Transport dept extends validity of ‘travel as you please’ passes

Transport dept extends validity of ‘travel as you please’ passes

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:26.06.2021

Tamil Nadu transport department has extended the validity of ₹1,000 ‘travel as you please’ (TAYP) passes, which expired duringthe total lockdown.

Accordingly, passes which were valid for travelling in MetropolitanTransport Corporation (MTC) buses between May 16 and June 15 will be valid till July 15. These passes will be sold till Saturday (June 26) at 29 bus depots in the city, where they are usually sold only till June 22. Close to 1.4 lakh use these TAYP passes every month, according to an official release.

Besides this, MTC sells monthly seasonal tickets to 40,000 regular bususers a month. Validity of these tickets too has been extended till July15, said transport minister R S Rajakannappan. After 43 days, MTC resumed bus services in Chennai on Monday and is operating close to 2,000 buses every day.

No time curbs for women to travel on suburban trains

No time curbs for women to travel on suburban trains

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:25.05.2021

Southern Railway has allowed more categories of people including women to travel by suburban trains and has increased the number of services from 478 to 630 on weekdays from Friday.

Women will be allowed without time restrictions. They will be issued return tickets while men who work in non-essential sectors will be allowed only during nonpeak hours (early morning to 7am and 9.30am to 4.30pm and 7pm onwards) with single journey tickets.

Passengers with a reserved ticket in a mail/express trains will also be allowed to travel in suburban trains to reach railway stations to board trains.

People who reach the city by mail/express trains will also be allowed to board suburban trains.

Those who work in state government or Union government departments, public sector units, high courts and courts and staff of the private sector will be allowed to travel with a permission letter and identity cards.

There will be no change in the number of trains on Sundays, said a press release.

There will be 123 services on Moore Market Complex - Avadi/Tiruvallur/Arakkonam/Tiruttani route, 126 services on Tiruttani/Arakkonam/Tiruvallur/Avadi - Moore Market Complex route.

There will be 42 services on Moore Market Complex - Gummidipoondi /Sullurupeta route, 42 services on Sullurupeta / Gummidipoondi - Moore Market Complex route, 116 services on Chennai Beach – Tambaram/Chengalpet/Tirumalpur route, 116 services on Tirumalpur/Chengalpet/Tambaram - Chennai Beach route, 33 services on Chennai Beach - Velachery route, 32 services on Velachery - Chennai Beach route.

Two loot 19 ATMs with unique trick - The Times Of India

Two loot 19 ATMs with unique trick - The Times Of India

Target Only One Type Of Machines; Search On

Selvaraj.A@timesgroup.com

Chennai:

Police are on the lookout for two men who stole at least ₹48 lakh from 19 ATMs of the SBI across the state, seven of them within the city. SBI has suspended ATM withdrawals across the country and officials are trying to work out how the men managed to steal the money only from a particular kind of Japanese-made cash deposit machines.

In the past three days, the Chennai police have received seven complaints of cash missing from SBI ATMs. Camera footage from the ATM kiosk at Vadapalani showed two suspects, one of them wearing a helmet, withdrawing cash three times, a total of ₹69,000, on June 19. The incident came to light on Tuesday after the SBI bank officials confirmed ₹69,000 was unaccounted for. Similar incidents were reported at six SBI ATM kiosks in Velachery, Taramani, Virugambakkam and Ramapuram. All the incidents took place between June 17 and 19. A similar pattern of robberies has also been reported in other states within the last week.

Following this, SBI’s Chennai regional general manager Radha Krishnan met city police commissioner Shankar Jiwal and submitted a complaint. Radha Krishnan told reporters: “As a precautionary measure, we have suspended all SBI withdrawals across India. The theft took place only through one type of cash deposit machine.”

Commissioner Jiwal said, “The robbery took place using a small technical glitch in the machines. All the 7 cases have been recorded on CCTV cameras. The footage is being examined. We will check with other banks if they have had similar thefts.”

A special team has been formed led by additional commissioner N Kannan to catch the ATM robbers. Police sources said preliminary inquiries revealed that the duo had created a savings account in SBI using fake documents and had at least ₹20,000 cash in it. Police suspect they used some kind of device to block the sensors of the machines. They would withdraw cash from the machine and wait till the machine started to pull it back in. They would then quickly remove the cash but the machine would show it had been deposited back in, is what the cops suspect they did with the help of their device. SBI officials have got in touch with the machine’s manufacturers in Japan to resolve the issue.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT: The suspects at a Vadapalani ATM kiosk

City’s RTI activists urge TN to start portal for e-filing of applications

City’s RTI activists urge TN to start portal for e-filing of applications 

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

Right to Information (RTI) Act activists in the city are keenly awaiting the newly elected DMK-led Tamil Nadu government to effect changes in the way the Act is implemented in the state.

For starters, activists want the state government to implement filing of RTIs through an online portal for all government departments.

The previous AIADMK-led government had implemented online filing of RTIs on a trial basis only for the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (P&AR) department. However, with a glut in applications, the portal has been forced to clarify that only applications pertaining to the department would be accepted.

In neighbouring Puducherry, RTI applications to more than 50 departments can be filed online through the Central government’s portal rtionline.gov.in.

Pavan Gandhi, an RTI activist and advocate, said that the software of the central government is available and it is not impossible to replicate it at the state level. “But the question is whether the government wants to be transparent. Online filing of RTI applications makes it easier for the applicant while physical filing is cumbersome. Reduced paperwork in the wake of Covid-19 is also good,” he said.

Veteran RTI activist V Gopalakrishnan said that state finance minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, who heads the P&AR department, is an internationally noted figure and hence should bring in similar transparency measures. “We have been discussing this online filing of RTIs since 2014. When we have brought in the best economists in the world to advise our state government, why shouldn’t our technology also be advanced,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Activists also pointed out that buying a court fee stamp for ₹10, which is a pre-requisite for physical RTI applications, is cumbersome as availability is limited. “Also, many vendors charge ₹2-3 extra for the court fee stamp,” Gopalakrishnan said.

The previous AIADMK-led government had implemented online filing of RTIs on a trial basis for the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (P&AR) department

TN seeks Centre’s nod to start UG medical courses in 11 new colleges

TN seeks Centre’s nod to start UG medical courses in 11 new colleges

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:23.06.2021 

The state is awaiting approval from the National Medical Commission to start undergraduate medical programmes in the 11 newly constructed medical colleges from 2021, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said on Tuesday. If the state gets the nod, it will add 1,650 seats to the undergraduate seat matrix, pushing the seat tally to 5,200 across government medical colleges.

The government has already appointed faculty and staff and work on construction of buildings has been expedited. “As per the NMC guidelines, we have made the campus ready for first year admissions. We are waiting for the committee to visit these campuses for inspection,” he said. The committee is likely to come for inspection next month. “If they find any discrepancies, we will rectify them before the second inspection,” he said after a meeting with members of Tamil Nadu Medical Council. The meeting was chaired by health minister Ma Subramanian.

As part of the national mission to increase the number of medical colleges across the country, the Centre had granted permission to Tamil Nadu for commencement of 11 new medical colleges in districts in Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, The Nilgiris, Ariyalur, Nagapattinam, Kallakurichi, Tiruvallur, Tiruppur, Namakkal and Krishnagiri. The state, he said, was confident of getting their nod for all colleges.

The anatomy, physiology and biochemistry labs, library, hostels ₹ required for first year students ₹ have been completed. Tamil Nadu has allotted ₹2,470.93 crore during the interim budget in 2021 for these colleges. With this, most districts in the state will have at least one government medical college.

Besides increasing the number of seats, these colleges will help expand tertiary care to districts. The new medical colleges will help the health department provide quality medical training at affordable cost and offer speciality and super speciality care to people living in the area free of cost. “We are ensuring that the functioning 700-750 bed hospitals attached to these colleges have all the facilities to offer quality care,” he said.

Meanwhile, Subramanian said the doctors have placed their demands for better pay and compensation. “We know doctors have toiled through the pandemic...Their demand for pay government doctors’ pay hike was made in 2009. I will discuss the issue with the CM,” he said.

Doctor asked by patient to issue medical certificate for car insurance

Doctor asked by patient to issue medical certificate for car insurance

Meanwhile, a senior officer working with a vehicle insurance company confirmed that they would definitely ask for such certificates if the situation called for it.

Published: 23rd June 2021 06:29 AM |

By Krishnachand K

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While doctors are used to being hounded by patients seeking medical certificates for a number of reasons from getting approval for a sick leave to filing a law suit, renowned oncologist Dr Boben Thomas was rather stunned by a request raised by one of his regular patients. The doctor was asked to issue a medical certificate for the patient’s car, in what he says is the first such incident he has experienced.

According to Dr Boben, the patient had rung him up with a request for a medical certificate that confirms the date of his consultation, because he needed to submit the certificate to a leading insurance company. The patient subsequently explained to the puzzled doctor that he got into an accident while returning home after the consultation, and when he approached the insurance company for damages, he was asked why the vehicle was on road when a statewide lockdown was in force. The medical certificate was to prove that the accident happened while he was travelling for a medical reason.

Dr Boben, who practises in Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram, told TNIE that this was the first time someone approached him for a medical certificate for the purpose of collecting vehicle insurance. “As the certificate was a logical requirement, it was issued stating that the patient had arrived in the vehicle,” he said. He also shared his experience on Facebook.

Meanwhile, a senior officer working with a vehicle insurance company confirmed that they would definitely ask for such certificates if the situation called for it. “We have the authority to ask the owner why the vehicle was taken out during the lockdown period. If it is a genuine case of medical emergency, we will ask for a medical certificate to prove if he used the car for that purpose. Some companies may ask for Out Patient (OP) tickets too. We could give a claim only if the person was out and about for an emergency requirement,” the officer said.

பிலிப்பைன்சில் தடுப்பூசி போடாதவர்களுக்கு சிறை

பிலிப்பைன்சில் தடுப்பூசி போடாதவர்களுக்கு சிறை

Updated : ஜூன் 23, 2021 07:24 

மணிலா : 'பிலிப்பைன்சில் கோவிட் தடுப்பூசியைப் போட மறுப்போருக்குச் சிறைத் தண்டனை விதிக்கப்படும்' என, அந்நாட்டு அதிபர் ரொட்ரிகோ டுட்டார்ட்டே எச்சரிக்கை விடுத்துள்ளார்.

பிலிப்பைன்ஸ் தலைநகர் மணிலாவின் தடுப்பூசி நிலையங்கள் சிலவற்றில், தடுப்பூசி போட்டுக்கொள்ளக் குறைவானவர்களே சென்றுள்ளனர். இதையடுத்து அந்நாட்டு அதிபர் ரொட்ரிகோ டுட்டார்ட்டே தெரிவித்துள்ளதாவது:

நாட்டின் மொத்த மக்கள் தொகையான 110 மில்லியனில் இந்த ஆண்டுக்குள் 70 மில்லியன் பேருக்குத் தடுப்பூசி போடுவது அரசாங்கத்தின் இலக்கு. இதுவரை அங்கு 2.1 மில்லியன் பேருக்கு இரு டோஸ் தடுப்பூசி போடப்பட்டுள்ளது. நாடு மருத்துவ நெருக்கடியில் இருக்கிறது. தடுப்பூசியைப் போட மறுப்போருக்குச் சிறைத் தண்டனை விதிக்கப்படும். இவ்வாறு எச்சரிக்கை விடுத்துள்ளார்.

டுட்டார்ட்டே தண்டனைகளுக்கு புகழ் பெற்றவர். போதை கடத்தல் கும்பல்களை ஈவு இரக்கமின்றி சுட்டுக்கொலை செய்ததால் அச்சமூட்டும் மனிதராக இவர் பார்க்கப்படுகிறார். எனவே இவரின் எச்சரிக்கைக்கு பலன் இருக்கும் என கருதப்படுகிறது.