Waste dump on lake bed extends to road

Waste dump on lake bed extends to road

Chitlapakkam Residents Fume As Restoration Efforts Go Waste

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  06.09.2021

Despite directions from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the garbage dump on the banks of Chitlapakkam lake hasn’t been cleared, much to the chagrin of the residents, who initiated a civic movement to revive the lake. The waste mound now stretches to the road.

A segregation unit and an incinerator were set up on the Chitlapakkam lake bed a year and a half ago. Waste collected by the town panchayat is taken to this segregation unit for sorting and then taken either to the incinerators or dump yard. But this sorting is not being done regularly and the waste has been piling up, say residents. The town panchayat with 18 wards and around 50,000 residents collects 11 to 15 tonnes of waste daily.

The water body saw a reprieve owing to residents’ associations’ consistent efforts over several years — both physical and virtual — by filing petitions in courts and by creating awareness through social media campaigns. A portion of the lake was used as a garbage dump by the public and the local body for decades and there were several encroachments. “Despite restoration efforts, the lake bed is used for sorting waste,” a resident said.

Residents complain that unsorted waste now extends from the lake bed to the nearby road.

According to a member of civic action group, Chitlapakkam Rising, the garbage has not been cleared for weeks together despite repeated complaints. Stray cattle and dogs feed on the garbage, which is harmful to them, the member said.

“The recent rain has made things worse. The stench from the area is so strong. The water body is right at the entrance of the town panchayat limits, it is not very welcoming,” said K Thiru, a resident.

Residents say the rotting muck also pollutes the groundwater in the neighbourhood.

Sunil Jayaraman, another member of Chitlapakkam Rising, said NGT directions to clear the garbage hasn’t been adhered to by the town panchayat authorities.

Earlier this year, NGT had suo motu directed the town panchayat to shift the solid waste management resource recovery park on the Chitlapakkam lake bed and also observed that solid waste management rules have not been followed. It had also asked for a factual report from TNPCB and Chengalpet district collector on the matter.

When contacted, an official with the town panchayat told TOI that the waste would be cleared soon and that they are planning to move some of the waste to a recycling unit in Keerapakkam.

SOURCE OF POLLUTION: The NGT had asked panchayat officials to shift out the garbage segregation unit from the Chitlapakkam lake bed

Acting on tip, cops stop rekla race, seize 14 horses; 53 arrested

Acting on tip, cops stop rekla race, seize 14 horses; 53 arrested

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  06.09.2021

Police on Sunday morning stopped a rekla race that was to be held at a ground in Veerapuram near Avadi. Police seized 14 horses and nine mini trucks. Fifty-three people were arrested.

Police received a tip about a rekla race being organised on Sunday and reached the spot to find mini trucks arriving with the horses and carts. The arrested included organisers Mohammed Irfan, 26, of Mount Road, Prakash, 32, of Saligramam and Dinesh, 27, of Virugambakkam. Hari and Saravanan, who were among thr organisers and were earlier questioned, are absconding. Police learned that they had shifted the race venue to Vallakottai Murugan temple in Sriperumbudur after realising that police were deployed at the venue in Veerapuram. They had alerted participants about the change through WhatsApp. Sources said the organisers awarded winners ₹1,000 to ₹5,000. “The prize money, winners and details of horses were shared on WhatsApp itself,” said an investigating officer.

State police in 2020 prohibited organising rekla races as roads were blocked causing traffic disruptions and animals were abused.

New award to celebrate teachers

New award to celebrate teachers

Chennai:6.09.2021

To inspire and motivate teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic, The Times of India in association with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, has instituted the ‘Teacher’s Excellence Award’. Teachers from Tamil Nadu can register, nominate themselves under various categories such as years of experience, stream, grade they handle.

Registrations will be open till September end. For more details teachers can visit www.amrita.edu/tea2021 . This will have zonal and state winners, shortlisted by an eminent jury panel. An independent partner will audit the process.

Launching the award, school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Sunday, said, “Government school teachers are very well informed and go through competitive and aptitude tests to qualify. Government schools have smart classes, science and maths kit and teachers who can handle the advancements well. We are looking for counsellors to offer mental health support to students and teachers, and also provide career guidance to Class XII students.”

A session on emotional intelligence and experiential learning was conducted with expert speakers Dr Shoury Kuttappa and Ruchi Mohunta. TNN

Weekend and festival travel picks up pace

Weekend and festival travel picks up pace

Tourism Experts Bullish On Footfalls As Vacationers Head To Favourite Getaways

After a lull of more than a year, people have begun travelling for leisure during extended weeking holidays includingfor vinayaka Chaturthi and Puja. The boost is also because companies are switching from work from home to work from offices.

Booking trends show Chennai, Kodaikanal, Ooty, Yercaud, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Puducherry, Goa, Jaipur and Srinagar are the destinations searched or booked in September and November, as per data from online portals. Travel agents too are reporting a similar trend.

Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder of EaseMyTrip, said that compared to August 2021, there was a jump of almost 63% for the long weekend of Vinayaka Chaturthi on September 10-12, 2021 in terms of forward air bookings. “Earlier, we noticed a jump of 54% for the long weekend of Janmashtami...”

A strong vaccination drive and the recent decision on RT-PCR exemption are playing a crucial role in improving the travel sentiment. “Our booking trends reveal destinations such as Goa, Jaipur, Leh, and Srinagar have recorded huge growth in passenger volumes flying out of metro cities.”

Ritu Mehrotra, regional manager (South Asia) at Booking.com, said that with more Indians getting vaccinated and ease in travel restrictions, travel intent was being converted into bookings. “... As per data from our platform, some of the top booked destination in South India by Indian travellers from September to November 2021 include Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pondicherry. We are also seeing intent for international travel pick up with France, Uk ,Canada, Maldives and Switzerland being top searched destinations from September to November 2021."

In the post-pandemic world, there is an increased emphasis by travellers on health, safety and flexibility while booking accommodation. “When it comes to accommodation, besides hotels which is one of the top preferred accommodation choices by travellers, alternative accommodations such as resort, guesthouse, homestay and apartments are also preferred,” she added.

M K Ajith Kumar of Asia Pacific Travels said many people prefer destinations that can be reached by a long drive because families do not want to mingle with people on public transport. Bengaluru, Puducherry, and Yercaud are popular.

T Sundar, who plans to travel to Bengaluru next week, said, “I have been stuck at home for more than a year. I wanted to take a break.”

People are also spending money to experience the best during travel. Nishant Pitti said, “More business class tickets signifies that travellers are now spending more on travel as well. Bookings for 4 and 5-star properties have almost doubled as travellers prefer high-end hotels owing to safety issues. The average stay duration has also gone up from 3.2 days to 4.7 days.”

4 engg grads & friend die as car rams truck

4 engg grads & friend die as car rams truck

Sindhu.Kannan@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 06.09.2021

Four engineering graduates, who came to the city to take part in a campus recruitment drive, and their friend lost their lives after their car rammed a parked truck on GST road early on Sunday. The accident occurred at Perungalathur near Chennai.

The victims were identified as Raja Ganesh, 21, of Trichy, Naveen, 21, of Mettur, Ajay, 21, of Trichy, Rahul, 20, of Pudukottai, and Arvind Shankar of Chennai. Except Navin, who was driving the car, the others were engineering graduates of Hindustan University. They had come to the city on Friday to take part in the campus interview scheduled for Monday.

On Friday, they went to their college and got their course completion certificates. They were staying at their friend’s room in Kelambakkam and had visited a few places in Chennai on Saturday. They decided to go for a drive towards Perungalathur and return to their room when the accident took place.

MANGLED: The five bodies were retrieved after an hour-long operation and sent to Tambaram GH for postmortem

Truck laden with iron rods was parked at the spot for 2 days

Police checked the CCTV camera footage from the accident spot and found that around 1.30am, Naveen lost control of the car while trying to overtake a truck. The car hit another vehicle and then rammed a trailer lorry laden with iron rods parked on the roadside.

The bodies were recovered by fire and rescue services personnel after an hour-long operation and sent to the Tambaram GH in Chromepet for postmortem. The car was completely mangled and they had to pull out the bodies from underneath the truck.

Some motorists said such illegal parking of trucks on roadside was posing a risk to other road users. Officials had failed to act against the truck that had remained parked at the spot for more than two days. The deaths could have been averted if the truck was removed from the spot, they said. Relatives and friends of the victims were inconsolable on seeing the bodies of the victims at the mortuary. The Chrompet traffic investigation police have registered a case of rash driving.

MBBS 1st year students in MP to read about Hindutva icons

MBBS 1st year students in MP to read about Hindutva icons

Bhopal:  06.09.2021

MBBS students in Madhya Pradesh will be lectured about RSS founder K B Hedgewar, Bhartiya Jana Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyaya, Swami Vivekanand and B R Ambedkar as part of the first-year foundation course, state education minister Vishwas Sarang said on Sunday and added the move is aimed at instilling social and medical ethics among the students.

The move evoked a sharp reaction from the opposition Congress which accused the BJP of trying to “thrust” its agenda on the people. The BJP, however, justified the move, saying all the sections of society should know about the patriots who are the “ideals for the nation”.

Hedgewar and Upadhyaya are hailed in high esteem, apart from other Hindutva leaders, by the Sangh, believed to be the ideological mentor of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

The minister said the first year MBBS students will also learn about Maharshi Charaka, one of the principal contributors to the Ayurveda, and sage Sushrut, known as the father of surgery in India.

“The students of the firstyear course of MBBS will be lectured about Hedgewarji, Upadhyayji, Swami Vivekanandji, Ambedkarji and other great personalities. Lessons on these great personalities will inculcate values, principles, social and medical ethics in the students,” Sarang told PTI.

The next academic session for MBBS students is likely to start by this year-end.

“The National Medical Council (NMC) has said that ethical values should be the part of the foundation course in the first year (of MBBS). So we thought of incorporating these great personalities for building the character of students,” he said.

The minister said states finalise the content of the foundation course. PTI

Doc performs 101 tubectomies in 7 hrs, C’garh orders a probe

Doc performs 101 tubectomies in 7 hrs, C’garh orders a probe

Raipur: 06.09.2021

The Chhattisgarh government has ordered an investigation against a surgeon and Mainpat block health officer for performing 101 tubectomies in seven hours at a sterilisation camp held recently.

Surguja chief medical health official Dr Sisodiya said the camp was organised on August 27 at a community health centre in Mainpat. The same day, Dr Jibnus Ekka performed 101 surgeries in seven hours.

Meanwhile, no casualty has been reported and all patients are said to be stable.

The matter came to light as only 30 surgeries are allowed in a day. The health department issued an inquiry order to ascertain the reason for flouting norms of sterilisation camp.

As per Mainpat BDO RS Singh, several women turned up at the camp and urged the surgeon to perform the operation saying they had come from distant villages and can’t travel frequently. He also submitted the consent letter of women claiming that surgeries were performed as per their will. Health officials, claimed it was a government run camp. TNN