Flights to bring back Tamils stranded in Singapore

Flights to bring back Tamils stranded in Singapore

04/06/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The High Commission of India in Singapore has announced a tentative schedule of flights, including a few to destinations in Tamil Nadu, to bring back Tamils stranded there.

More details, including pricing and ticketing guidelines, will be posted separately, the Indian High Commission said in a tweet.

As per the tentative plan, flights have been scheduled from June 9 to 24 to Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore and Chennai.

Ramasubramanian of Karaikudi, who is among those stranded in Singapore, said Tamil Nadu’s Public Department had forwarded his mail about 400 stranded Tamils to the High Commission on Wednesday for necessary action.

‘Contact info, Aadhaar details must for testing’

‘Contact info, Aadhaar details must for testing’

04/06/2020,CHENNAI

Flagging concerns about incomplete information provided by some private laboratories, Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G. Prakash has urged all labs to ensure that they collect and verify contact information as well the Aadhaar numbers of all persons who get tested for COVID-19.If a person does not have an Aadhaar number and a sample has been taken, he shall be placed under quarantine till the results are declared, he said.

T.N. moves SC for 50% BC quota in medical courses

T.N. moves SC for 50% BC quota in medical courses

04/06/2020,NEW DELHI

The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court for a direction to the Centre to implement 50% reservation for Backward Classes in the State in the All India Quota seats for medical and dental courses. The government accused the Centre of violating the “right of the people of Tamil Nadu to have a fair education” by not implementing the quota.

Record rise takes T.N. tally past 25,000-mark

Record rise takes T.N. tally past 25,000-mark

Of 1,286 new cases, 1,012 are in Chennai

04/06/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu reported a record rise in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. With 1,286 fresh cases, its tally breached the 25,000-mark. Chennai, for the first time, accounted for 1,000-plus cases on a single day.

With this new high, T.N.’s COVID-19 count has surged to 25,872*. Meanwhile, another 610 persons were discharged from hospitals, taking the total number of patients discharged so far to 14,316.

The State’s toll crossed 200 with 11 more fatalities in Chennai, Tiruchi and Chengalpattu.

Of the fresh cases, Chennai accounted for 1,012, taking its tally to 17,598. The city currently has 8,405 active cases, and accounts for 158 of the 208 deaths in the State.

After several days, the number of samples tested went up to 14,101, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 5,28,534.

Among the 11 fatalities was a 47-year-old man from Chennai.

He was admitted to the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital on May 31, and died on June 1 due to respiratory failure.

A 48-year-old man from Chengalpattu was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai with fever, cough and difficulty in breathing for three days.

He had systemic hypertension.

Suicide of student disheartening: HC

REFERS CASE TO CJI

Suicide of student disheartening: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi:04.06.2020

The high court has on Wednesday termed the alleged suicide of a Class IX student belonging to a scheduled caste after she was unable to attend online classes as ‘disheartening’.

Considering a petition challenging collection of school fees despite the lockdown, citing improper online classes through WhatsApp, and lack of action by the state government in controlling the situation, justice CS Dias observed in an interim order: “It is disheartening to learn that a student allegedly took away her life due to lack of access to the Internet for attending virtual classes.”

Stating that right to education is sacrosanct in the Constitution and is the mandate under Right to Education, the court issued a stay on collecting fees from the petitioner and referred the case to the chief justice to be considered as a public interest litigation.

The petition was filed by a student of Sree Budha Central School at Karunagappally. The court has ordered the school not to levy any additional fee from the student until further orders.

The petition claimed that several states and Union territories have formulated guidelines for conducting online classes and have ordered that students should not be denied education for not paying fees during the pandemic period. However, no such guidelines have been issued by the Kerala government, it alleged.

Further, the petition said the online classes being conducted are not virtual or online classes in its real meaning and yet unreasonable fees are being charged under the heads of smart classroom facilities and computer charges. The online class is being conducted at the school by sending voice messages of teachers through WhatsApp to the parents, who are to download them and teach the children who are studying in classes lower sixth standard.

The petitioner is ready to pay the tuition fees on monthly basis if online or virtual classes in its true sense is provided by the school, the petition said while pointing out the lack of guidelines to set standards for conducting online classes.

Google pulls out Remove China App from Play Store

Google pulls out Remove China App from Play Store

Anam.Ajmal@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:04.06.2020

Google pulled out the ‘Remove China Apps’ (RCA) application from its Play Store on Tuesday. The app, which claimed to remove apps developed in China from a user’s phone, had gone viral amid a nerve-jangling border standoff between India and China.

According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, which tracks the number of downloads of popular applications, RCA was downloaded over 4.7 million times between May 27 and June 1. The app’s removal created an online furore. #RemoveChinaApps and #GooglePlayStore were among the top trends in India with 27k and 13k tweets on Wednesday.

Jaipur-based firm One-Touch AppLabs (OTA), who had developed RCA, took to Twitter to announce that the app was taken down by Google. “Dear Friends, Google has suspended our #Remove-ChinaApps from google play store. Thank you all for your support in past 2 weeks. “You Are Awesome” TIP: Its easy to find the origin of any app by searching on google by typing ‘AppName’ origin country. Stay Tuned !! Stay Safe!!” the firm tweeted late on Tuesday.

A Google spokesperson told TOI on Wednesday why the app was removed. “Our global Play policies are designed to provide a safe and secure experience for our users while also giving developers the tools they need to succeed. When violations of these policies are identified, we have an established process of working with developers to help them find remedies,” the spokesperson said.

The recent border stand-off had resulted in an online clamour for boycott of Chinese products. Some well-known personalities, too, had supported the call, prompting several Indian users to uninstall TikTok, a short video sharing application, owned by Chinese company Byte Dance.

The description on the OTA website stated that the app was developed for “educational purposes.” It added that it only identified the country of origin of a certain application

(s), but did not “promote or force people to uninstall any of the application(s).”

RCA was removed by Google because it violated policies defined under “Privacy, Security and Deception” categories which prohibit any app on the play store from being “deceptive, malicious, or intended to abuse or misuse any network, device, or personal data”

Earlier, Google had removed Mitron app, another short video sharing application that was dubbed to be the Indian alternative to TikTok. Several reports claimed that the developed by an IIT student. It was later found that the app was, in fact, developed by a Pakistani company.

POLICY VIOLATION