TN to use 2,000kg temple jewels to generate income

TN to use 2,000kg temple jewels to generate income

Times of India Chennai

05.09.2021

TN will use 2,000kg of jewellery offered to temples over the past 10 years to generate funds for welfare schemes, reports Shanmughasundaram J. Gems and precious stones would be removed from small jewels and gold would be taken to government refinery in Mumbai for being converted into bars. The gold bars will then be deposited with banks to generate interest, HR & CE minister P K Sekar Babu said on Saturday. Big jewels will be retained for adorning deities. Three panels, headed by retired HC judges, will supervise the exercise. 

With Covid test stopover, Indian tourists can fly to Canada from Tuesday

With Covid test stopover, Indian tourists can fly to Canada from Tuesday

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai:05.09.2021

Fully vaccinated tourists from India can fly to Canada from September 7 as long as they stop in a third country to undergo an RT-PCR test. What has come to the rescue of passengers from India is that certain destinations in Middle East opened up to Indian tourists, so they can now transit from places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Turkey too relaxed entry norms and did away with 14-day mandatory quarantine for fully vaccinated passengers from India.

“In the past several months, Middle Eastern airports too were shut to Indians. So the only option before students travelling to Canada was to transit via countries like Egypt and Mexico, where they underwent an RT-PCR test. With Canada open to tourists from India as well, a holiday travel itinerary with a short stop in Dubai or Abu Dhabi could be planned,’’ said Anoop Kanuga from Bathija Travels.

Fares for travel to Canada with a transit halt in a third country were comparatively cheap too. For travel this month-end and return in mid-October, the return fare on offer on the Mumbai-Toronto route was a transit halt in, say, London was priced at ₹80,000- ₹90,000. For a transit halt in Middle East, the economical options were available only 3-4 weeks down the line.

In case of Canada and Turkey, entry has been permitted only to passengers who have taken both doses of Covishield, at least 14 days before arrival. To enter Canada, passengers have to undergo a pre-arrival RT-PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before their arrival in the country.

Full report on www.toi.in

Some await vax certificate, others get incorrect ones

Some await vax certificate, others get incorrect ones

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

Chennai:05.09.2021

Radhika got the first dose of the Covishield vaccine at Alwarpet in June, but didn’t get her certificate. Now, the Cowin portal says the 21-year-old hasn’t been vaccinated at all.

Several others are in a similar situation. One had to get vaccinated a third time because staff at a Greater Chennai Corporation centre didn’t enter his details into the portal while administering the first dose. Another person was given a Covishield certificate after taking a Covaxin shot. The civic body has been getting at least 50 such complaints almost daily since the vaccination drive began, said an official.

Reasons are aplenty. Lack of trained data entry operators, problems with network and Wi-Fi, website traffic and lack of adequate staff. “Even if the website isn’t working, the staff may ask the person to get vaccinated and may forget to upload the details on the portal later. Sometimes, they aren’t registered at all. And wrong entries by staff are common,” said a corporation official, adding that efforts are made to try and help those with grievances.

Residents say there should be a common portal or a specific grievance mechanism. Umanath V of Mogappair completed both doses of vaccination, but the portal didn’t accept the second dose because his age was entered wrongly. “I have been asked to go to Ripon Buildings for correction. Why are we faced with so much hassle for their mistake,” he asked. Bharath Ragunathan of Kodambakkam got a Covaxin shot with his Aadhaar card but a Covishield certificate and was asked for his PAN card to change it.

As per the Cowin portal, until September 3, 50.8 lakh people in Chennai have been vaccinated so far, but the corporation figure is 40.4 lakh.

Such wrong entries won’t affect actual numbers, said deputy commissioner (revenue and finance) Vishu Mahajan, adding that the Cowin portal was only for registration and while the actual numbers were entered on the e-win portal. “Our numbers may not match Cowin numbers until properly reconciled,” he said. A health department official said residents can get errors rectified at the vaccination centres concerned. “The state is helping us as we are sending details of all the wrong entries and corrections daily.”

Lack of trained data entry operators, problems with network and Wi-Fi, website traffic and lack of adequate staff among the reasons cited

Information Bulleting MDS counselling 2021

 https://mcc.nic.in/Webinfo/File/ViewFile?FileId=4&LangId=

NEET 2021: Demand for exam deferment escalates, Over 15,000 candidates sign online petition

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HC dismisses appeal seeking refund of discontinuation fees

HC dismisses appeal seeking refund of discontinuation fees

Sep 2, 2021, 04.59 AM IST

Madurai: Upholding the order of a single bench, the Madras high court has dismissed an appeal by a woman seeking to refund the discontinuation fees collected from her while she discontinued the super specialty course at Thanjavur Medical College.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by Priya Sreeraj. The appellant had completed MBBS in 2009 and subsequently completed her postgraduation in medicine in 2015. Following a notification published by the state government for admission as a non-service candidate for the super specialty course for the year 2016-17, the appellant applied for the same and was allotted the course at Thanjavur Medical College in 2016. A condition was incorporated in the prospectus to the effect that in case of discontinuance of any candidature in respect of the course, a fee of Rs 5 lakh should be paid. The appellant in August 2016 discontinued the course by paying the discontinuation fee.

The appellant filed a writ petition before HC Madurai bench in 2021 challenging the portion of the prospectus with respect to the discontinuation fee and also consequently sought to refund the fee paid by her. The single bench on March 21, dismissed her petition. A division bench of justices M Duraiswamy and K Murali Shankar observed that on a perusal of the materials available on record, it could be seen that the request for refund was rejected by the authorities in 2017, however, the appellant chose to file the writ petition only in 2021. 

It is a settled position that if a person is aggrieved over any order, the same should be challenged at the earliest point of time. 

The judges further observed that the appellant had knowledge about the condition imposed in the prospectus while joining the super speciality course. Having accepted the conditions, the appellant cannot turn around and subsequently, contend that the same cannot be applied to her case. The judges observed that the single bench, by taking into consideration all these aspects, has rightly dismissed the writ petition. “We do not find any ground to interfere with the order passed by the single bench,” said the judges while dismissing the appeal.

Doctor seeks refund of Discontinuation Fee paid for SS course: HC rejects plea

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