HC to govt: Don’t force degree students to take Kannada language

HC to govt: Don’t force degree students to take Kannada language

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:17.12.2021

The high court on Thursday observed that until further orders, students who do not wish to take Kannada language in their degree courses should not be compelled to pursue it based on the circulars issued by the state government.

“Prima facie, we are of the view that the matter with respect to implementation of Kannada language as a compulsory subject in higher studies on the basis of implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) is a question which requires consideration. As such, the state government at this stage, shall not insist on making Kannada language compulsory. Students who have already taken Kannada language on the basis of their choice may do so but those who do not wish to take Kannada language shall not be compelled to pursue the language till further orders,” a division bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi observed in its order.

Earlier, MB Nargund, Additional Solicitor General appearing for the Centre, informed the court that making any language compulsory in any particular state on the basis of implementation of NEP would have vast ramifications and as such the central government has to take a decision in consultation with the state governments in this regard.

Four weeks sought to file central govt affidavit

He said that necessary meetings for this purpose could not be held so far and as such he is not in a position to spell out the stand of the central government in respect of making Kannada language compulsory in Karnataka. Nargund submitted that a detailed counter affidavit on behalf of the Centre in this regard would be filed shortly and requested for four weeks’ time.

Shridhar Prabhu, counsel for five students, said that the court by means of an interim order passed on December 13, 2021, directed the state government and Bangalore City University not to precipitate the matter with respect to making Kannada compulsory. He requested the court to further clarify by saying that the petitioner students are free to choose the language they want as they have taken admissions in the current academic session.

However, Advocate-General Prabhuling K Navadgi, referring to the petition that has been filed by the five students, claimed that they have in fact already studied Kannada up to class 12 and as such they cannot have any objection in studying Kannada in higher classes.

Two petitions

The high court is hearing two petitions on this issue, a public interest litigation by Samskrita Bharati (Karnataka) Trust, Bengaluru, and three other institutions associated with promotion of Sanskrit language/study and another filed by the five students.

The petitioners have claimed that both these orders are against the very intent of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Students who have already taken Kannada language on the basis of their choice may do so but those who do not wish to take Kannada language shall not be compelled to pursue the language till further orders

—HC bench order

Dead man has right to early burial: Kerala HC

Dead man has right to early burial: Kerala HC

Kochi:17.12.2021

A decent burial of a dead body without unnecessary delay in completing legal formalities is part of constitutional right, the Kerala HC said on Thursday while ordering for conducting inquest and postmortem at night.

Justice PV Kunhikrishnan said : “…it is the duty of the state to complete the legal formalities forthwith if an unnatural death happened. The officials of the government should hand over the dead body to the kith and kin of the deceased person immediately. It is part of the fundamental right of a person under Article 21 of the Constitution of India to live with dignity and the dignity includes… the dignity following his death.” TNN

Six fresh cases of Omicron variant suspected in TN

Six fresh cases of Omicron variant suspected in TN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:17.12.2021

Test samples of at least six more patients, suspected to be carrying the Omicron variant, were sent by Tamil Nadu to whole genome sequencing labs in Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune on Thursday.

A 38-year-old woman, who returned to India on December 12 from the Republic of Congo via Chennai, tested positive for Covid-19 in her hometown in Tiruvannamalai district two days later, health officials said here on Thursday.

During the RTPCR test, scientists noticed the S-gene dropout – an indicator that she could be carrying the Omicron variant. She is admitted to the government medical college hospital in Tiruvannamalai, and her health condition is stable, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said.

By evening, four family contacts of the Covid-19 patient, who took the Doha flight to Chennai, tested positive for Covid-19. With this, at least two passengers who travelled on the flight and 10 of their contacts have tested positive for the viral infection so far. The public health department says there was S-gene dropout in all patients who tested positive.

A 47-year-old passenger, who returned from Nigeria via Doha, tested positive at the airport on December 10. Five days later, National Institute of Virology confirmed he was carrying the Omicron variant. The genomic test reports of all other patients are still awaited. “We have alerted all passengers on the flight to contact health authorities or seek medical attention even if they have mild symptoms,” Radhakrishnan said.

In addition, another patient, who travelled from South Africa, tested positive eight days after she travelled. Since South Africa is listed as a country at risk, patients are allowed to leave the airport only after they test negative. A repeat RTPCR is done eight days later. While officials are yet to confirm if they suspect Omicron variant, the patient has been isolated for treatment at the Government Covid Hospital in Guindy. Her tests samples were also sent to the genomic labs.

State public health staff and infectious diseases experts are now asking the state to expand the list of “at risk” countries or make testing mandatory for all international passengers. “The state has to create separate facilities for passengers so there is no further community spread,” said a senior government doctor. “Passenger travelling from other countries are not mandated to wait at the airport till results come in. While we track and test most close contacts, this can become complex if we continue to passengers go without negative RTPCR report,” he said.

627 new cases

Tamil Nadu reported 627 new Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths on Thursday with Chennai (124) and Coimbatore (104) continuing to record the highest number of new cases.

At the end of the day, 687 people were discharged from Covid registry leaving 7,476 people still under treatment for the viral infection. The cumulative case tally since March 2020 touched 27.37 lakh and the death toll reached 36,656.

Adyar Eco park opened for public

Adyar Eco park opened for public

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:17.12.2021

In a move that is likely to bring cheer among walkers, Tholkappiar Poonga (formerly Adyar Poonga Trust) will now allow people to take their daily stroll on its premises.

Project director V Kalaiarasan said the government approved the park’s proposal to allow people to use the grounds for walking for one and half hours each in the morning and evening. Those interested need to apply on the park’s website. Walkers will be issued daily passes for ₹20, monthly for ₹500 and quarterly for ₹1,500.

POONAMALLEE HIGH ROAD TURNS A NIGHTMARE FOR AMBULANCES

POONAMALLEE HIGH ROAD TURNS A NIGHTMARE FOR AMBULANCES

Patient-Ferrying Time To Hospitals Goes Up By 30 Minutes On Stretch, Risking Lives

Omjasvin.MD@timesgroup.com

17.12.2021

Drivers of the 108 ambulance service dread getting calls to ferry patients along Poonamallee High Road (EVR Periyar Salai) from Thiruverkadu to Chennai Central. The many traffic bottlenecks along the stretch have turned into a nightmare, they say.

Merely removing these bottlenecks can help ferry patients to Government Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital (KMCH) and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), the tertiary hospitals located on Poonamallee High Road, at least 30 minutes quicker, they say.

Congestion at key junctions of Thiruverkadu, Golden George Nagar, Maduravoyal, Arumbakkam and Aminjikarai causes a delay in reaching KMCH, at least 10 km away, for Western Chennai residents.

At each of these junctions, TOI used a stopwatch to find that an ambulance is held back by an average of 3 minutes to 6 minutes at one place, accounting for a total of 30 minutes of stoppage time.

S Venkatachalam, a 108 ambulance driver who regularly ferries patients to KMCH along the stretch, said container lorries are the main cause of the problem between Thiruverkadu and Madurvoyal, sometimes bringing traffic to a standstill by up to 45 minutes. “After Maduravoyal, it is the commercial vehicles that are a hindrance,” he said.

The majority of calls for 108 ambulances on this stretch are to attend to accident cases, and with Tiruvallur GH being 30 km away, the rush to KMCH, the closest, is the most intense.

Apart from ferrying accident victims and emergency cases from Western Chennai, these ambulances also carry patients referred from Tiruvallur GH to either KMCH or RGGGH via Poonammallee High Road. M Vijayashankar, head of emergency at KMCH, said they avoid referrals from other hospitals as much as possible during peak hours. “Delay in presentation will definitely increase complications of emergency cases. People having a better traffic sense would help free the path for ambulances,” he said. Ambulances are live-tracked through GPS and emergency communication is continuously given, he added.

The Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project (TNHSP), which manages 108 services, in 2018 proposed to bring in automated signal clearance for ambulances and a pilot study was carried out along Poonamallee High Road. It never took off.

TNHSP project director Dr S Uma told they had given a proposal under the road safety fund through TNHSP but due to some technical issue at the police signal side and fund issues from World Bank, it was shelved.

Encourage bail & not jail: SC to trial courts

Encourage bail & not jail: SC to trial courts

‘Despite Several Orders, Courts Denying Relief’

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:17.12.2021

Observing that if there are hundreds of reasons for denying bail then there are also hundreds of reasons for granting it, the Supreme Court on Thursday expressed concern over trial courts showing reluctance in granting relief despite various directions to encourage bail. The mindset of such courts needs to change, the SC said.

The apex court, in a slew of orders, held personal liberty as an important aspect of constitutional mandate and that arrests should not be done in a routine manner when the accused is cooperating in a probe and there is no reason to believe that the person will abscond or influence investigations.

The court had in October passed guidelines as per which if an accused had cooperated in the investigation — and was not arrested during the probe — then s/he should not be taken into custody at the time of filing of chargesheet.

It held that a trial court cannot also refuse to accept a chargesheet simply because the accused had not been arrested and produced before the court.

Noting that the guidelines were not followed by trial courts, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh said the signal that the Supreme Court wanted to send has not reached and lower courts remained apprehensive in granting bail.

Mindset is to find a way to deny bail: SC bench

The SC bench said, “The idea was to encourage bail and not the reverse but it is not happening... It is all about mindset. But the mindset is to find a way to deny bail. It has to be changed.”

The court said it is troubling that courts are spending substantial time in deciding only bail matters instead of main issues and cases which should have been decided by high courts reach the SC. The bench said the result is that the top court is flooded with bail petitions. “The endeavour was to reduce the bail application but it has, in fact, increased,” the bench said.

“It cannot be that everybody has to be put behind bars in every case. Bail should be encouraged and not jail,” the bench said, noting that investigation goes on for years and during that period people should not languish in jail, which also causes overcrowding in prisons.

It further said the investigating agencies lack sufficient manpower to conduct probes in a time-bound manner and there is also a lack of infrastructure, like paucity of labs, resulting in inordinate delays.

“In those circumstances, we have to take a call on the issue as the probe goes on for years,” the bench said. The apex court had in October issued guidelines for different categories of offences.

Full report on www.toi.in

Times View

Many undertrials languish in jail for years awaiting trial. Our judicial system functions on presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. Such a state of affairs turns this principle on its head. The apex court is right in its approach. A comprehensive order detailing the guidelines could go a long way in ameliorating the problem.

Loader who fell asleep in aircraft cargo compartment not first to fly with bags

Loader who fell asleep in aircraft cargo compartment not first to fly with bags

Manju.V@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:17.12.2021

The IndiGo loader who fell asleep inside an aircraft cargo compartment and flew from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi on Sunday wasn’t the first passenger to fly among bags and containers. Six years ago, a similar incident had occurred in the US, when a ramp worker involuntarily ended up flying from Seattle to Los Angeles in the cargo compartment of an Alaska Airlines aircraft.

For the Mumbai airport too, a human travelling in a cargo compartment wasn’t a first. In mid-1960s, Australian former athlete Reg Spiers “posted” himself and flew in a cargo box from England to Australia inside an Air India aircraft as he didn’t have money to buy an air ticket. “The A320 aircraft cargo hold is pressurised and temperature-controlled. Had the cargo hold not been unpressurised, the temperature inside would have touched minus 45-50 degree Celsius during cruise,” said a senior pilot. IndiGo flight 6E-1835 had departed around 3am, and the loader is said to have fallen asleep in baggage compartment one.

But the most bizarre journey in cargo hold was the one voluntarily undertaken by Spiers. The cash-strapped athlete had taken up a job in the airport export cargo section where he saw livestock being transported in the cargo hold and the use of shipping fee payment-ondelivery system.

He had a cargo box built to airline specifications which allowed him to lay on his back with knees bent. He packed tinned food, a torch, a blanket and a bottle of water and another one to pee, according to a BBC report. He endured a 24-hour delay in London due to fog, but let himself out after the aircraft took-off. After Paris, the next stop was ‘Bombay’ where the baggage handlers put the box upside down and left it in the sun for four hours. He sweated through it, but stayed put. Eventually he was put into another aircraft bound for Perth. His journey made headlines. But the sweet ending was by Air India. The airline did not charge him the shipping fee.