US, EU, UK stop air travel from southern Africa

US, EU, UK stop air travel from southern Africa

27.11.2021

Countries across Europe, US, Britain, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong halted air travel from southern Africa amid growing concern about the new variant even as South Africa called the ban “draconian”, unscientific and contrary to WHO advice. EU members agreed to rapidly impose restrictions on seven African countries — Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Russia has also restricted entry from Africa and Hong Kong. P 18

Delay in NEET PG counselling: Docs call for strike

Delay in NEET PG counselling: Docs call for strike

Ahmedabad:27.11.2021

Faced with repeated delays and postponement of NEET PG counselling 2021, the Junior Doctors Association at BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital have called for a strike from November 29.

JDA said on Friday that all its members and resident doctors will withdraw from out patient department services from Monday if counselling process is not fast-tracked by the concerned authority.

On Saturday, JDA at BJMC will sensitize resident doctors regarding their grievances and plan of action. On Sunday, they will give a memorandum to the director for PG courses at BJMC, wear black ribbons and carry out a candle march on the hospital campus. “On Monday all resident doctors will withdraw from OPD/ ward services,” it said. TNN

FLOOD FURY

FLOOD FURY

TN in troubled waters without restoration of its tanks, rivers

People Died, Crops Were Destroyed And Roads And Bridges Crumbled In Recent Rain That Put Rivers In Spate. Experts Say Loss Of Water Bodies Will Make Situation Worse

Team TOI

27.11.2021

The administration and people of Tamil Nadu have been living a life of self-deceit in handling issues concerning ecological degradation. The state creates its own comfort zone by viewing extreme weather systems as aberrations.

The 2015 Chennai floods was viewed as a once-in-a-century phenomenon, which may not recur for a couple of generations. Chennai got flooded again, twice this year, but thankfully Adyar and Cooum did not wreak havoc by overflowing into human settlements. If they had, none had any solution on hand.

Except for very few rivers like the Cauvery, other rivers in the state will overflow if reservoirs connected to them let out water to their full capacity. Adyar, for instance, gets water from close to a dozen sources including Chembarambakkam reservoir and Athanur lake. The river cannot carry more than 60,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) water, whereas more than one lakh cusecs was released into the river in November-December 2015, resulting in inundation of many parts of Chennai for about a week.

Thanks to the drive carried out by the then Kancheepuram district collector against encroachers, Adyar can carry more water now. It may not be enough though. Kosasthalayar, which draws water from Red Hills and Poondi reservoirs, can carry up to 70,000 cusecs of water. However, the release from the reservoirs exceeded the river’s carrying capacity in the recent rains, resulting in flooding of Manali Pudhu Nagar and surrounding areas.

S Thirunavukkarasu, former assistant executive engineer of PWD, said that water flow can be better regulated if one more reservoir with 1tmcft capacity is constructed upstream of Poondi reservoir.

Creating more water bodies many not be the right solution. Climate patterns are fast changing and they will no longer remain aberrations. Global warming causes faster evaporation of seawater – even at 24ºC-25ºC– and the water molecules that escape have to come down as rain. The stark difference is that a week’s downpour now matches the rainfall of a month in previous years. “The state should acknowledge that going forward, cyclones and storms will become severe and super cyclones will be a routine affair. Business as usual will not work. If the 1,076 km coastline gives huge growth prospects to Tamil Nadu, it will also bring in incessant rains during every weather formation. Apart from receiving about 930mm of average annual rainfall, Tamil Nadu is also a natural drain for Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to let out excess water. Tamil Nadu governments, in the past, have been demanding water from its neighbours. It has never thought of what to do if there is excess release from those states. Our solution has been letting out excess flow into the sea as runoff, without bothering to store it,” said S Janakarajan, former professor of Madras Institute of Development Studies.

Tamil Nadu has compounded the problem by indiscriminate denudat cover. “Let us not hide beh change for all our past blu Janakarajan. “Madhav Ga shows three-fourths of our cover in the Western Ghats our water tower – is lost. Th made disaster. And strangel putting brakes on it,” he said The state has enough nat man-made waterways and o storage structures. It has grouped into 17 major basins basins. There are 90 reservoirs with a combined storage capacity of 224tmcft water. There used to be 42,000 tanks, big and small, but the numbers have been revised to 39,000 by government agencies. Only about 30,000 of them are effective though. Others have been lost to development and encroachments. There are close to 1,000 tanks below the Grand Anicut in the Cauvery delta districts. Sadly, even after sinking several thousand crores of rupees in the name of ‘kudimaramathu’ schemes over the past many years, none of the waterbodies in the state has been restored to its previous glory. “Our reservoirs, lakes, tanks and rivers are heavily silted. Most reservoirs including Mettur and Vaigai have lost more than 30% holding capacity owing to silting. If storage, water catchment area and foreshore area of existing water bodies are restored, much of our problem will be solved,” said Janakarajan.

Email your feedback to southpole.toi@timesgroup.com

Downpour leaves over 150 streets inundated

Downpour leaves over 150 streets inundated

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

27.11.2021

The rain that lashed the city on Friday resulted in inundation in 151 streets. The hardest hit were Raja Mannar Salai in K K nagar, Bazullah Road in T Nagar, some areas in Kolathur and OMR. Short term interventions by the civic body helped Pullianthope, Jawahar Nagar and G N Chetty road, where there were fewer complaints of inundation.

Corporation sources said 14 trees had fallen on Friday, pushing the total number of trees falls this monsoon to 696. The civic body has pressed 840 pumps into service. Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said that all these pumps will be used at night, if required.

Several activists pointed out that in order to arrive at long-term solutions, the civic body should completely rework the storm water drains. Dayanand Krishnan, a civic activist who is studying the city’s drain maps, said most drains in T Nagar have a reverse flow. “Depth of the drains in many locations is not even one feet. The width is very narrow in several locations. A proper investigation should be done by inspecting all drains constructed in the past few years. The drains will only work if constructed properly connecting them to Mambalam canal,” he said.

An official told TOI that in T Nagar and other areas, when the missing link drains were constructed between 2019 and 2020, the run-off from the road alone was calculated. “The engineers were so lethargic in their work that they didn’t even calculate the run-off from apartment complexes and commercial establishments,” said an official.

NO RESPITE : A water-logged stretch in K K Nagar

FIVE ROADS, SUBWAY CLOSED FOR TRAFFIC

FIVE ROADS, SUBWAY CLOSED FOR TRAFFIC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

27.11.2021

Five roads were closed for traffic and vehicles were diverted on Friday morning due to the wet spell. The Rangarajapuram subway and Rajamannar Road in K K Nagar were closed for traffic since Friday morning. All vehicles were diverted towards Second Avenue.

At Valasaravakkam, traffic near Mega Mart was diverted towards Keshavardhani Road to reach Arcot Road.

The traffic on Vani Mahal to Benz Park was closed and diverted towards Habibullah road and Raghavaiah road. To facilitate the drain water work at Anna main Road in front of K K Nagar, GH. The traffic towards Udhayam theatre was allowed in the opposite direction. At Udhayam junction, heavy vehicles from Kasi theatre going towards Anna main road were diverted towards Ashok pillar.

Rangarajapuram subway and three roads in T Nagar, K K Nagar and Manali were closed on Friday morning. Traffic cops have been assigned to find out traffic blocks and report it to civic authorities. However, interior stretches like GN Chetty Roadm Rajamannar Salai and Adyar witnessed traffic bottlenecks during the day.

Places like T Nagar, Nandanam, Adyar, Mount Road and Periamet witnessed traffic jams during peak hours, while movement of vehicles slowed down in interior roads due to water-logging. In Kancheepuram, 100 villagers petitioned the collector to help them find an alternative route as the Walajabad - Avanur causeway was washed away in the rain.

As machines idle, suburban railway passengers suffer

As machines idle, suburban railway passengers suffer

Meera Nair TNN

Chennai:27.11.2021

Most of the automated passenger amenities like ticket vending machines, water dispensers and digital information screens are idling at city’s suburban railway stations despite high footfalls in these stations.

At West Mambalam station, all the three automatic ticket vending machines are not in working condition. While one is supposed to have been ‘fully automated’ machine, two others are to be manually operated. “They are not in working condition for a very long time,” said a lady clerk, adding, “I don’t’ know how long will they remain so.”

At Tambaram, of the four ticketing machines, two are out of order for the past many months, and a railway employee at the station said the issue had been communicated to commercial department and action awaited. Even the ATMs are in short-supply. Of the three ATMs at the main entrance, two are out of order, resulting in endless queue in front of the lone working ATM.

At West Mambalam, the rusted drinking water pipes, dirty floor and stench all around would put off even the thirstiest commuter. A woman commuter close-by advises those who care not to use water from the tap. “Buy from the RO units on platforms,” she says.

The UTS mobile ticket App of the railways too has not endeared itself to users, including youngsters, much. “App-based bookings are used by less than 20% of regular passengers,” said the clerk, adding that elders and less educated are not able to use them.

Pooja, a college student, said she had not even tried any app-based ticket booking or attempted the ticket vending machines as well. Lakshmi, a private company employee, said she was not even aware of the UTS mobile ticketing system operated by the railways.

Both at Tambaram and West Mambalam stations, the giant digital information board were not working, forcing commuters to wait in front of alreadycrowded counters for inquiry regarding train timings.

Senior citizens, handicapped and pregnant women find it hard to first inquire about timings at the counter, and then rush to catch the train. A railway employee the complaint has been forwarded to higher officials but it hasn’t received any positive yet.

The upgraded Tambaram station is a multi-modal hub handling much more number of trains than it used to be a mere suburban outpost. The station’s upgradation has not bought along more amenities on platforms.

Anna Library project: 20,000 rare books, journal s now a click away

Anna Library project: 20,000 rare books, journal  s now a click away

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 27.11.2021

Some of the rarest collections including a review of the shipping system of the East-India Company of 1798, the Madras Monthly Journal Medical Science of 1872, the Madras Agricultural Journal of 1929 and some rare Tamil literary works such as “Nandanar Charithira Keerthani: Chidambarakummi of 1895” are just a click away.

An Anna Centenary Library project is digitising rare books, journals, written manuscripts, palm-leaf manuscripts, documents and periodicals, rare photographs and paintings sourced from individuals and institutions across the state. “The readers can now read 20,000 rare books at the digital library on the website of directorate of public libraries (tamilnadupubliclibraries.org),”

said S Kannappan, director (incharge) of Public Libararies.

The team will first verify whether the books have already been digitised and whether they are copyrighted. “We are scanning copyrights of books and journals and other material to preserve them,” said S Kamatchi, coordinator, digital library project at Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpuram.

“There are many rare books and palm leaf manuscripts with individuals and institutions. If not preserved, they will eventually be lost,” she added. Under the project, around three lakh palm leaf manuscripts have been digitised besides books and journals.

Anna Centenary Library also entered into MoU with Madras University to scan rare books preserved in the university. “There are 10,000 rare books and journals, pamphlets are being preserved in the university library. ACL team will scan them and make available to all readers in their digital library. They will also provide the digital copy to the university,” said S Gowri, vicechancellor of Madras University.

Besides, rare books belonging to Presidency College and other institutions also will be preserved in digital form.