50% vaccine unused, nears expiry date in many states

50% vaccine unused, nears expiry date in many states

Chethan.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:20.02.2021

With only about 50% of the 2.2 crore vaccine supplied doses used so far, states are awaiting the Centre’s instructions on inoculating senior citizens and those over 50 years with comorbidities.

While officials of many states are concerned about stocks nearing expiry date, some are comfortable with the numbers. They said there’s no clarity about how beneficiaries of the 3rd phase will enrol for vaccination with self-registration an option. “We’ve been told that Phase 3 will begin in March and there’ll be clarity next week,” Arundathi Chandrashekar, mission director-Karnataka, National Health Mission, said.

5.8 lakh of 7 lakh vaccine doses used in Karnataka

All vaccines received will expire in May, just as in other states, and we should be able to use them when the third phase kicks off,” Arundathi Chandrashekar added. According to the Union health ministry, India has vaccinated 1,01,88,007 people so far, which means about 47% of the over 2.2 crore doses supplied to states have been used.

In Karnataka, 5.8 lakh doses of vaccines have been used of the 7.1 lakh doses received. While more than 50% of targeted healthcare workers have received the first dose, only 36% frontline workers have got it. This means the number of people needing the second dose before May — when vaccines at storage facilities will cross the expiry date — will not be enough to exhaust the existing supply.

Tamil Nadu, which received 12.3 lakh doses from the Centre, has so far inoculated 3.2 lakh people, including the second dose given to a few thousands. Health secretary J Radhakrishnan told TOI: “It would be prudent to give vaccines to those eager to take it. Even seniors and others with comorbidities come from the same pool as healthcare workers. There’ll be hesitancy there too, so the earlier we start, the better the chances of using the vaccines.”

As of Thursday, Maharashtra vaccinated 8.3 lakh people, while the number of doses it got is over 19 lakh. Similarly, Delhi has given the jab to over 2.4 lakh people, including about 7,000 second doses, while the Centre supplied more than 7.1 lakh doses.

Along with Delhi and Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Puducherry are among states with less than 50% coverage. While both Punjab health secretary and NHM director were unavailable for comment, Puducherry health secretary T Arun said: “Given that we have to include poll workers as part of frontline workers for vaccination, we’ll be able to use available doses.”

Punjab and Puducherry received 4.3 lakh and 31,000 doses respectively. An NHM director spearheading the vaccination drive said: “The situation is similar across many big states. The Centre needs to take a decision soon.”

Odisha NHM director Shalini Pandit said: “We don’t have a problem of low turnout. We need more doses to cover the first two rounds.”

EVERY DOSE COUNTS

All vaccines received will expire in May, just as in other states, and we should be able to use them when the third phase kicks off

Arundathi Chandrashekar

NHM MISSION DIRECTOR-KARNATAKA

Maternity leave law common for all staff: HC

Maternity leave law common for all staff: HC

Bengaluru:20.02.2021

The Karnataka HC has said the 26-week maternity benefit, which came into force through an amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act in 2017, does not classify or qualify a mother to be a government servant, temporary employee, employee on contract or an employee on daily wages, reports P Vasantha Kumar.

The HC made the observation while coming to the rescue of BS Rajeshwari, who was contracted to work as project information officer in the directorate of municipal administration.

Directorate told to reinstate employee, pay her 50% wages

Rajeshwari had approached the court after she was denied maternity leave and terminated from service on the ground of absence from work in August 2019.

The court directed the directorate to immediately reinstate the employee in the same post, pay her 50% of wages from day of termination to that of reinstatement, besides giving her Rs 25,000 in cost, which will be recovered from the officer who issued the termination notice.

Justice M Nagaprasanna said despite Rajeshwari’s requests to consider her case on humanitarian and legal grounds — both before and after delivery of her child on July 23, 2019 at Bhadravati, Shivamogga district — the authorities failed to consider the position of law. The judge described her plight thus: “I chose motherhood, the state chose to terminate me. The pendulum of (her) fate swung from the buoyance of hope to despair.” The judge said men who hold such offices “become insensitive to the (the kind of) issues alleged in the petition. It would become ‘power in the wrong hands’.”

Rajeshwari was hired on annual contract in November 2009 for a pay of Rs 17,000 and Rs 2,000 as monthly travel allowance. Latest renewal of contract allowed her to work till March 31, 2020. The employee sought to proceed on leave on June11,2019.Instead,she received a notice on June 25, 2019, asking her to report to duty since maternal benefits were not mentioned in the contract and office work was seriously hampered by her absence.

To protect bird’s nest, Thanjavur farmer leaves crop unharvested

To protect bird’s nest, Thanjavur farmer leaves crop unharvested

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:20.02.2021

A farmer hailing from a village near Kumbakonam in Thanjavur has earned the appreciation of people for leaving a portion of his paddy field unharvested after spotting the nest and eggs of a sparrow. He went on to strengthen the nest with sticks and harvesteed the rest of the crop.

J Ranganathan alias Raghu, 40, had raised paddy on his three-acre plot in Sathanur village. As the crops completed their 120-day cycle and were ready for harvest, Ranganathan used a harvester machine. As he was operating the harvester, he spotted a bird’s nest over the paddy crop at at a height of three feet in a portion of his field. After alerting the harvester operator to stop, Ranganathan checked the nest and found four eggs of a sparrow. “Since the mother bird may come back to see the chicks once they hatch, I was not interested in moving the nest from the field. We let that portion as it was and harvested the rest of the field,” Ranganathan said. He also propped up four sticks around the crop holding the nest to ensure the nest and eggs did not fall. Ranganathan added that he did not expect that his act may attract such appreciation. As the farmer shared the incident on social media platforms, villagers and environmental activists appreciated Ranganathan for his humane gesture. Meanwhile, Trichy-based wildlife biologist Q Ashoka Chakkaravarthy said that habitat loss for birds due to rapid urbanisation and felling of trees was the major reason for sparrows to build nest in paddy fields. “Sparrows normally build a nest on trees at a significant height above the ground. The paddy field might have been chosen by the bird due to low human interference,” Ashoka Chakkaravarthy added.

CONSIDERATE ACT: The undisturbed nest of a sparrow in the paddy field of J Ranganathan near Kumbakonam

HC pulls up finance dept official for contempt of court

HC pulls up finance dept official for contempt of court

K.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

Madurai:20.02.2021

Taking a serious view for not complying with a court order to reimburse medical expenses to a government employee, the Madras high court has sought an explanation from the secretary to government, finance (salaries) department, S Krishnan, as to why he should not be punished for his wilful disobedience of the orders of this court. The court was hearing a contempt petition filed by S Dhanalakshmi, who was working as BT Assistant in a corporation middle school in Madurai and is covered under the new health insurance scheme. The petitioner had undergone surgery in February 2018 and paid 1,22,454 towards medical expenses. The district-level empowered committee sent a proposal in September 2019 to disburse the medical expenses to the petitioner. Since, the amount was not reimbursed, Dhanalakshmi moved the HC Madurai bench and the court in its order in November 2019, had directed the secretary to disburse the eligible amount as per the Tamil Nadu Medical Attendance Rules.

Since the earlier order was not complied with, the petitioner filed the present contempt petition.

Justice M S Ramesh said that in order to give an opportunity to the contemnor, the court had directed the government advocate to get instructions by an order during March 2020. Thereafter, the contempt petition was adjourned on seven occasions. Ultimately, when the matter was listed on January 7, 2021, it was submitted that the authorities had not chosen to instruct the government pleader’s office. The judge said that the court has issued statutory notice for the secretary’s personal appearance on February 18. However, the secretary did not appear before the court. On the other hand, the additional government pleader produced a copy of GO dated January 19, 2021 and submitted that the earlier order of the court dated has been complied with. The judge said that GO reads to the effect that the petitioner may not be entitled for the claim made by her on certain heads and had ultimately derived the eligible amount at 2,570.

The judge observed that on a prima facie view, the contemnor has wilfully disobeyed the order on two counts - not complying with the statutory notice which was issued for his appearance, and not complying with the earlier order of this court and instead re-appraised and arriving at contrary conclusions with regard to the petitioner’s entitlement.

“All these callous and careless attitude in dealing with the order of the high court shows the utter disregard the contemnor has, to the sanctity of law,” observed the judge. Hence, the judge called upon the secretary to render his explanation within a period of 15 days.

The court was hearing a contempt petition filed by S Dhanalakshmi, who was working as BT Assistant in a corporation middle school in Madurai

DMK submits 2nd petition to guv against CM, mins

DMK submits 2nd petition to guv against CM, mins

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.02.2021

The DMK, on Friday, submitted yet another petition to governor Banwarilal Purohit, levelling corruption charges against chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and several of his cabinet colleagues. This is the second petition the party is submitting to the governor against the CM and ministers in the last two months.

DMK general secretary S Duraimurugan, after submitting the 38-page petition to Purohit, told mediapersons that charges were levelled against ministers K C Karuppannan, K T Rajenthra Bhalaji, P Thangamani and S P Velumani and Anthiyur MLA K R Rajakrishnan. “We will not have to give one more petition to the governor as this government will not be there for long,” said Duraimurugan, expressing unhappiness over the governor not acting on the earlier petition submitted by the party. The first petition was submitted to governor by DMK president M K Stalin on December 27. Duraimurugan said when the DMK delegation comprising himself and senior leaders T R Baalu and R S Bharathi asked Purohit about the action taken on the first petition, the governor said he had forwarded it to the Union ministry of home affairs. However, governor added that he would take suitable action as per the powers vested with him, said Duraimurugan.

The DMK, in the first petition, had levelled charges against the CM, his deputy O Panneerselvam and ministers S P Velumani, P Thangamani, D Jayakumar, R B Udhayakumar and C Vijayabaskar.

BJP: Stalin cheating people of Tamil Nadu

Thanjavur:

BJP’s Tamil Nadu in-charge C T Ravi on Friday accused DMK president M K Stalin of ‘cheating’ the people in the name of Dravidianism. The BJP leader sought to project their party as a “friend of people of Tamil Nadu” and the Congress and DMK as enemies. In this regard, he referred to the ban on jallikattu by the Congress government, backed by the DMK, and its revocation by the BJP-led Union government. TNN

AC bus services back, but not for elderly

AC bus services back, but not for elderly

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.02.2021

Tamil Nadu government has allowed all state transport undertakings and private bus operators to resume air conditioned bus services. AC bus services were suspended in March 2020, when the nation-wide lockdown to combat Covid-19 was first announced. A government order issued by state chief secretary Rajeev Ranjan on Thursday, however, asked operators to not allow citizens aged above 65 years and those with comorbidities to travel in AC buses.

State transport corporations had suffered financial losses as they did not operate the 702 AC buses they collectively own.

Private bus operators, who transport employees to workplaces and students to schools and colleges, had also urged that the state government revoke orders restricting AC bus services.

Given the decline in the number of Covid-19 cases in recent days, the state has finally allowed resumption of AC services. Bus operators have, however, been strictly told to follow all standard operating procedures, including maintaining the temperature inside buses between 24°C and 30°C and to encourage fresh air circulation as much as possible.

DVAC slaps assets case against ex-VC of Bharathiar univ

DVAC slaps assets case against ex-VC of Bharathiar univ

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.02.2021

Five-and-a-half years after he demitted office as vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, James Pitchai was booked for disproportionate assets by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on Wednesday.

According to the FIR registered by the Tirupur deputy superintendent of police of DVAC, Pitchai and his family members had amassed Rs 6.17 crore during his three-year term at the helm of the university, which was 135% of their income during the period.

Checks by DVAC found that along with his family members, Pitchai had bought properties and land in Chennai, Madurai and Kodaikanal which were disproportionate to his known sources of income. DVAC’s case sheets show that Pitchai entered government service in December 1978 as an assistant professor in the department of agriculture at the TN Agriculture University in Coimbatore. He was elevated as associate professor 10 years later and another decade later became a professor.

Pitchai was appointed dean in November 2009 in TNAU and became the vicechancellor of Bharathiar University on September 21, 2012. His tenure ended on September 20, 2015.

DVAC said Pitchai’s wife is a doctor who runs a hospital and they have a daughter and a son, both doctors and working in the same hospital. DVAC’s check period for calculating disproportionate assets was Pitchai’s tenure as vice-chancellor. Assets at the start of check period were Rs 3.21crore and assets acquired in his and family members’ names were worth Rs 8.75 crore at the end of the check period. The family earned Rs 4.57 crore in the three years and incurred expenditure of Rs 5.2 crore. The assets disproportionate to their known sources of income was found to be Rs 6.17 crore, DVAC said.