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Saturday, February 22, 2025

TN woman injured in e-scooter battery explosion dies

Arockiaraj Johnbosco TNN

Feb 21, 2025, 21:23 IST

MADURAI: A woman, who suffered severe burn injuries after an electric scooter battery exploded a week ago, died in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital on Friday.

The explosion happened in a poultry unit and piggery -- owned by Devadoss of Anaikudi in Tirunelveli district -- on Feb 15.

The victim, Jansi Papa from Idachivilai in Tuticorin, was working in his farm. Devadoss has two electric scooters which he used to charge in his farm. On Feb 14, he disconnected batteries from the scooters and took them to the chicken incubation room in his poultry farm. After charging them during the night, he decided to charge them again the following morning.

Police said Jansi Papa went to the incubation room the following morning, when one of the batteries exploded causing severe burn injuries to her.

She was rushed to Thisayanvilai primary healthcare centre, from where she was referred to Tirunelveli MCH as her injuries were severe. However, Papa died in the hospital on Friday not responding to the treatment.

The Thisayanvilai police filed a case and were investigating.

NOC of state not mandatory to seek affiliation, says CBSE

Feb 22, 2025, 1:09 IST

Chennai: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced that a no-objection certificate (NOC) from state govt is not mandatory to seek affiliation from 2026-27. This move could become another flashpoint between Centre and Tamil Nadu as it could lead to mushrooming of CBSE schools in the state implementing the three-language policy despite opposition from the state govt.

“The schools seeking affiliation with the board henceforth will be permitted to apply on the SARAS portal under various categories with or without a no-objection certificate with effect from 2026-27,” said the notification by CBSE secretary Himanshu Gupta on the amendments to the affiliation bylaws 2018.

Bengaluru woman asks doctor for pills to kill mother-in-law, later claims suicide intent

A Bengaluru doctor received a shocking request from a woman asking for tablets to kill her mother-in-law. He informed her that doctors save lives, prompting her to delete the messages. The woman, later traced by police, admitted she wanted to commit suicide and didn't intend to harm anyone else.

TNN Feb 20, 2025, 7:45 IST

A north Bengaluru doctor was shocked by a woman's WhatsApp message asking for tablets to kill her mother-in-law. The doctor reported the incident to the police, who later traced the woman.

Bengaluru: A north Bengaluru doctor was shocked when a woman sent him a WhatsApp message asking for tablets to kill her mother-in-law. But Dr Sunil Kumar from Sanjay Nagar replied that doctors are there to save lives and not to take them, prompting the woman to delete all her messages.

Dr Kumar approached police Tuesday, requesting them to identify the woman and act against her. "This is shocking; it also pains me to see in what time we are living; a woman seeking a doctor's help to kill her mother-in-law with tablets. I clearly told her (through messages) that doctors are there to save lives but not take them; when I said so, she deleted the messages. However, I saved the screenshots and handed them over to police," he told the media.

According to Dr Kumar, he received the messages around 2:10pm Monday. "She typed in Kannada and first said she wanted to ask for something. Then she messaged, asking what if I scolded her; I then asked her what it was about. Then she asked me to prescribe some tablets to kill her aged mother-in-law. She explained that her mother-in-law was 70 years old and would harass her," police quoted the doctor as saying in his complaint.

By the time the woman deleted her messages, Dr Kumar had taken their screenshots.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Nagar police succeeded in tracing the woman by Wednesday evening and summoned her to the station for questioning. Accompanied by her husband, she stated that she actually wanted to commit suicide and never wanted to kill her mother-in-law.

"If I had asked the doctor for tablets to kill myself, he would have definitely refused. So I asked it in a different way. If he had prescribed tablets, I would have taken them and died by suicide," the homemaker, aged around 40 years, said. Her husband works as a driver, and the couple has a minor daughter.

She told cops that she got Dr Kumar's mobile number online.

Doctor gets request from woman in Bengaluru seeking tablet prescription to kill mother-in-law

The accused contacted the doctor after finding his number on Instagram

Updated - February 19, 2025 03:49 pm IST - Bengaluru

The Hindu Bureau

A doctor from Sanjay Nagar in Bengaluru filed a complaint against a woman after she allegedly messaged him seeking help to kill her mother-in-law through medication.

The accused contacted Sunil Kumar after finding his number on Instagram and sent messages seeking a prescription for a tablet which could kill her mother-in-law. She claimed that her mother-in-law is aged and harassing her.

Shocked, he replied that being a doctor, he is supposed to save life and not to kill someone or recommend such an act.

He approached Sanjay Nagar police on February 17 and filed a complaint seeking legal action against the woman, and also submitted the chat history and her contact number.

The police tried to reach the number, but it was switched off.

“We suspect that either it was a prank or the woman was not in her senses when she made the demand,” a police officer said, adding that they are checking her location through call record details.

Published - February 19, 2025 01:52 pm IST

Govt eyes push to students, faculty for non-clinical courses in medical colleges

The government is looking at ways to boost student enrolment in non-clinical PG courses such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry. Medical colleges also face issues of lack of faculty.

Priyanka Sharma

Published 20 Feb 2025, 07:36 PM IST

Reportedly, there are 1.3 million MBBS doctors registered with the National Medical Commission, however, their specialisations are not known.

Even as the government claims to have increased the number of medical education seats in the country, these medical colleges and institutes face a severe student enrollment crisis in post-graduate courses such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, forensics, microbiology and pathology, according to an official aware of the matter on condition of anonymity.

This has led to a faculty shortage for these courses since students are not keen on pursuing them.

In this scenario, the National Medical Commission (NMC) is mulling a two-pronged strategy to bridge the gap in demand for these courses.

First, NMC will open a third of the vacant faculty posts to non-medical teachers with a doctorate in the subject and a Bachelor’s and Master’s from the science stream. The other part of the plan is to make these courses more attractive for students through incentives and the inclusion of clinical activities.

Reportedly, there are 1.3 million MBBS doctors (both private and government colleges) registered with the National Medical Commission, however, their specialisations are not known.

Faculty posts

“There’s an acute shortage of post-graduate faculty mainly in pre-para clinical subjects—anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, forensics, microbiology and pathology—as students do not want to opt for such seats. Even though NMC has allowed zero percentile (students with the lowest marks can get these seats) for such seats, the seats remain vacant. Last year, around 600 PG seats remained empty in 20-30 medical colleges,” said an official aware of the matter.

For example, a course with around 100 students should have at least three faculty members—a professor, an associate professor, and an assistant professor. However, the shortage of teachers in many courses makes running colleges difficult.

“In fact, government medical colleges are finding it difficult to get faculty for some PG courses. We hope that NMC’s draft regulation on Teachers Eligibility Qualifications Regulations (TEQ) 2024 attracts a good number of teachers as NMC has relaxed several qualification norms,” the official said. “This is a temporary exercise. When we get enough lecturers for these courses, NMC will start phasing out the system. This is being done so that colleges don't shut down.”

Going forward, colleges will issue public advertisements in two phases. In the first round, advertisements will be for faculty with a medical background in the specified subject. However, if these posts remain unfilled, the second advertisement will open them for non-medical faculty teachers, specifying that the posts were opened as there were no suitable candidates with a medical background.

“However, the priority will always be given to medical background (MD and DNB) candidates. This is the only way to fill the deficiency of faculty members in these courses,” the official added.

A senior professor from AIIMS-Delhi forensic department, who does not wish to be named, said, "Selection of courses is a personal choice of the student. However, vacant seats for non-clinical subjects are mostly found in medical colleges located on the outskirts or periphery of cities. When students complete MBBS, they broadly have clarity on what PG course to choose. Obviously, the first choice is always clinical subjects, but non-clinical subjects are equally good. As far as faculty for these courses is concerned, it is a dynamic process and a demand-supply game."

There is a misperception among medical students that courses like anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, forensics, microbiology, and pathology are non-clinical subjects and require no interaction with patients, which discourages them from opting for these subjects in PG courses.

“So, in future, NMC may plan to bring more attractive norms for such non-clinical subjects like offering incentives to students, allowing one-year clinical courses, etc.,” the official added.

Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered till press time.

SC rejects decades-old 'both handsintact' requirement to study MBBS

TNN | Feb 22, 2025, 02.32 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Discarding the decades-old 'both hands intact' requirement for aspiring doctors, the Supreme Court on Friday said it "reeks of glorifying ableism" and directed National Medical Commission (NMC) to revise the outdated criteria to enable persons with disabilities (PwD) to pursue MBBS course.

Accepting Dr Satendra Singh's report favouring admission to a PwD candidate and rejecting the report of a five-member AIIMS medical board declaring him unfit to pursue MBBS course, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan asked NMC to report the progress in revising the eligibility criteria by March 3. Dr Singh, part of the five-member board, had given a separate opinion.

Writing the judgment, Justice Viswanathan said, "The 'both hands intact' prescription has no sanctity in law as it does not admit of a functional assessment of the individual candidate, a matter which is so fundamental in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities." Referring to Dr Singh's report, the bench said it had an interesting reference about how in an age when robotic surgeries are relied upon, the NMC norms still insisted on the 'both hands intact with intact sensations' norm.

"A prescription such as 'both hands intact' reeks of ableism and has no place in a statutory regulation. In fact, it has the effect of denuding the rights guaranteed under the Constitution and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD Act) and makes a mockery of the principle of reasonable accommodation," the bench said.

The SC said one should not assume incompetence without providing ample opportunities after ensuring clinical accommodations and assistive technologies.

"In our considered view, the correct approach is the one that Dr Satendra Singh has adopted - to not bar a candidate at the threshold but grant the candidate the choice after completing the MBBS course, to decide whether he wishes to specialise in a non-surgical or medical branch or continue as a general duty medical officer," the bench said. "In our view, this prescription of 'both hands intact' is completely antithetical to Article 41 of the Constitution, the principles enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the salutary provisions of the RPwD Act," the SC said.

“In our view, this prescription of ‘both hands intact’… propagates that persons with typical abilities and with faculties similar to what majority may have are somehow superior. This is precisely what Directive Principles of State Policy, UN Convention and the RPwD Act abhor,” SC added.

Madambakkam lake full of sewage, hyacinth

Feb 22, 2025, 04.01 AM IST

Chennai: Madambakkam lake, covering over 250 acres, once a drinking water source, is now sewage-ridden and marred by unchecked growth of hyacinth. Additionally, there is illegal dumping of garbage, including plastic and meat waste.

In 2024, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) floated a 10-crore tender to restore the lake and transform it into an eco-park, but nothing has changed. The issue was raised in a National Green Tribunal case. CMDA, however, is yet to submit updates on the project. Activists are now demanding that civic agencies drop their plan to build an ecopark.

“The lake should remain a lake instead of being converted into an eco-park. In recent years, many influential people have illegally occupied parts of the lake. They obtained 'patta' using their money and muscle power," said Mohan Srinivas, president, environment qwareness and protection association. “The agency must evict people who have occupied the area illegally,” he said.

Residents say they often see tankers illegally dumping sewage into the lake.

“This lake was once beautiful. We could have our morning walks around the lake,” said Vanitha S, a resident of Madambakkam. “We have seen it deteriorate over the years. Tambaram Corporation has taken no steps to protect it,” she said. In 2024, a team of scientists from IIT-M said the water was mixed with sewage, posing a serious threat to the fish and other aquatic species. To make things worse, waste collected from the area is dumped near the lake and is left to rot.

“We have complained to the Tambaram Corporation about the garbage issue, and we are waiting for them to resolve it,” said Murugesan R, a resident of Madipakkam.

CMDA assistant planner Priya R did not tell TOI why the work on restoration was delayed, but said, “Work is in progress and will be completed at the earliest.”