Keralites stuck at Kerala-TN border should be allowed to cross if they have a pass: HC

Keralites stuck at Kerala-TN border should be allowed to cross if they have a pass: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi:  11.05.2020

In a hearing conducted through videoconferencing on Sunday, the high court directed that Keralites stuck at Kerala-Tamil Nadu border at Walayar since Saturday should be allowed to cross if they have obtained passes from Tamil Nadu. The court also directed the government to provide basic facilities to those reaching the various entry points to the state.

A division bench comprising Justices Shaji P Chaly and M R Anitha considered a public interest litigation filed by Harish Vasudevan through senior advocate George Poonthottam. During the hearing, advocate Mohammed Shah, who represented the Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru units of All India KMCC, sought a directive to ensure proper coordination between Kerala and TN governments.

Advocate Sajal P E sought the court’s intervention on 13 Malayali students stranded at the Malahalla entry point, which is a forest area.

While making clear that its directive regarding those stranded at Walayar shouldn’t be treated as a precedent, the court ordered, “Accordingly we direct the respondents, who are the state and its officials, to take urgent immediate steps to facilitate the persons stranded at Walayar on May 9 to cross the state border by issuing necessary passes.”

“However, we make it clear that all those persons who are crossing the border in accordance with the passes so issued shall strictly adhere to the order and guidelines specified above and any other orders issued by the state government to deal with the situations day by day.” Immediate attention and preference should be given to pregnant women, the aged, and children, the court directed.

Others stranded at Walayar also should be issued passes at the earliest, avoiding unnecessary delay as they are stranded since Saturday, the order said.

Regarding the other demands, the court said, “We direct the state government to ensure that basic facilities are provided to the persons reaching the entry points as is stated in the guidelines specified above and any violations of the same would be viewed by this court strictly.”

Full report on www.toi.in

FREE TO GO: Nuns crossing the Walayar border in Kerala

Govt approves indigenous antibody detection test

Govt approves indigenous antibody detection test

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  11.05.2020

The government has approved an indigenous antibody detection test for Covid-19, which will enable health authorities to do surveillance testing to see how much of the population has been exposed to coronavirus infection. Once these antibody test kits are manufactured indigenously, it will reduce India’s dependence on countries like China for testing kits.

The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has developed and validated the indigenous IgG ELISA test ‘Covid Kavach Elisa’ for antibody detection for Covid-19. While real-time RT-PCR is the frontline test for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, robust antibody tests are critical for surveillance to understand how much of the population has been exposed to infection.

An official statement said, “NIV’s competent scientific team successfully isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus from laboratory-confirmed patients in India. This, in turn, has paved the way for the development of indigenous diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2.”

The indigenous antibody test will eliminate the need for low-quality Chinese kits — recently, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had to return about 500,000 such kits after they malfunctioned, with variable results.

According to official sources, the test was validated at two sites in Mumbai and was “found to have high sensitivity and specificity”. “In addition, the test will have the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours. Moreover, ELISAbased testing is easily possible even at the district level as the ELISA kit has inactivated virus,” a source said. This will make it easier to distribute kits at the panchayat level.

The ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test is used to detect antibodies in the blood for a wide variety of infections, particularly HIV. India has a history of being able to successfully combat HIV-AIDS. With the new indigenous antibody test, India will be able to use the existing infrastructure.

The statement said the test had the advantage of having much higher sensitivity and specificity as compared to the several rapid test kits which have recently flooded the Indian market. Health minister Harsh Vardhan said, “The robust indigenous IgG ELISA test for antibody detection developed by ICMR-NIV, Pune will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of the population exposed to SARSCoV-2 coronavirus infection.”

The test will have the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours. ELISA-based testing is easily possible even at the district level as the kit has inactivated virus

OFFICIAL SOURCE

Denied entry into labour room, man bites off part of doc’s ear

Denied entry into labour room, man bites off part of doc’s ear

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur:  11.05.2020

A 32-year-old man bit off a portion of a junior doctor’s ear and assaulted at least three others on duty after being denied entry into the labour room at MKCG Medical College and Hospital on Sunday.

The injured doctor Shakil Khan, a postgraduate student of the facility’s gynaecology and obstetrics department, was administered first aid and his condition is stable.

The accused, Tarani Prasad Mohapatra of Tara Tarini Chhaka, was arrested under various sections of the IPC and the Epidemic Disease Ordinance, 2020, said SP (Berhampur) Pinak Mishra. “We will seek permission to book him under the National Security Act as well,” he added.

Mishra said Mohapatra was part of a group of seven or eight male attendants of a patient which wanted entry into the labour room. First rebuffed by the security guard and then by Khan, an infuriated Mohapatra bit off a portion of the doctor’s ear. “He also assaulted at least three other doctors on duty, along with the guard,” Mishra said.

“My only fault is that I stopped the man from barging into the room that had a number of patients at the time,” Khan said.

“We want exemplary punishment for the accused so that others will not dare to attack doctors on duty,” said Bharati Mishra, the gynaecology department HOD. She also sought better security in the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Junior Doctors Association, Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Vimsar), Burla, wrote to chief minister Naveen Patnaik seeking the invocation of NSA against the accused. The Indian Medical Association, Odisha, also condemned the attack on the junior doctors and urged DGP Abhay to book the culprit under non-bailable charges.

Tirupati loses ₹400cr during lockdown

Tirupati loses ₹400cr during lockdown

Sandeep.Raghavan@timesgroup.com

Tirupati:  11.05.2020

The world’s richest temple trust Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which runs the Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala, on Sunday said that it has lost ₹400 crore of revenue during the lockdown and does not have enough cash to pay salaries and meet daily expenses.

TTD officials said the trust has already spent nearly ₹300 crore towards salaries, pensions, and other fixed expenses during the lockdown and is deliberating on ways to resolve the crisis “without having to touch” its eight tonnes of gold reserve and ₹14,000 crore fixed deposits.

‘‘TTD is obligated to pay salaries and pensions… It has a fixed annual expenditure of nearly ₹2,500 crore,” said TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy.

TTD’s payout for human resources for 2020-21 is pegged at ₹1,385.09 crore. It has to shell out approximately ₹120 crore every month on paying salaries and pensions. In addition, TTD has to extend financial support in the form of grants to the tune of nearly ₹400 crore to SVIMS, BIRRD, and other healthcare institutions run by it, besides funding the welfare hostels, educational institutions and universities under its fold.

The temple attracts 80,000 to 100,000 devotees daily; the rush increases considerably during festival seasons, officials said.

Petition to give PPEs to non-med frontline workers

Petition to give PPEs to non-med frontline workers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:  11.05.2020

A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed before Madras high court seeking to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to nonmedical frontline workers in the state.

R Sathiamoorthy, executive trustee of the NGO ‘People’s Watch’, said though the state government had taken effective steps for the containment of Covid-19, non-medical frontline workers such as police, fire and rescue services personnel, cleanliness workers, ambulance staff, revenue officials, volunteers and mediapersons were left vulnerable.

All non-medical frontline workers, particularly police personnel and volunteers managing crowds and traffic, were not wearing PPE kits but only masks. He said news reports revealed that several such workers had tested positive for Covid-19 and the Koyambedu experience clearly established the need for properly protecting all frontline workers by providing them PPE kits. Nonmedical frontline workers involved in the disease prevention works should also be subjected to routine medical checkup.

He further stated that careful directions and strict implementation were lacking regarding the need for PPE kits for frontline workers. Though he had submitted representation to the authorities concerned, no steps were taken so far, the petitioner said while seeking a direction from the Madurai bench of the court to the state government to take immediate steps in this regard.

Police, fire and rescue services personnel, cleanliness workers, ambulance staff and mediapersons were among vulnerable, the plea said

Lockdown doubts

Covid & prohibition: Let’s put up a spirited battle, not fight ghosts

STORYBOARD

Covid & prohibition: Let’s put up a spirited battle, not fight ghosts

ARUN RAM  11.05.2020

Being honest in politics is tough. Look at Karti Chidambaram. The Congress MP from Sivaganga last week said he doesn’t advocate prohibition. “I don’t agree with those who propose it. Almost all who propose total prohibition are hypocrites. Very few have the moral authority to do so,” said the son of former Union minister P Chidambaram in an FB post. Karti was attacked by his rivals, including men of such high morality as his former aide ‘Karate Thiyagarajan’.

The Tamil Nadu government blundered in opening liquor outlets last Thursday — an act that has probably given rise to what we may soon call the ‘Tasmac Covid cluster’. The desperation is evident as the state continues to lose an average of 90 crore daily from liquor sale (the total revenue in 2019-20 was more than 31,000 crore) at a time when it is scraping the bottom of the barrel. A simple solution would be to allow online sale and door delivery of liquor—something the government has been resisting despite courts giving their nod, obviously because it doesn’t want to upset the Tasmac shop guys who overcharge without a bill.

Let’s face it: Prohibition is a failed notion the world over. The idea of restrictions on the use and trade of alcohol has punctuated known human history; the earliest can be traced to the Code of Hammurabi, the Babylonian law of 1754 BC Mesopotamia. In the early 20th century, protestants tried prohibition in North America, the Russians between 1914 and 1925, and the US between 1920 and 1933.

No doubt, alcoholism (not to be confused with drinking) has killed people, shattered families and shocked society, but projecting drinking as an act of sin and attributing all things ill to alcohol give me the hiccups. Here’s my unsolicited advice: If you can hold your drink, well, drink.

In India, Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Lakshadweep have prohibition laws, yet illegal sale of alcohol happens in these places. Same is the case in countries, mostly Islamic ones, that have prohibited alcohol on religious grounds.

Tamil Nadu has a history of intermittent prohibition, starting with C Rajagopalachari’s order in 1937. MGR finally launched Tasmac as the state seller of alcohol in 1983. I have lived through N T Rama Rao’s prohibition in Andhra Pradesh from 1995 (the same year his son-in-law snatched power in the famous ‘August coup’). During those years, at sundown, pagers (not many had mobile phones then) would beep out such messages like ‘are we reading or writing tonight?’ ‘Reading’ — note the initial alphabet — meant rum, ‘writing’ whiskey. As bootleggers laughed their way to the bank, the state bled. Naidu lifted prohibition in 1997.

Drinking is an informed choice. The authorities can spell out the ill effects, not stop him. Every liquor label legally sold in India carries the statutory caution: Consumption of alcohol is injurious to health. So do scrolls on our cinema and television screens whenever a character reaches out for a bottle (I wonder if anyone would remake Devdas again).

I bat for a different prohibition — that of driving after drinking. That alcohol impairs our motor and cognitive abilities temporarily (the very reason why many people drink) is an uncontested scientific fact. Campaigns against drunk driving have a higher impact than preaching on moral and religious grounds. A case in point is the impact made by campaigns of Mothers Against Drunken Driving (MADD), an NGO formed initially by women who lost their children to drunk driving in the US.

Such compelling campaigns work. The ‘sin theory’ doesn’t. The only sin I find in a single malt is in the spelling. But then, I also find a monk in Old Monk.

arun.ram@timesgroup.com