MTC MD held in ₹2cr job scam case

MTC MD held in ₹2cr job scam case

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.11.2020

Officials of the Central Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested K Ganesan, managing director, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Chennai, in an alleged ₹2-crore job fraud case involving former transport minister V Senthil Balaji. The officer was remanded in judicial custody till November 25.

According to a complaint filed in 2015, the then transport minister K Senthil Balaji and a few others had cheated 81 people of nearly ₹2 crore between 2014 and 2015 by promising them government jobs. The CCB started investigation in November last year after the Madras high court ordered a probe.

Ganesan arrested on charges of cheating, criminal intimidation

K Senthil Balaji, who was AIADMK minister, had joined the DMK and is currently the party’s Aravakurichi MLA.

After police searched 17 places in January, Senthil Balaji got an anticipatory bail in February. In September, police raided the houses of K Ganesan in Anna Nagar West, and houses belonging to Senthil Balaji in Mandaveli and a few others in Karur and Madurai.

K Ganesan, who was working in Coimbatore, was transferred to Chennai as deputy manager (commercial) and was later given additional charge as deputy manager (personnel).

Later, he was promoted as general manager and worked in Villupuram before he came back to Chennai as MD in 2019.

On Wednesday, he was arrested on charges of IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 506  (i) (criminal intimidation).

Centre tightens rules for NGOs to get foreign funds

Centre tightens rules for NGOs to get foreign funds

Such Bodies Must Have Existed For At Least 3 Years: Govt

New Delhi:12.11.2020

The NGOs that intend to receive foreign funding will now face tougher rules with the Union home ministry making it clear that such organisations must have existed for at least three years and spent ₹15 lakh in voluntary activities to be eligible to receive money from abroad.

In a notification, the home ministry also said office bearers of the NGOs seeking registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act must submit a specific commitment letter from the donor indicating the amount of foreign contribution and the purpose for which it is proposed to be given.

The FCRA rules were issued about two months after the central government had amended the law under which providing Aadhaar numbers of the office bearers of the NGOs was made mandatory, office expenses were brought down to 20 percent of such amount and election candidates, government servants, members of any legislature and political parties were prohibited from accepting foreign funding.

“A person seeking registration under clause (b) of sub-section (4) of section 12 of the Act shall meet the following conditions, namely:– (i) it shall be in existence for three years and have spent a minimum amount of rupees fifteen lakh on its core activities for the benefit of society during the last three financial years,” the notification said.

According to the rules, any NGO or person making an application for obtaining prior permission to receive foreign funds shall have an FCRA account.

The home ministry said “a person seeking prior permission for receipt of a specific amount from a specific donor for carrying out specific activities or projects shall meet certain criteria that include submission of a specific commitment letter from the donor indicating the amount of foreign contribution and the purpose for which it is proposed to be given”.

For the Indian recipient persons and foreign donor organisations having common members, prior permission shall be granted to the Indian person/entity if it satisfies the conditions that the chief functionary of the recipient shall not be a part of the donor organisation, and 75 percent of the office-bearers or members of the governing body of the recipient shall not be members or employees of the foreign donor organisation.

In case of foreign donor organisation being a single individual, that individual shall not be the chief functionary or office bearer of the recipient group and in case of a single foreign donor, 75 percent of the office bearers or members of the governing body of the recipient shall not be the family members or close relatives of the donor, the home ministry said. PTI

According to the new government rules, such organisations must have spent ₹15 lakh in voluntary activities to be eligible to receive money from abroad

CM surprises disabled woman in Tuticorin with job order in two hours

CM surprises disabled woman in Tuticorin with job order in two hours

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Tuticorin:12.11.2020

Moved by the plight of a disabled young woman who was waiting in a wheelchair to see him outside the Tuticorin Medical College Hospital on Wednesday, chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami stopped his car, spoke to her and got her a job in less than two hours.

The CM was in Tuticorin to attend a review meeting on Covid-19 and developmental works and inaugurate various projects. As he was leaving the hospital and heading to the collectorate for the review meeting, he noticed the disabled woman and stopped his convoy. The woman, Mareeswari, explained that her husband is a daily wager, now virtually jobless, and they had a five-year-old daughter. The CM instructed revenue department officials to bring her to the collectorate where after discussing with collector Sandeep Nanduri, he surprised the woman by handing over an appointment order.

According to the order, the woman, a Tamil MA holder, will be deployed at the ward for those getting treated under the chief minister’s comprehensive health insurance scheme on a monthly salary of ₹15,000 through an outsourced agency. The CM also handed over a cheque for ₹50 lakh and appointment order as teacher to Bhuvaneswari, widow of police constable Subramanian, 28, who was killed in action on August 18. The policeman was hot on pursuit of a history sheeter in the Vallanadu forest when the accused hurled a country bomb on his head, killing Subramanian instantly.

Earlier , EPS inaugurated a linear accelerator for cancer treatment at Tuticorin hospital.

HELPING HAND: Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami interacts with Mareeswari

Families to hit the road to spend Diwali weekend

Families to hit the road to spend Diwali weekend

Pratiksha.Ramkumar@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore:12.11.2020

With Diwali falling on Saturday and most offices and schools declaring Friday off, many families in the city have decided to drive to nearby hill stations or resorts to make the best use of the long weekend. Pointing to the restrictions on bursting firecrackers and large social and family gatherings, they say there is no point in staying home to “celebrate the festival”.

Entrepreneur couple Amritha and Dinesh Kumar from Nav India are heading to a home stay at Top Slip with their two children and their siblings’ families to celebrate Diwali. They plan to spend the festival morning on a twohour trek. Amritha says, “Living in apartments, we don’t want to stay cooped up for this festive weekend too. We have decided to show our children a new place and a different experience, instead.”

Most of the families have chosen destinations that are less than six hours away and opted for a two to three-night stay. Popular destinations include Ooty and Coonoor in the Nilgiris, Kochi and Kumarakom in Kerala and Coorg and Kabini in Karnataka.

Anahita Mukherjee, who is travelling to Coorg with her husband for the weekend, says, “Earlier, Diwali was a happening occasion with gettogethers and marathon cards sessions. Now that they are not advisable, there is no point in staying back home.”

Meanwhile, for many homestays and hotels, the upcoming weekend would be the busiest one since the lockdown came into force in March. Ritesh Choudhary, general manager of Savoy - IHCL SeleQtions in Ooty, says, “We have hit 90% occupancy. Coimbatore is our second highest source of guests, after Bengaluru.”

Except for a room, Coco Lagoon at Pollachi is also full for the weekend.

This is despite many hotels charging up to 15% premium for the weekend after seeing the traction. Rooms at such hotels cost anywhere between 8,000 and 13,000, inclusive of taxes, a night. “We see more people wanting to travel now just to take a break in a safe place, giving safety a priority over all other considerations,” says Ritesh.

Pointing out they are seeing an exponential increase in people travelling with their pets for vacation, he says, “We are pet friendly with our pawcation initiative.”

There is also demand for small homestays with limited rooms but a lot of open space.

Ambereena, who manages Serendipity group of hotels, says, “At least two of our properties - 180 Mc Iver and Ambereena - are full with large families booking three to four rooms in a single property.”

Bikers go on a trip to make best use of the holiday season

Telangana guv urges students to stay well committed to all endeavours

Telangana guv urges students to stay well committed to all endeavours

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.11.2020

Governor of Telangana Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan urged students to have more commitment in whatever they do in life and not give excuses. “When you are committed, you will do things even if you don’t like them,” the governor said.

She addressed students after virtually inaugurating the new ladies hostel blocks (Marie Curie Block and Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Block) and a vermicomposting unit at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, on Wednesday.

Dr Tamilisai said students should have confidence and courage in life and should not get depressed.

Chancellor of VIT Dr G Viswanathan, in his presidential address, said the government should provide free higher education to all, if not possible, at least for girls. Free higher education to girls will prevent child marriages and also increase the percentage of women in workforce. “Around 30 other countries offer free education and I want India too to provide it,” Viswanathan said.

Covid Diwali: More people want houses professionally cleaned

Covid Diwali: More people want houses professionally cleaned

Mamtha.A@timesgroup.com

Chennai:12.11.2020

In the run up to Diwali, bookings from users for house cleaning services are up by 30%. Though, house cleaning is a regular practice before Diwali among Indians, service providers say hygiene conscious first-time users who want to safeguard their kids and elderly family members are driving the demand much higher this year. Besides, being holed up inside homes during the pandemic has added to the fatigue, making them seek outsourced services.

Thirty-eight-year-old Himanshu Sharma, a resident of Sowcarpet, has availed a full-house deep cleaning a week before Diwali. “It is an annual practice for us to clean and redecorate our home before Diwali. Unlike earlier times, we have opted for professional help for a fullhouse fumigation and deep clean after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic,” said Sharma.

Home Service startup Urban Company has seen overall bookings up by 30% at an all-time high of 1,15,000 bookings in October, as compared to 80,000 in September, 2020. The company has doubled its cleaning team staff to meet the demand.

Its director of marketing Pratik Mukherjee said, “Bookings have jumped 20% in Chennai for November, as compared to October. Bookings from new users have tripled in the past three months.” It expects bookings to touch 1,50,000 mark before mid-November.

Another home service provider Housejoy, which has operations in Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, saw demand for home cleaning service go up by 30-35% in the past two months. Housejoy CEO and founder Sanchit Gaurav said, “We only see this demand going upward in the coming months. There is around 40% overall increase in demand due to Diwali.” The company has plans to enter tier 2 cities such as Mysore, Pune and Vijayawada.

For 52-year-old Parimala Murugan, of Besant Nagar, deep cleaning was agonising that she signed up with a service provider. “We were worried about taking care of my father-in-law, who is in his mid-eighties, amid this pandemic. Festive offers have brought down the service charges by a lot.”

Service providers added that since the pandemic scare, there are more inquiries for full house cleaning, compared to kitchen/ living space cleaning earlier.

SAFE & SOUND FESTIVAL

10 EWS seats to ESI college caught in state-Centre row

10 EWS seats to ESI college caught in state-Centre row

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:12.11.2020

Addition of 25 MBBS seats at ESIC Medical College in KK Nagar, on a condition that 10 are supernumerary seats meant for economically weaker section (EWS) among forward castes, is now turning into a quota policy tussle between Tamil Nadu and the Centre.

ESIC College, affiliated to the Tamil Dr MGR Medical University, was established in 2011-12 with100 medical seats. In October this year, National Medical Commission increased the college intake from 100 to 125 because the administration agreed to the EWS quota.

As of now, the college will have 125 seats of which 19 have been surrendered for the All India Quota (AIQ) pool, which will be managed by the Centre’s director-general of health services. Another 25 seats are meant for the wards of ESI-contributing employees. While the DGHS will allot students for these 44 seats, it is Tamil Nadu’s responsibility to admit students for the 81 remaining seats through single window counselling.

However, the state selection committee in Tamil Nadu, which should admit students to the 81 state quota seats, says there will be no EWS category in its seat matrix as the state has no EWS policy.

Who, then, will allot 10 EWS seats? While DGHS will allot five seats, the remaining five have to be allotted through Tamil Nadu government’s single window scheme.

But state selection committee secretary Dr G Selvarajan said Tamil Nadu has a policy decision not to implement EWS quota. “We don’t have the category in the seat matrix. For the seats surrendered by the college, admission will be done based on merit in NEET and 69% rule of reservation,” he said.

ESIC dean Dr Sowmya Sampath refused to comment, but a senior official in the college said the administration had no role in seat allotments. “We have surrendered seats to respective agencies. Allotment has to be done by them,” the official said. Officials on the Medical Counseling Committee say they will not be able to allot more than 5 seats as it would be illegal to increase the EWS share in the respective quotas.

While seats were added on condition that 10 seats were allotted to economically weaker section (EWS) among forward castes, state authorities said they can’t comply as TN has no EWS policy