Labour court asks firm to reinstate employee

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

05.01.2022

Chennai: A city labour court has directed the management of a Chennai-based tractor and agriculture equipment manufacturing company to reinstate and pay all benefits including back wages and other monetary benefits to a senior employee in the company who, according to him was forced to resign.

The court noted that no domestic inquiry was conducted and cited higher court verdicts to point out that the management is not supposed to act on its whims and fancies.

Manish (name changed) of Perambur joined the firm in 2004 and became COO. On March 8, 2017, he was asked by a HR manager to resign failing which he would be terminated. When he withdrew his resignation which he signed due to force, a showcause notice was issued alleging the petitioner indulged in illegal gratification and misappropriated company funds of ₹1. 2 lakh.

The petitioner said the alleged incident happened in April 2015, but the showcause notice was issued after two years, which is an afterthought from the management and a fabricated charge. After perusing all submissions, presiding officer A Geetha held the domestic enquiry was not conducted properly and directed the management to reinstate the petitioner with back wages and also compensate him for the legal proceedings.

 

NEWS DIGEST

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Rly partially cancels 2 trains, diverts 1 

Southern railway has partially cancelled two trains and diverted one due to engineering work on Chennai Egmore – Villupuram section. Madurai Chennai Egmore Superfast Express Special (12636) leaving Madurai at 7am on January 5 and 19 will run only up to Villupuram. Chennai Egmore Karaikudi Pallavan Express Special (12605) leaving Chennai Egmore at 3. 45pm on January 5 and 19 will depart from Villupuram at 6. 10 pm. Puducherry – New Delhi Express Special (22403) leaving Puducherry junction at 9. 50am on January 5 and 19 will be diverted via Villupuram, Katpadi, Perambur and Gudur and will skip the stoppage at Chennai Egmore. 

Two held for robbing student of mobile: Two men were arrested for robbing a college student of a mobile phone at MKB Nagar on Monday. Police said Vijayakumar, 16, was walking down the road when two men snatched his mobile and escaped on December 25. Based on his complaint, police arrested Suryah, 21, and Asif, 21. Meanwhile at Otteri, a robber snatched a mobile and ₹3,000 from Jai Ganesh, 35, on Monday. Based on Ganesh’s complaint, police have launched a search for the suspect. 

₹25L donated for Army martyrs’ families: Octogenarian V Sriraman and his wife Ann PHF Akhila Sriraman donated ₹25 lakh towards the welfare of family members of Army martyrs. The couple handed over a cheque to Lt. Colonel, Cdr. A. Arun, GOC, Dakshin Bharat, a press release said. Sriraman said that he will be paying ₹75 lakh in July for the same cause as he wanted to give a total of ₹1 crore, the release added. 

Change of terminus for 15 bus route services: Fifteen bus route services that ply to different areas of north Chennai and depart from the High Court terminus will be operated from the Broadway terminus from Wednesday. The list of routes includes 4, 4M, 8B, 8B Extn, 38A, 38H, 38G, 44, 44C, 44 Cut, 57D, 57H, 57J, 57M and 57F, a MTC press release said.

 

Dismiss university officials who are irresponsible: HC

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

5.-1.2022

Chennai: It is painful to record that the University of Madras has lost its reputation in a rapid manner, the Madras high court has said while suggesting ‘capital (maximum) punishment’ to officials who fail to maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty.

“Such irresponsible officials should be dismissed from service and their dereliction should be entered into their service register, so that their promotions and other benefits should be deprived,” a division

“It is apposite to mention here that appropriate disciplinary proceedings for capital punishment shall be initiated against officials for not maintaining absolute integrity and devotion to duty, which is unbecoming of a member of the service,” the court added. “In olden days, it was very proud to say that the degree was obtained from the Madras University and was, once upon a time, regarded as a precious one. The existence of such a reputation in the present days is a million-dollar question,” said the judges.

The court made the observations while allowing an appeal moved by the university challenging an order passed by a single judge of the court dated October 23, 2017. The single judge had ordered promotion for a technical officer as an assistant librarian. The petitioner stated that he had been purposely denied promotion to accommodate his juniors.

Allowing the appeal moved by the university, the court made it clear that the original petitioners are not entitled to promotion to the post of assistant librarian, unless they succeed to such status in the manner prescribed by the UGC.

City braces for pressure for beds as cases rise

Pic: TOI  Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

05.01.2022

The number of Covid-19 patients occupying hospital beds has increased by nearly two times over the last one month with a steady increase in daily and active cases in the city. More than one-fifth of the oxygen beds in the state are now occupied compared to 6% a month ago.

On Monday, 1,754 of the 4,269 activeCovid-19 patients were admitted to hospitals across the city compared to 507 patients a month ago on December 3. On Tuesday, inpatient tally rose to 1,931. With this, nearly 14% of total beds in the state were occupied compared to 4% a month ago. At least 1,015 patients were occupying the oxygen beds in the city on Tuesday,ascompared to 172 on December 3.

“We are not running out of beds, oxygen or doctors. But medical experts have told us that if cases continue to grow at this rate, the health system may be overwhelmed,” said state health secretary J Radhakrishnan.

“More people are occupying beds that have oxygen pipelines more as precaution than requirement,” said director of medical education Dr R Narayanababu, who administers all the government medical college hospitals in the state. “Admissions in both oxygen and nonoxygen beds have increased over the past few days in Chennai.   

However, most patients have mild symptoms and do not require oxygen therapy or ICU admissions,” he said. The oxygen requirement for medical college hospitals have in fact come down from 65. 7metric tonnes to 60. 6 MT, he said. Doctors from across the globe showed that the infections are mild, affecting the bronchi and not invading into the lungs. “The rate of infection may be much lesser, but if absolute numbers are phenomenally high even 0. 5% hospitalisation can be a burden on the health system,” said WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan, who is on the state’s expert medical panel. 

Althoughoccupancy in ICU and requirement for ventilators did not go up rapidly, doctors say the requirement for such admissions can be seen only after 7 to 10 days. “If more people with co-morbid conditions are infected, ICU admissions will increase too,” said Dr Subramanian Swaminathan,infectious diseases expert, Gleneagles Global Hospitals. For the last one week, Chennai has added between 45-50% of the daily cases recorded by the state. While the city continues to see patients carrying the Delta variant, there is a community spreadof Omicron varianttoo, said health minister Ma Subramanian.

New clusters emerging from city hospitals, workplaces and educational institutions have pushed up the test positive rate – number of people tested positive over total number of people tested -beyond 1%. The infection reproduction rate or R-naught has also crossed 1—an indication that the infection will increase, spreading through the population.

 

Docs concerned over delay in admissions

05.01.2022

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T he resident doctors have genuine concerns over the delay in admissions to PG medical courses, which have been delayed because of the pendency of the cases and the Centre’s decision to revisit the EWS criteria, he said.

The Centre was virtually forced to constitute a highlevel three-member committee headedby for mer finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey on being prodded by the SC, which had posed probing questions about the sanctity of the criteria. The committee gave its report on December 31 and recom- mended sticking to the ₹8 lakh annual income cut-off criteria for a candidate to be categorised as EWS.

The government said it has accepted the Pandey Committee recommendations, including continuance of ₹8 lakh annual income limit. The Committee had said that the EWS income criteria may appear similar to the criteria for creamy layer amongOBCs at first blush, but it was very different.

The committee said that the “EWS may, however exclude, irrespective of income, a person whose family has 5 acres of agricultural land and above”.

 

Omicron-like strain that also shows S-gene drop detected

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Umesh.Isalkar@timesgroup.com

05.01.2022

Pune: The SARS-CoV-2’s C. 36. 3. 1variant carrying Omicron-like genetic variation has been identified for the first time in India, a senior scientist of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) told TOI on Tuesday.

The variant, earlier reported from some European countries, is detectable with existing diagnostics. However, its identical Omicron-like S-gene target dropout/failure is likely to muddle the use of specialised RT-PCR test kits currently being utilised to sift probable Omicron cases from the daily caseload for “accelerated genome sequencing” to track the extent of community spread of Omicron in the country.

“For the first time in India, we have identified C. 36. 3. 1 that is neither a variant of concern nor of interest or under investigation as of now. It is only a part of the WHO’s list of monitored variants,” the scientist said.

The mutations carried by the C. 36. 3. 1 make it a variant that should be followed. “The C. 36. 3. 1 has a total of 36 defining mutations, of which nine are in the Spike (S) gene region as against 32 mutations identified in the S-gene of Omicron variant, which has a total of 52 mutations,” the scientist said.

 

Docs & paramedics put out of action, experts fear pressure on health infra

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

05.01.2022

New Delhi: As India witnesses the third wave of Covid-19 led by Omicron variant, a large number of frontline workers, including doctors, paramedics, police and health department officials, in several cities across the country are turning out to be Covid positive. Experts have voiced concern that this might put pressure on the healthcare infrastructure.

In Delhi, 68 healthcare workers, including 15 doctors, at AIIMS and 49 health staff at Safdarjung reported positive. Lady Hardinge Medical College, Ram Manohar Lohia, Hindu Rao, Lok Nayak and Ambedkar hospitals have also reported multiple cases among their staff members. At Lucknow’s Medanta Hospital, 33 health workers, including one emergency medical officer (EMO), turned out to be Covid positive. Director Dr Rakesh Kapoor said, “Except for the EMO, all the others were nurses or nursing assistants. They all were asymptomatic at the time of testing. No patient or attendant has been affected because of them. ”

In Patiala’s Government Medical College and Hospital, the authorities made students vacate hostels after over105 faculty members and students, including 18 senior doctors and 48 junior residents, tested positive.

In Gaya, altogether 102 med- icos at Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH) tested positive on Tuesday. ANMMCH principal Arjun Chaudhary said offline classes have been suspended and the library has also been closed. “All the medicos, who have tested positive, are in isolation,” he said. spared other frontline workers, including policemen and bureaucrats. Around a dozen police personnel, including additional director generals and inspector generals, have tested positive in Jharkahnd.

Four IAS officers of Gujarat cadre, including two health & family welfare department officials, also tested positive.

In Chhattisgarh, IG Sanjeev Shukla and DIGs Vineet Khanna and Rajesh Agrawal tested positive. The authorities fear a spurt of Corona cases in the police HQ. In Maoist-hit Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, five SSB personnel were found infected in Kanhargaon on Tuesday, to add to the 38 CoBRA commandos who tested positive in Sukma on Monday.