mariappan & B Sivakumar TNN

Chennai: 08.05.2020

Call it Covid-19 effect, a cash-strapped TN government on Thursday increased the retirement age of its staff from 58 years to 59 years to defer an outgo of ₹5,000 crore towards retirement benefits for the current fiscal. More than 25,000 government employees were set to superannuate this financial year.

The order has come into immediate effect and will be applicable to all government employees, teaching and nonteaching staff in government and aided educational institutions, and employees of constitutional statutory bodies, PSUs, corporations, local bodies, boards, commissions and societies. Those who are due for retirement on May 31 this year will now retire on May 31, 2021. The move is also aimed at appeasing the 12 lakh-odd government employees and teachers, whose DA increase and leave surrender facility have been frozen for a year.

Increase in retirement age evokes mixed response from govt employees

The increase in retirement age has evoked mixed response from government employees. TN government officials’ union (TNGOU) and Tamil Nadu secretariat association have welcomed it. Secretariat association president Peter Anthonysamy said, “It is a welcome move, especially as it comes when a global pandemic is wreaking havoc.”

But joint action council of Tamil Nadu teachers’ organisations and government employees’ organisations strongly condemned the move, saying it would adversely affect job opportunity of youngsters and delay promotions of senior employees. “It is an indirect attempt to ban recruitment for a year, akin to the fiveyear ban on direct recruitment enforced in 2001,” Jactto-Geo state coordinator T Anbarasu said. Jactto-Geo fears that the government, going by the recent recommendations of staff rationalisation committee, would even outsource some work, instead of filling up vacancies. The ban on direct recruitment was lifted in 2006.

The Tamil Nadu government employees’ association has announced a state-wide protest on Friday in front of government offices seeking withdrawal of the order. Tamil Nadu cooperative department association president M Soundararajan, said, “The increase in age of superannuation will leave youngsters distressed. There were talks of giving one-year extension to employees in essential services. We never expected extension of service for all.”

The MGR government raised the age of superannuation from 55 to 58 years in Tamil Nadu in April 1979.

“We needed to cut expenditure drastically. By freezing dearness allowance and leave surrender facility and lowering PF interest rate (to 8%), we saved ₹7,850 crore annually, which is roughly 12% of the total salary bill of ₹64,208 crore for the current fiscal. As regards ₹5,000 crore retirement benefits (₹2,764 crore towards gratuity and ₹2,221 crore for leave surrender), of 25,000 people who were expected to retire this year, we are only deferring payment by a year. It gives us some breathing time. It is not savings,” said a senior official in the finance department.

The TN government employees’ association has announced a state-wide protest on Friday in front of government offices seeking withdrawal of the order

‘Centre should allow States to devise their own economic strategies’

Former Finance Secretary advocates bottom-up approach

08/05/2020, MOHAMMED IQBAL

Former Union Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram, who is now Economic Advisor to the Rajasthan Chief Minister, heads a task force for suggesting appropriate measures on restarting the economy in the State to mitigate the COVID-19 aftermath. In a written interview to The Hindu, Dr. Mayaram says the Centre should not issue detailed guidelines for the entire country. Edited excerpts:

How do you view the lockdown as a strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic? Will it succeed in “flattening the curve”? Would you also correlate it with demonetisation of currency notes in 2016?

I do not believe there was any other option but to lock down to contain the contagion and flatten the curve. However, it could have been planned better and with better consultation between the Centre and the States. Lockdown with a four-hour notice heaped misery on the people, especially the poor. Lockdown has resulted in close to 65% of the economy grinding to a halt with manufacturing and the services sector severely hit. The economy would take a long while in recovering and in that sense the shock is even more severe than the one inflicted by demonetisation.

The task force headed by you has submitted its report with a comprehensive road map for restarting economic activities in Rajasthan. Has it dealt with the impact of unprecedented decline in the State’s revenue collection?

The task force had a limited remit to suggest the manner in which the State’s economy can be restarted. This would require massive efforts by both the Centre and the State and that would require huge resources. Unfortunately, with the economic activities down to zero, tax collections have plummeted. By closure of liquor shops alone, Rajasthan was losing ₹30 crore each day. Therefore, the report also recommends certain measures that the Central government should take to shore up State’s resources.

How will the most vulnerable sections of the society be able to get back their livelihood?

The first step has already been taken by the State government by ramping up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Works have started all over the State and the number of persons reporting for work is touching 12 lakh per day. These are returning migrants, landless labourers, small and marginal farmers, artisans and even small shopkeepers. Rajasthan has been the perhaps the first State to ramp up MGNREGA works so quickly. Work at MGNREGA sites puts money in the hands of the poor and it is expected that the consumption cycle would slowly start from the bottom of the pyramid.

The division of districts in red, orange and green categories on the basis of spread of contagion, as recommended by you, has been accepted by the Centre as well. What should be an effective strategy to contain the virus within the hotspots without completely stopping the wheels of the economy?

The need is to intensify testing and isolate contagion in small but tight circles as it erupts. The norms for social distancing, wearing masks, use of sanitisers, etc., has to be strictly enforced. However, economic activities including retail must start, not just for sale of essential items but for things of general use. Supply chains should be aggressively restored, right down to the retail level. For quick start, it is very important to keep the instructions simple and easily understandable. The manner in which guidelines are issued with innumerable addendums and clarifications, even the most adroit administrator would find it difficult to follow.

I have consistently said that the Central government should not issue detailed guidelines for the entire country but allow the State governments to devise and implement economic strategy which reflects the State’s reality. Within the State too, the local administration must have enough autonomy to act according to the ground realities within an overall framework. The country would pay a very heavy economic price if we continue to work without an overall comprehensive strategy for restarting the economy or continue with an over-centralised control system.