Fastest to 4m: 45% of health workers given vax in 18 days

Fastest to 4m: 45% of health workers given vax in 18 days

MP Tops List Followed By Raj; TN Among Worst

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  04.02.2021

India has inoculated around 45% of healthcare workers across the country against Covid-19 in 18 days since the launch of its vaccination drive on Jan 16, becoming the fastest country to vaccinate more than 4 million people, official data till February 2 shows.

On Wednesday, 2,48,662 beneficiaries were vaccinated, taking the total to more than 43.88 lakh till late evening, accounting for 47% of the total 92,61,227 health workers enrolled from the public and private sectors.

Compared to India, the US took 20 days, whereas UK and Israel took 39 days to vaccinate four million people.

Among the major states (with large pool of beneficiaries), Madhya Pradesh vaccinated the highest 69.4% of its healthcare workers till February 2, followed by Rajasthan at 64.7%. However, in absolute numbers, Uttar Pradesh vaccinated the highest over 4.63 lakh, 51% of its more than 9 lakh healthcare workers in 18 days. TN has inoculated only 22.6% of its health workers.

1 in 4 Indians may be virus-positive

About one in four of India’s 1.35 billion people may have been infected with the virus, said a source privy to a government serological survey. The country’s caseload may be many times higher than reported. P 12

Name not in Cowin portal? No vax in TN

Health officials in TN on Wednesday said they would not offer the Covid vaccine to people whose names are not in the Cowin portal, even as 10,476 people were vaccinated on the day. The portal has been closed for registering names of healthcare providers. P 6

Odisha, Kerala, Haryana & Guj have vaccinated 50% of health workforce

On the other hand, Maharashtra, with the largest health workforce with 9,36,857 beneficiaries registered, vaccinated only 34%. Tamil Nadu (22.6%), Delhi (26.6%), Chhattisgarh (29%), Puducherry (12.3%) and Goa (28.3%) are among the other states with poor coverage of Covid vaccination. Manipur has registered the lowest vaccination at10% till February 2.

Lakshadweep has covered 90% of is health workers and tops the list despite its small demographic.

West Bengal and Karnataka,bothwithover 7lakhhealth beneficiaries each, have inoculated 41.1% and 40.9%, respectively.

Other states like Odisha, Kerala, Haryana and Gujarat have over 50% coverage of their total health workforce.

West Bengal and Gujarat has started vaccinating frontline workers and more states are also likely to join this week.

The government aimstoinoculate a total of around three crore health and frontline workers on priority by March-April.

The Centre has asked states with low coverage to expandthe number of sessionsto facilitatebeneficiariesin order to accelerate the drive. Besides, states and UTs have been asked to focus on creating awareness around safety and efficacy of vaccines.

West Bengal and Karnataka have inoculated 41.1% and 40.9% health beneficiaries, respectively

HC acquits man for want of proof in teen rape case

HC acquits man for want of proof in teen rape case

Cannot Convict Accused Under Pocso Act Based On Mere Allegations: Nagpur Bench

Vaibhav.Ganjapure@timesgroup.com

Nagpur:  04.02.2021

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court has acquitted a 27-year-old man convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl multiple times over two months, citing the prosecution’s failure to produce conclusive evidence of sexual assault and its link to the survivor’s subsequent pregnancy.

“Except the survivor’s statement with regard to sexual intercourse at the house of the accused’s sister, there’s absolutely nothing supporting the prosecution’s contention of rape. Only on the basis of allegations about sexual intercourse on many occasions, it would be highly irrational to convict the accused of rape and sentence him to 10 years’ imprisonment,” Justice Pushpa Ganediwala ruled.

According to the judge, a survivor’s testimony alone was sufficient for conviction, provided it “inspires confidence” in the court.

“Given the facts and circumstances, this court is of the opinion that the prosecution couldn’t establish beyond reasonable doubt the offence of rape against the accused,” Justice Ganediwala said.

The Hinganghat sessions court in Maharashtra’s Wardha district had convicted and sentenced petitioner Jageshwar Kawle under Section 376(2)(n) of the IPC (repeated rape) and sections 5 and 6 of the Pocso Act (aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a minor). It pronounced the sentence on November 12, 2019.

The Pocso Act defines statutory rape as any sexual act with an unmarried girl under 18, regardless of whether it was consensual.

Full report on www.toi.in

Schoolgirl gang-raped by nine in C’garh

Raipur:

A 16-year-old girl was gang-raped by nine youths in a jungle while returning from her school in Chhattisgarh’s Jashpur district on Tuesday. She had gone to school with a male friend to submit an assignment, police said. On the way back, they had stopped to eat their tiffin when nine youths from neighbouring villages accosted them.

According to the survivor’s complaint, the group began questioning them, rebuked them for being out together and demanded to know their addresses and other personal details.

The gang thrashed the boy, accused him of luring a girl out with ‘wrong intentions’ and drove him away. No one was around to hear the girl’s screams for help. The group dragged her into a forest where they took turns to rape her and abandoned her there, the survivor said. She somehow managed to return home late in the evening and told her parents, who immediately took her to police. An FIR was registered under Pocso Act and police nabbed two of the accused. The others are on the run. Some of the accused are minors, said police. TNN

Time will tell who should apologise, says Dhinakaran

Time will tell who should apologise, says Dhinakaran

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:04.02.2021

Time would tell who committed the mistake and who should apologise, said AMMK leader T T V Dhinakaran on Wednesday during a media interaction in Madurai.

He announced that his aunt V K Sasikala would return to Chennai from Bengaluru on February 7 by road to a grand reception enroute. “Time will tell who indulged in wrongs, who should seek an apology and who should be pardoned," Dhinakaran said, reacting to the AIADMK deputy organiser K P Munusamy's recent remark that the party would consider reinducting Dinakaran if he accepted his mistake and tendered an apology.

Dhinakaran said his aunt told him she was recovering well in Bengaluru and though there was a plan to visit memorials of late leaders, DMK founder C N Annadurai, AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, “Amma's memorial has been closed”.

The AMMK leader said, “I don’t know with what intention the government shut down the memorial. It shows the quality of those who did it. Will hiding the (groom’s) comb stop the wedding? She (Sasikala) will go to the memorial another day after she returns to Chennai,” he said, adding they would be taught a lesson in the assembly election.

"I know how many chemical changes are happening in Tamil Nadu as soon as the news of her release broke," TTV said, reacting to the spree of expulsions of AIADMK functionaries for “anti-party activities” or display of support for Sasikala by way of posters hailing her.

Dhinakaran said Sasikala would start from Bengaluru to Chennai at 9 am on February 7. Lakhs of Amma (Jayalalithaa) loyalists would greet her from the inter-state border near Hosur right up to her T Nagar house in Chennai. He said, “Amma’s government will come to power and Sasikala will play an important role in it.” Dinakaran appealed to Jayalalithaa loyalists and AMMK cadres to maintain discipline while welcoming Sasikala.

Asked if Sasikala would go to the AIADMK headquarters and convene the general council meeting, he said, “Let there be some suspense. It would be more appropriate if she says it.”

‘Govt closed Jaya memorial to keep Sasi from visiting’

‘Govt closed Jaya memorial to keep Sasi from visiting’

Shanmughasundaram.J@timesgroup.com

Chennai:04.02.2021

DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin on Wednesday said the AIADMK government had closed Jayalalithaa’s memorial on the Marina, immediately after its inauguration, fearing that her erstwhile confidante V K Sasikala would visit the place and draw political mileage out of it by taking yet another pledge as she did before her imprisonment four years ago.

Calling Sasikala a “talented” woman, Udhayanidhi said chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was handpicked by Sasikala to be the CM, and his deputy O Panneerselvam had inaugurated Jayalalithaa memorial on the day of Sasikala’s release from prison to divert media attention from her return to Tamil Nadu. “She outsmarted them by delaying her return to Tamil Nadu,” said Udhayanidhi while speaking at a public meeting in Kancheepuram.

EPS and OPS have closed the memorial now to prevent Sasikala from visiting the place, he said. Sasikala would give back to EPS in style for the betrayal he has meted out to her, said Udhayanidhi. Panneerselvam, who raised doubts about the death of Jayalalithaa, would face music too, he said.

The AIADMK leaders would be taught a fitting lesson by the people of the state in the coming assembly polls, he said. He kickstarted the ‘Vidiyalai Nokki Stalinin Koral’ campaign from the party founder and former CM C N Annadurai’s memorial. Before the campaign started, he, along with hundreds of party cadres, took out a silent rally in Kancheepuram town to mark the death anniversary of Annadurai.

Expressing confidence that the people of the state would replicate the outcome of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Udhayanidhi said Stalin had set his target on winning 200 seats in the assembly. The ruling AIADMK had become a slave of the Modi government at the Centre, he said. He cited implementation of NEET as an instance to buttress his point. Once in power, Stalin would get exemption for Tamil Nadu students from NEET, he said.

Study doc deaths due to Covid: IMA to Centre

UNDERREPORTED

Study doc deaths due to Covid: IMA to Centre

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  04.02.2021

“Shocked” by the underreporting of doctors’ deaths caused by Covid-19, the Indian Medical Association has urged the Centre to form a high-power committee to study data on doctors who succumbed to the viral infection in the past one year.

While the Centre announced that 162 doctors died of Covid-19, the association has released its database containing names of 744 doctors. In a letter to minister of state for health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey, IMA president Dr J A Jayalal condemned the Centre’s apathy in releasing data and

delaying solatium to “martyrs’ families.

On Tuesday, the minister in a reply to a question from Kerala MP Binoy Viswam (CPI) told the Rajya Sabha that 162 doctors, 107 nurses and 44 ASHA workers had died of the viral infection.

While this data was based on intimation received from states on healthcare staff as per Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package insurance scheme, the Indian Medical Association had presented data stating 734 doctors, including 89 from Tamil Nadu, had lost their lives due to Covid-19 in the last one year.

“Of these, 431 are general practitioners across India, who were the first point of contact for the people. At least 25 of these doctors are below 35 years of age,” he said.

In his letter, Dr Jayalal said in the devastating pandemic, the frontline warriors of modern medicine had fought with altruism and in the bargain lost their lives but the roll of honour or the appropriate data on these fatalities had not been documented by the Centre.

Being in locked house not proof of affair: Court

Being in locked house not proof of affair: Court

Chennai:04.02.2021

An illicit sexual relationship cannot be presumed merely because a man and woman were found inside a locked house, the Madras high court has said.

“Presence of two individuals of opposite sex inside a locked house need not necessarily lead to a presumption that they were in an immoral relationship. This kind of presumption prevailing in society cannot be the basis for initiating disciplinary action and inflicting punishment,” Justice R Suresh Kumar said. He made the observation while quashing the termination of service of an armed reserve police constable on the ground of ‘moral turpitude’, because he was found inside a locked house along with a woman constable.

On October 10, 1998, a woman constable entered the residential quarters of constable K Saravana Babu and the door was found locked from inside when neighbours knocked. According to Saravanan, the woman constable had come to his home around 7.30pm asking for keys of her house located close by. While they were talking, someone locked the door from outside and then pretended to knock on it, he added. The judge pointed to statements of witnesses which said the door was locked from outside too. “There was absolutely no eyewitness or any other concrete evidence to prove that the two constables were found in a compromising position. Based on suspicion and conjectures, one cannot conclude that unlawful or immoral activities had taken place,” the judge said, quashing the termination of Babu. TNN

Man kills ex-colleague over loss of job

Man kills ex-colleague over loss of job

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:04.02.2021

Police on Wednesday arrested a 44-year-old man in connection with the murder of his former colleague at Peerkankaranai two days ago.

On Saturday, police found the body of a man identified as Johnrajasingh, 68, of Mangadu. The victim, who was a cashier at an iron ore manufacturing company at Annanur, had multiple injuries.

Police said the accused, Kovilraj, was also employed at the same firm. Kovilraj seemed uninterested in the work and would often dodge any project that came his way, an investigating officer said. This behaviour irked his colleagues, who complained about him to Johnrajasingh. When joining duty, Kovilraj had informed Johnrajasingh that he was sacked from his previous job at a firm in Hosur for being lazy. He had also been warned by employers at his other workplaces.

Irked over Kovilraj’s irresponsible ways, Johnrajasingh complained about him to the owner and Kovilraj was fired. Police said Kovilraj had been furious with Johnrajasingh ever since. On Saturday night, when the victim was heading home, Kovilraj intercepted him. He told Johnrajasingh that it had been difficult for him to make ends meet without a job and asked the victim to drop him at Perungalathur bus stop so he could leave Chennai for his native village in Tuticorin district. On the way to the bus stop, Kovilraj suggested a pitstop at a Tasmac shop in Tambaram. The two bought some alcohol and got drunk near a lake in Peerkankaranai.

Kovilraj picked up a fight with Johnrajasingh and stabbed him to death. He escaped with the victim’s bike. Police, after recovering the body, launched a search for the victim’s bike and caught the accused. Kovilraj was booked under murder charges and a court sent him to jail.

Irked over Kovilraj’s irresponsible ways, Johnrajasingh complained about him to the owner and Kovilraj was fired. A furious Kovilraj later stabbed Johnrajasingh to death