Sabarimala temple to be opened today for annual pilgrimage season

Sabarimala temple to be opened today for annual pilgrimage season

To ensure darshan for a maximum number of devotees, with a ceiling of 30,000 a day under the virtual queue system, 10 spot booking counters will start functioning in a couple of days.

Published: 15th November 2021 02:25 AM | Last Updated: 15th November 2021 02:25 AM |

The Lord Ayyappa temple here will be opened on Monday for the two-month annual pilgrimage season.

By Express News Service 15.11.2021

SABARIMALA: The Lord Ayyappa temple here will be opened on Monday for the two-month annual pilgrimage season. Melsanthi Jayaraj Potti will open the sreekovil at 5.30 pm in the presence of thantri Mahesh Mohanaru. Elaborate arrangements have been made by the authorities for devotees for darshan during the pilgrimage season within the limits of Covid protocol.

To ensure darshan for a maximum number of devotees, with a ceiling of 30,000 a day under the virtual queue system, 10 spot booking counters will start functioning in a couple of days. Devotees will have to produce either a vaccination certificate after having two doses or an RT-PCR certificate on arrival at Nilakkal along with virtual queue passes.

Devotees will be allowed for darshan from November 16 morning, the first day of the pilgrimage season, though the temple will be opened on November 15 afternoon. A total of 13.34 lakh devotees have booked under virtual queue for darshan till Sunday while about 2 lakh devotees cancelled the booking, Sabarimala devaswom executive officer Krishnakumara Warrier said. Regarding prasadam buffer stock, Krishnakumara Warrier said that the total stock of aravana prasadam was at 10 lakh containers and appam at 2 lakh packets as on Sunday.

He said steps have been taken to ensure the production of 2 lakh containers of aravana and 1 lakh packets of appam a day. The installation ceremony of the new melsanthi of Lord Ayyappa temple N Parameswaran Nampoothiri will be performed at 6pm on November 15. As part of the ceremony, the thantri will perform ‘kalasabhishekam’ on the new melsanthi.

After ‘kalasabhishekam,’ the thantri will pass on the ‘moolamantram’ of Lord Ayyappa to the melsanthi after leading him to the sreekovil. At Malikappuram Devi temple, the thantri will perform the installation ceremony of the new melsanthi Sambu Nampoothiri after the conclusion of the ceremony at Lord Ayyappa temple.

5 emergency med centres opened for pilgrims

T’Puram: Ahead of the Sabarimala pilgrim season, the health department has set up five emergency medical centres at Nilakkal, Pampa, Erumeli , Charalmedu (Ayyappan Road) and Sannidhanam. “People experiencing an increase in heart beat, breathlessness and chest pain shall take treatment at these centres. We have issued directives in different languages for the convenience of people from other states as well,” said Health Minister Veena George. The centres will start function on Monday. “Pilgrims facing fatigue have facilities to take rest at these centres.

They can also check blood pressure and get first aid. The medical centres are provided with sufficient medicines and have oxygen parlours that will function round the clock. They are equipped to deal with heart attack cases,” the minister said. Staff nurses deployed at the centre are trained to provide automatic external defilberator. The centre at Sannidhanam has an operation theatre for emergency cases. Ventilator facility is available at Pampa and Sannidhanam centres that are operated by specialist doctors from Medical Colleges.

Higher edu institutes tie up with hosps, nursing homes

Zeeshan.Jawed@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:15.11.2021

Colleges and universities across the city have tied up with medical facilities to treat emergency cases once campuses reopen on Tuesday.

Institutes that already have some medical facilities on the campus have ramped them up and tied up with the nearest hospitals or nursing homes so that emergency cases can be dealt with properly.

They have also made arrangements to thermal scan temperature of teachers and students, facilities to wash hands properly before entering the classes and disinfect the campus.

The government in an advisory last month listed several measures that authorities must undertake for the safety of students, teachers and other staff and arrangements they must make to maintain social distancing.

Jadavpur University which already has a health centre on the campus has tied up with a private hospital in the vicinity. An ambulance will be available to handle any emergency. “The health centre has a full-time medical superintendent and many specialists visit every week. We have set up an isolation room where anybody showing symptoms can be kept and attended. We have also tied up with a hospital in Jadavpur,” said an official of the university.

Scottish Church college has made arrangements to scan the temperature of everybody entering the campus and facilities have been made for washing hands. It has tied up with a private medical facility in north Kolkata. “We Safety of students and staff is our priority,” said principal Madhumanjari Mandal.

St Xavier’s College has also augmented its health facilities and made arrangements for scanning of temperature and disinfecting the campus.

Seth Anandram Jaipuria College has tied up with RG Kar Hospital. “We have requested the authorities to conduct medical camps on the campus at least once a week, so a thorough check-up can be done,” said principal Asok Mukhopadhyay. At Maulana Azad College, teachers have been counselling the students about the dos and don’ts for the past one week during online classes. “We have also set up isolation facility and tied up with a medical facility,” said Subhasis Dutta, principal.

Colleges & varsities firm up plans for split, hybrid classes

Colleges & varsities firm up plans for split, hybrid classes

Poulami.Roy@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:15.11.2021

From classrooms to laboratories, higher education institutes are in their final stages of adopting the new hybrid teaching mode. Universities and colleges are set to reopen on Tuesday after a 20-month hiatus.

Authorities of different universities held a series of meetings in the last two weeks and formulated their own individual guidelines. The first decision was how many students and which classes are to be called back for offline classes, immediately. It was also decided that both online and offline modes of teaching will continue.

Various departments of technology campus of Calcutta University have planned to call final semester students for two days a week. Some of the departments have been planning to install upgraded set-up for running online-offline at the same time.

Departments with a large number of students like zoology have planned to call students to attend only elective subjects divided in small groups. “Only students of elective subjects will attend physical classes. Classes will be taken in small groups which are not more than five, but core subject classes will run in online mode” said Parthiba Basu, professor, zoology.

The commerce department has decided to divide classrooms depending on its strength. “Class strength will be divided into small numbers, so more teachers may be required for regular classes,” said a CU professor.

“Different campuses of CU have already been cleaned and sanitized. Tables, chairs of each classroom of different departments and buildings have been cleaned properly. We have identified two classrooms for making seating arrangements. Initially, our final year students will come and attend physical classes for two days a week,” said Sankhayan Choudhury, professor, computer science & engineering department.

Apart from the department of chemistry all other departments of Presidency University have decided not to start physical classes initially. Geography, geology and other lab-based subjects will call students for practical classes. Only the chemistry department will start offline classes for theory and practical both. UG and PG final year’s students and second-year students will be called for offline theory classes. Debnil Paul, MA final year student, said, “We want all the classes to start in offline mode and the hostel should open for at least final semester’s students who will attend offline classes.” University is not going to open three canteens and hostels immediately. Central library and other departmental libraries and reading rooms will open from Tuesday. Students are free to visit departmental faculties and can access the library from Tuesday.

Jadavpur University will not call UG first year students from Tuesday. Life science, biotech, geography, electronics department from Science faculty will call PG2 students while chemistry department is still in dilemma. Arts faculty has decided to call one year of UG and one year of PG students daily but first year students won’t be called now. Engineering faculty will call PG1, PG2 to physical classes. PhD and MPhil students will come as per requirement. Authorities has done repairing work, too. Departments of evening courses may complete classes earlier, so that students can reach their house before night restrictions set in.

HC says 4-yr-old not competent witness in Pocso case, frees man

HC says 4-yr-old not competent witness in Pocso case, frees man

‘Lower Court Gave Undue Importance To Girl’s Statement’

Swati.Deshpande@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:15.11.2021

Quashing a 2019 conviction under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso), the Bombay high court said the sessions court had given “undue importance to a stray statement’’ of a four-year-old without ascertaining first whether the child could be a competent witness.

Mumbai sessions court had convicted the accused to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in 2019. He was one of two accused in the case. The co-accused had been acquitted by the trial court.

The HC said, “A child is a competent witness provided he is capable of understanding the questions put to him and is able to give rational answers.’’ But in this case, the child was barely four years old and of a tender age, and “it was obligatory” on the judge to ascertain first whether the child can depose as a competent witness, which the trial judge had not done, the high court added.

The prosecution’s case was that the accused, who was hired to paint a room, had made the child sit on his lap. It was alleged that at 9.30pm, he then touched her private part and that the other man had slapped her.

The child, who did not have the cognitive skills to remember, recollect and narrate an alleged sexual abuse by a painter-workman, had later in her cross-examination by the defence lawyer also said she was deposing as told by her mother, observed Justice Anuja Prabhudessai while acquitting the man convicted in the 2017 case.

The prosecution’s case was based mainly on the child’s testimony. “Conviction can be based on the sole testimony of a child witness provided the witness is competent to depose to the facts and is a reliable witness,’’ said the HC.

The man had been convicted under section 10 of Pocso for aggravated sexual assault, where minimum punishment is five years’ RI. Both the accused had pleaded they were not guilty.

Observing that the trial court had “failed to evaluate competency’’ of the child as a witness, the HC scrutinised her evidence to ascertain whether her deposition can be relied on. The HC judgment noted that the child “was not trying to conceal the truth’’ and the tenor of her answers during trial indicate she lacked the intellectual capacity and maturity to understand the nature of questions and to give rational answers, hence she “cannot be considered to be a competent witness.” Besides, there is no confirmation of the identification of the accused in the case, the HC noted as the date of painting work was a day after the alleged crime, said the room owner.

The Bombay high court judgment noted that the four-year-old girl ‘was not trying to conceal the truth’ and the tenor of her answers during trial indicated she lacked the intellectual capacity and maturity to understand the nature of questions and to give rational answers

AKTU convocation likely on Dec 15, over 50,000 to get degrees

AKTU convocation likely on Dec 15, over 50,000 to get degrees

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow: 15.11.2021

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU) is likely to hold its 19 convocation ceremony on December 15. The university has sent a proposal to Raj Bhawan seeking permission for it. Educationist and mechanical engineer SG Dhande is likely to be the chief guest on the occasion.

The convocation ceremony will be held in the offline mode in which medals will be awarded to 64 meritorious students and over 50,000 degrees will be awarded to undergraduate and postgraduate students of various courses.

“We have sent a proposal for the conduct of the convocation on December 15 and have decided on our chief guest. We are waiting for the consent from both,” said AKTU spokesperson Asheesh Mishra.

“Prof SG Dhande is an eminent educationist who was the director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for 10 years. He is currently the Chairman of Board of Governors of National Institute of Technology, Delhi, and National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai,” said Mishra.

The convocation ceremony will be held in the offline mode in which medals will be awarded to 64 meritorious students and over 50,000 degrees to UG & PG students

Buffalo refuses to be milked, owner taps cops

Buffalo refuses to be milked, owner taps cops

Bhopal:15.11.2021

A farmer from Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district went to a police station taking along his buffalo, complaining that the animal was refusing to be milked and he suspected it to be under the influence of witchcraft, an official said on Sunday.

“The villager, identified as Babulal Jatav (45), submitted a complaint at Nayagaon police station on Saturday, saying his buffalo was not allowing to be milked,” Deputy SP Arvind Shah said. “I had told the police station in-charge to assist the villager with some veterinary advice. The villager visited the police station again to thank the police on Sunday, saying the buffalo allowed to be milked on Sunday morning,” Shah said. PTI

Spitting or littering at Kamlapati station to attract ₹500 spot fine

INAUGURATION TODAY

Spitting or littering at Kamlapati station to attract ₹500 spot fine

SWACHH STATION: 160 CCTVs To Keep Eye On Platforms, Premises

Ramendra.Singh@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:15.11.2021

Think twice before spitting or littering on the campus of the newly constructed Rani Kamlapati railway station as it will charge an on-spot fine of Rs 500.

Abu Asif, project manager of Bansal Pathways said, “There will be a close watch on every passenger on the campus. A world-class station infrastructure is given to the passengers and they are expected to keep the campus ;Swachh’. If they do not, they have to face a fine of Rs 500.”

Asked how they will keep a watch on passengers’ movement, Asif said, “We have a web of 160 high-definition CCTVs on the campus. Not a single passenger can escape if they spread litter or spit on the campus.” He has made it clear that the fine will be levied as per the rules and regulations.

Different signages will be put across the premises so that the visitors follow the rules and regulations. “We have put the instructions everywhere but we expect from the passengers that will follow them.”

Even passengers have welcomed the decision. “Can you expect anyone spitting or littering at any airport? If we can keep the airports clean the same could be possible here also. Let the station be the best in the country in all terms,” said a passenger, Vishwas Verma.

Few passengers felt that there was a need to inform the people to keep the campus clean. “I think there is an urgent need to make the passengers aware that it is their responsibility to keep the campus clean. This is possible only when they realise it. Fine is one of the ways. However, I think awareness about such things should also be launched,” said Pratiksha Sahu.

Passengers also suggested that first-time offenders should be left with a warning. “I think it would be harsh to impose fine immediately. Cleanliness at the station is important. I think a few days should be given to the offenders so that they can learn the importance of a clean railway station.