Challenge on Instagram leads to murder

Challenge on Instagram leads to murder

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Coimbatore: 22.12.2021

A 22-year-old gangster, who dared his rivals via a post on Instagram to bump him off when he visits Anjugam Nagam near Chinnavedampatti in the city, was murdered by a four-member gang in full public view at the same spot around 8.30pm on Monday.

V Sriram, of Sampath Street, posted a video on his Instagram page a few days ago challenging the rival gang members from Kannappa Nagar to try to finish him off when he visits Anjugam Nagar on Monday night. Sriram is a member of Rathinapuri gang.

Weekend holidayers ditch costly Dubai for Colombo

Weekend holidayers ditch costly Dubai for Colombo

Low Airfare Makes Lanka Attractive

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.12.2021

As Dubai continues to be expensive, people who want to experience an international holiday are heading to Sri Lanka from Chennai for the Christmas, New Year and Pongal weekends. The restrictions on revelry imposed by the state government in Chennai are also encouraging those who can afford a holiday abroad to try out Colombo. The island nation is the cheapest destination from Chennai with return airfare in the range of ₹20,000 to ₹26,000 in the current season.

In comparison, a return ticket to Dubai is in the range of ₹40,000 to ₹2 lakh for holiday weekends due to the high demand from transit travellers headed to Europe and the US. Though Singapore has begun issuing tourist visas, people do not prefer to travel for leisure if they do not have a friend or a relative in that south-east Asian country. The testing for Covid-19 and requirement to stay in a hotel till results are ready is a hassle. Flights to Singapore are also full and are expensive because a large number of people who have permanent residency and those headed for work are travelling there.

Southeast Asia and the Middle East have traditionally been among the most popular destinations for tourists from Chennai but these destinations are now ruled out due to restrictions and high cost.

Sriharan Balan of Madura Travels said several people had started exploring Sri Lanka for this holiday season as Dubai is expensive. “The fares are affordable compared to other foreign destinations,” he said.

In pre-Covid times too, people used to travel to Sri Lanka instead of domestic destinations in Jammu and Kashmir or other places in the north. “The return fare to Colombo used to be ₹10,000 while the fare to Srinagar was as much as ₹20,000,” he said. Now, J&K is less expensive, but Colombo is nearer and there are direct flights from Chennai.

Basheer Ahemed of Chennai Metro Travels said the UAE was a hassle-free destination to travel but is expensive. “People are booking tickets to Colombo because its nearby and is cheaper and we are getting many enquiries for New Year weekend too,” he said. This gives some hope though airfare and hotel tariff are higher for international travel amidst the restricted number of flights, he added.

“People have the option of travelling to Malaysia for the Pongal holidays as Malaysia Tourism is planning to open Langkawi in January,” said Ahmed.

14m-wide pedestrian subway linking central station and GH to open soon

14m-wide pedestrian subway linking central station and GH to open soon

Old Subway Too Will Be Ready By Jan

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.12.2021

A 14-metre-wide pedestrian subway linking MGR central railway station with Rajiv Gandhi government general Hospital(RGGGH) is nearing completion. Work on repairing the old subway will also be completed in January 2022. More than 70,000 people cross the road in front of the railway station during peak hours.

Passengers with luggage and senior citizens can take advantage of the escalators and elevators of the new subway. As one end of the subway will be closer to RGGGH, those visiting the hospital and taking the train or an MTC bus could also have easy access to the facilities. The old subway linking Central Railway station and the MTC bus stop near RGGGH, which is partly open, will also further help pedestrians cross the road easily when it is fully ready.

“The new subway is ready without elevators. Escalators on both sides have been installed. Refurbishment of the old subway is in progress. It will be ready by the end of January 2022,” a metro rail official said.

At present, except for a few who use the pedestrian subway opened in 2018 linking Park Station with Moore Market complex and the underground Central metro, an average 300 people cross the Poonamallee High Road every hour in front of Central Railway station. This is causing traffic congestion.

According to CMRL, in the pre-covid times, more than 70,000 people used to cross Poonamallee High Road around central railway station during peak hours. More than four lakh commuters take suburban, MRTS and long-distance trains from the surrounding stations. In addition, metro rail estimates that nearly 15,000 passengers will board trains at central metro by 2026, so the number of pedestrians will only rise.

To take the pedestrians completely underground and ensure smooth traffic flow on Poonamallee High Road, CMRL planned four pedestrian subways on the stretch between Evening Bazaar Road and Moore Market Complex. They include a nine-metre-wide subway linking Evening Bazaar Road and RGGGH, a nine-metre-wide subway linking southern railway building with RGGGH, a 14-metre-wide subway linking central railway station with RGGGH and a nine-metre-wide subway to link Park station with Moore Market Complex.

EASY PASSAGE: Passengers with luggage can take advantage of the escalators and elevators of the new subway

Kits Miss Omicron In US, Show False Negatives Docs urge ICMR to check testing kits

Docs urge ICMR to check testing kits

Kits Miss Omicron In US, Show False Negatives

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:22.12.2021

Days after the USFDA warned that some testing kits in their country were throwing “false” negatives, particularly among those carrying the omicron variant, infectious diseases experts here have asked the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to review all testing kits, including indigenously manufactured products for its accuracy.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has mutated over time, resulting in genetic variations. “We don’t know much about the new variant Omicron, except that it spreads rapidly, increases hospitalisations and deaths. Now, we are learning that tests including gold standard ones are affected by viral mutations,” said infectious disease expert Dr Subramanian Swaminathan of Gleneagles Global Hospitals. “The ICMR should check all the testing kits and permit only the ones that are accurate. With false negatives, isolation norms will be relaxed, and risk of transmission will increase,” he said.

The new variant is already straining the testing capacity of several countries. With people queuing up for pre-travel tests, the spike in Covid-19 cases in several European countries has increased the number of daily tests. States like Tamil Nadu haven’t allowed home tests or antigen tests too. The strain here will be much more when cases increase. The state conducts around one lakh RTPCR tests a day acros 317 labs.

“Molecular tests that use multiple genetic targets to determine a result are less likely to be impacted by increased prevalence of genetic variants,” said virologist Dr T Jacob John. “The ICMR and The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium should check kits, antigen, PCR and home tests used across India. Until then clinicians should consider results in combination with clinical observations, patient history, and epidemiological information,” he said.

The state public health laboratory says it uses the True-Nat system, which is now a comprehensive assay for screening and confirmation of COVID-19 cases. The RT-PCR tests are conducted in whole for all the genes - N’, ‘S’, ‘E’ and ‘ORF'. The S gene is absent in Omicron. "Since S-gene is not detected during the test, it is called S-gene dropout,” said state DPH laboratory head Dr S Raju. S-dropout is considered as a proxy indicator for the new variant. “And it also shows that the tests are effective,” he said. Nevertheless, public health officials admit not all labs in the state use the same kind of kits.

DISCOMFORT: Healthcare official collecting a nasal swab for Covid testing in Madurai

Omicron: States told to bring back curbs

Omicron: States told to bring back curbs

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:22.12.2021

Amid initial signs of a rise in Omicron infections and concerns over its high transmissibility, the Centre on Tuesday asked states to activate war rooms and bring back curbs, including night curfews, strict restrictions on large gatherings, curtailing numbers in marriages and funerals, restricting attendance in offices and public transport.

District administrations have been asked to keep a close watch on numbers and proactively analyse trends and surges. Highlighting that Omicron variant is at least three times more transmissible than the Delta strain, the Centre underlined the need for prompt and focused decisions at the local level as cases can spread rapidly in the absence of timely identification and containment.

‘Hospitalisation, deaths can impact a nascent economic recovery’

This is considered necessary even though cases of Omicron have been seen to be mostly mild so far.

“Based on current scientific evidence, the VOC (Variant of Concern) Omicron is at least 3 times more transmissible than the Delta VOC. Besides, the Delta VOC is still present in different parts of the country. Hence, even greater foresight, data analysis, dynamic decision making and strict & prompt containment action is required at the local and district level. The decision making at the State/UT and district level must be very prompt and focussed,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in a letter on Tuesday.

While the infection might prove to be mild, a large number of cases can increase hospitalisation and deaths and also impact a nascent economic recovery. Till Tuesday morning, 200 cases infected with Omicron variant of SARSCoV2 were detected through genome sequencing of Covid-19 positive samples from across 12 states and UTs. Of these 77 cases have recovered or migrated, health ministry said. The Centre has directed “all cluster samples must be sent to INSACOG Labs for genome sequencing without delay.”

The Centre is worried over the rising detection of Omicron cases even as the overall numbers continue to be under control. Officials raised concerns as the detected Omicron cases are only a factor of the size of samples and the real numbers are likely to be much higher, particularly because of the transmissibility.

Overall, a total of 5,326 new Covid-19 cases — which includes Delta and other variants — were recorded from across the country on Monday. The active caseload of Covid-19 stood at 79,097. Maharashtra and Delhi have recorded 54 cases of Omicron variant each, while Telangana registered 20 cases, Karnataka 19, Rajasthan 18, Kerala 15 and Gujarat 14 cases.

Shanmuganathan, MK’s ‘shadow’ for 50 yrs, dies

Shanmuganathan, MK’s ‘shadow’ for 50 yrs, dies

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.12.2021

K Shanmuganathan, former chief minister M Karunanidhi’s personal secretary for close to 50 years, died in a Chennai hospital due to age-related ailments on Tuesday afternoon. He was 80.

Having joined Karunanidhi as his personal secretary in 1969, the two became inseparable, irrespective of whether the late DMK leader was in power or in the opposition. After Karunanidhi’s death on August 7, 2018, Shanmuganathan continued to visit his office room in the former’s Gopalapuram residence in Chennai for a few months, before withdrawing himself from political limelight.

Chief minister M K Stalin, who was away in Coimbatore on a personal visit to attend to a bereavement in his brother’s family, rushed back to the city and paid homage.

“Having worked with Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) for 50 years, he spent most of his time – from dawn to midnight – at our Gopalapuram residence. We considered Shanmuganathan as an elder brother and he literally functioned as one hand of Kalaignar as well as his shadow,” Stalin said in his condolence message, while recalling his visit to the hospital on Monday. "I did not imagine we would lose him so soon," Stalin added.

Shanmughanathan accompanied Karunanidhi everywhere, be it official, political or personal.

Karunanidhi praised his personal secretary several times in public for his accuracy in taking notes of his speeches – both at public meetings and press conferences. Karunanidhi spotted Shanmuganathan diligently taking notes of whatever he spoke at public meetings on behalf of the state’s police intelligence, when the DMK was still in the opposition and yet to capture power in Tamil Nadu. Impressed by the latter’s work, Karunanidhi appointed him as his personal secretary.

FROM THE ARCHIVES:

Shanmuganathan with M Karunanidhi

Madras university busts 117 ghost grads

Madras university busts 117 ghost grads

‘Students’ Exploit Institute’s Online Arrear Exam Option

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:22.12.2021

At least 117 students have been caught out while trying to get degrees from the University of Madras though they had never enrolled for any course under it. Most of them were eyeing BCom and BBA degrees.

The unfolding scam, which involves university insiders, has exploited loopholes in the institute of distance education’s decision to allow people who had enrolled for degree programmes to write exams online to clear arrears from 1980-81.

The scamsters uploaded the applications of these students to write the exams by faking course completion certificates. They paid the exam fees and were given serial numbers that followed genuine candidates in each batch. The 117 students wrote and cleared the exams in December 2020. “Insiders in the university must have given the students the serial numbers that followed the genuine cases,” said an official of the institute.

‘Students paid racketeers ₹3l each for fake degrees’

Their game was up when some of the students who had cleared the December 2020 exam asked the university to release their degree certificates. Following protocol, the university checked whether they had paid the tuition fees for the courses they claimed to have attended. There was no record of their having paid tuition fees or their admission details.

Sources close to the developments, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said these students each paid around ₹3 lakh (tuition fees is around ₹20,000 per candidate) to those behind the racket.

An internal communication of the university – TOI has a copy – has a list of 117 candidates who wrote the exams without studying at the institute. The number could be more.

The internal communication said: “While verifying the Permanent Pass Register (PPR), some of the candidates’ names were not found in the tuition fee-cum-DCB register, and admission applications were missing from the admission section.” It sought permission from the university authorities to cancel the 117 candidates’ provisional/ convocation certificates and remove their names from the permanent pass register (PPR) of December 2020.

A senior professor of the university said agents for the university’s study centres that were shut down may have lured their old students to take advantage of pandemic relaxations for writing the exams. Students were allowed to write the exams from their homes without any supervision and to post or deposit the answer sheets hours later.

Professors said this could be a package deal where the touts might have employed third parties to write the exams as all the 117 candidates cleared their papers. They have asked the university to expand the scope of inquiry into the possible malpractices in the exam.

Madras university vice-chancellor S Gowri said the university will form an inquiry panel to probe the racket. “Some tried to take advantage of the online exam process. But, an internal verification process stopped this racket at the right time. The university will take strict action against those involved in the racket,” the vice-chancellor said.