பிளஸ் 2 முடித்தவர்களுக்கு, 'லேப்டாப்' கிடையாதா?

Added : டிச 16, 2019 23:54

சென்னை:அரசு மற்றும் அரசு உதவி பெறும் பள்ளிகளில், பிளஸ் 2 படிக்கும் மாணவர்களுக்கு, 2011 முதல், இலவச லேப்டாப் வழங்கப்படுகிறது.
மாணவர்கள், பிளஸ் 2 வரையாவது படிக்க வேண்டும் என்ற நல்ல எண்ணத்தில், முன்னாள் முதல்வர் ஜெயலலிதா, இந்த திட்டத்தை அறிவித்தார். இந்த திட்டத்தால் பலன் அடைந்த, பிளஸ் 2 மாணவர்கள், 18 வயது நிரம்பிய பின், புதிய வாக்காளரானதும், அவர்களின் ஆதரவும், ஜெயலலிதாவுக்கு கிடைத்தது. மேலும், 25 சதவீதத்துக்கும் அதிகமான மாணவர்கள், 10ம் வகுப்பு முடித்து, தொழிற்கல்வியான, பாலிடெக்னிக்கில் சேர்ந்தனர். அவர்களுக்கும், லேப்டாப் திட்டம் விரிவுபடுத்தப்பட்டது. இந்நிலையில், நடப்பு கல்வி ஆண்டில், லேப்டாப் வழங்கும் திட்டத்தில், திடீர் திருத்தங்கள் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளன.

அதாவது, இந்த ஆண்டு பிளஸ் 1 படிப்பவர்களுக்கும், பிளஸ் 2 படித்து கொண்டிருக்கும் மாணவர்களுக்கும், லேப்டாப் வழங்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. கடந்த ஆண்டு, பிளஸ் 2 படித்த மாணவர்களில், கல்லுாரிகள் மற்றும் பாலிடெக்னிக்கில் படிக்கும் மாணவர்களுக்கு மட்டும்,லேப்டாப் வழங்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. ஆனால், பிளஸ் 2க்கு பின், தொடர்ந்து படிக்காமல், வேலைக்கு சென்ற மாணவர்களுக்கு, லேப்டாப் மறுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.
சில மாணவர்கள், ஏழ்மையிலும் படிப்பை தொடரும் வகையில், தொலைநிலை கல்வியில் சேர்ந்துள்ளனர்; அவர்களுக்கும், லேப்டாப் வழங்கப்படவில்லை.பிளஸ் 2 வரை படித்ததை ஊக்கப்படுத்தி, அவர்களுக்கு லேப்டாப் வழங்குவதற்கு பதில், அவர்களை காயப்படுத்தும் வகையில், பள்ளி கல்வி துறையும், தமிழக அரசின் சிறப்பு திட்ட செயலாக்க துறையும், இம்முடிவை எடுத்துள்ளதாக, மாணவர்கள் வேதனை தெரிவித்து உள்ளனர்.
பரிதாப மாணவர்கள்!

கடந்த, 2018 - 19ம் கல்வி ஆண்டில், பிளஸ் ௨ முடித்த மாணவர்கள் தான், மிகவும் சோதனைக்கு ஆளாகினர். இவர்கள், பிளஸ் 1 சேர்ந்த போது தான், பொதுத்தேர்வு அறிமுகம் செய்யப்பட்டது. 'ப்ளூ பிரின்ட்' முறை நீக்கப்பட்டு, திடீரென சிக்கலான கேள்விகள் அடங்கிய வினாத்தாளுடன், பிளஸ் 1 பொதுத்தேர்வு நடத்தப்பட்டது. இதற்கு போதிய அவகாசமோ, பயிற்சியோ இல்லாததால், பல மாணவர்கள், பிளஸ் 1 வகுப்பு முடித்ததும், பிளஸ் 2 படிக்க முடியாமல், பாதியில் கைவிட்டனர். இதையடுத்து தான், பிளஸ் 1 பொது தேர்வு மதிப்பெண் முறையிலும், வினாத்தாள் முறையிலும், கடினமான அம்சங்கள் நீக்கப்பட்டன. இப்படி, பல சிக்கல்களை சந்தித்து,பிளஸ் 2 படித்த மாணவர்களுக்கு, இலவச லேப்டாப் வழங்குவதிலும் அலைக்கழிக்கப்படும் நிலை ஏற்பட்டுள்ளது.

'ரேஷன் சர்க்கரையாவது எங்களுக்கு கிடைக்குமா?'

Added : டிச 16, 2019 23:40

சர்க்கரை கார்டாக மாற்றித் தருமாறு, எந்த பொருளும் வாங்காத ரேஷன் கார்டுதாரர்கள், தமிழக அரசுக்கு கோரிக்கை விடுத்துள்ளனர்.
தமிழக ரேஷன் கடைகளில், அரிசி கார்டுக்கு, இலவச அரிசி உட்பட அனைத்து பொருட்களும்; சர்க்கரை கார்டுக்கு, அரிசி தவிர்த்த மற்ற பொருட்களும் வழங்கப்படுகின்றன. எந்த பொருளும் வாங்காத, 'என்' கார்டுகளுக்கு, எதுவும் வழங்குவதில்லை. இந்த கார்டுகள் அனைத்தும், மக்களின் விருப்பத்திற்கு ஏற்ப வழங்கப்படுகின்றன.பெரும்பாலும் வசதியானவர்கள், அரசு ஊழியர்கள், சர்க்கரை மற்றும் எந்த பொருளும் வாங்காத கார்டுகளை வைத்துள்ளனர். அதில், பலர் ஓய்வு பெற்றவர்கள், வாரிசுகளால் புறக்கணிக்கப் பட்டவர்களாகவும் உள்ளனர். அவர்கள், தற்போது சிரமப்படுவதால், அரிசி கார்டு வழங்குமாறு, அரசுக்கு கோரிக்கை விடுத்தனர்.இதையடுத்து, 10.19 லட்சம் சர்க்கரை கார்டுதாரர்கள், அரிசி கார்டுகளாக மாற்றிக் கொள்ள, நவம்பரில் அவகாசம் வழங்கப்பட்டது. அதில், 4.50 லட்சம் பேர், அரிசி கார்டுக்கு மாறினர்.

இது குறித்து, 'என்' வகை கார்டுதாரர்கள் கூறியதாவது:'என்' கார்டுகள் வாங்கிய பலரும், தற்போது, பொருளாதார ரீதியாக பாதிக்கப்பட்டு உள்ளனர். எந்த பொருளும் வாங்காத, 46 ஆயிரம் கார்டுதாரர்களை, அரிசி கார்டுகளாக மாற்றும்படி, அரசிடம் கோரிக்கை வைத்தும் பயன் இல்லை.அரிசிக்கு மாற, சர்க்கரை கார்டுதாரர்களுக்கு சலுகை வழங்கியும், பாதி பேர் கூட மாறவில்லை. 'என்' கார்டுதாரர்களை, அரிசி கார்டுக்கு மாற சலுகை தரவில்லை என்றாலும் பரவாயில்லை, சர்க்கரை கார்டுக்காவது மாற்ற வேண்டும். இதனால், அரசுக்கு அதிகளவில் செலவு ஏற்படாது.இவ்வாறு, அவர்கள் கூறினர்.
- நமது நிருபர் -

'மீட்டர் ரீடிங்' எடுப்பதில் தாமதம் அதிக கட்டணத்தால் மக்கள் தவிப்பு

Added : டிச 16, 2019 23:24


சென்னை:வீடுகளில், 'மீட்டர் ரீடிங்' எனப்படும், மின் பயன்பாட்டை கணக்கெடுக்க, குறித்த நாட்களில் ஊழியர்கள் வராததால், பலரும் அதிக மின் கட்டணம் செலுத்த வேண்டியநிலைக்கு தள்ளப்படுவது,தொடர் கதையாகி வருகிறது.

தமிழக மின் வாரியம், வீடுகளுக்கு, 100 யூனிட் வரை இலவசமாகவும்; 500 யூனிட் கீழ், மானிய விலையிலும் மின்சாரம் வழங்குகிறது. அதற்கு மேல் மின்சாரம்பயன்படுத்தினால், முழு கட்டணம் செலுத்த வேண்டும். இலவசம் மற்றும் மானிய விலையில் மின்சாரம் வழங்குவதற்காக, வாரியத்திற்கு ஏற்படும் செலவை, தமிழக அரசு வழங்குகிறது. வீடுகளில், இரு மாதங்களுக்கு ஒரு முறை மின் பயன்பாடு கணக்கு எடுக்கப்படுகிறது. ஆனால், ஊழியர்கள் குறித்த காலத்தில், கணக்கு எடுக்க வராததால், பலரும், அதிக கட்டணம் செலுத்த வேண்டி வருகிறது.இது குறித்து, மின் நுகர்வோர்கள் கூறியதாவது:மின் பயன்பாடு கணக்கெடுத்த, 20 நாட்களுக்குள், கட்டணத்தை செலுத்தவில்லை எனில், 60 ரூபாய் அபராதம் வசூலிக்கப்படுகிறது. அதேசமயம், ஊழியர்கள் தாமதமாக கணக்கெடுக்க வருவதால், அதிக கட்டணம் வருகிறது.அதாவது, அக்டோபரில், 10ம் தேதி கணக்கு எடுத்தால், டிசம்பரிலும், அதே தேதியில் வர வேண்டும்.
விடுமுறை போன்ற காரணங்களால், இரு நாட்கள் வரை தாமதமாக வரலாம். ஆனால், ஒரு வாரத்திற்கு மேல் தாமதாக வருகின்றனர். குறித்த நாளில் கணக்கு எடுத்தால், 500 யூனிட்டிற்கு கீழ் மட்டுமே மின்சாரம் பயன்படுத்த வாய்ப்புள்ளது. ஆனால், தாமதமாக வருவதால், மின் பயன்பாடு மானிய அளவை தாண்டி விடுவதால், அதிக கட்டணம் செலுத்த நேரிடுகிறது. சிலர் நேரில் வராமல், அவர்கள் இஷ்டத்திற்கு, கணக்கு எடுக்கின்றனர். இது தொடர்பாக வாரிய அதிகாரிகளிடம் பல முறை புகார் அளித்தும், தீர்வு கிடைக்கவில்லை. இவ்வாறு, அவர்கள் கூறினர்.

சிங்கப்பூர் - சென்னைக்கு டிரீம்லைனர் விமானம்

Added : டிச 17, 2019 05:33





மும்பை: தென்கிழக்கு ஆசிய நாடான சிங்கப்பூரில் இருந்து சென்னைக்கு, அடுத்த ஆண்டு, மே முதல், போயிங் 787 'டிரீம்லைனர்' பயணியர் விமானத்தை இயக்க உள்ளதாக, சிங்கப்பூர் ஏர்லைன்ஸ் நிறுவனம் அறிவித்துள்ளது. 337 இருக்கைகளுடன், சென்னைக்கு இயக்கப்படும், முதல் டிரீம்லைனர் விமானம் இது என்பது, குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

Singapore Airlines to operate Boeing 787-10 to Chennai

The 787-10s are configured with 337 seats in two classes, featuring 36 Business Class seats and 301 Economy Class seats.

Published: 17th December 2019 06:53 AM 

File photo of a Singapore Airlines flight used for representational purposes. (Reuters)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Singapore Airlines will become the first international carrier to introduce Boeing 787-10 aircraft on the Chennai-Singapore sector, replacing the Airbus A330-300 aircraft, next year.

The inaugural service of this new-generation aircraft type to Chennai, is expected to begin on March 20 when Flight SQ529 will depart from Chennai International Airport at 23:15 hours.

With introduction of the new aircraft, Singapore Airlines will increase its frequency out of Chennai, to 13 flights a week, from 10. Combined with its subsidiary SilkAir, this number will progressively increase to 17 flights a week by June 1, 2020.

Constructed using lightweight composite materials, the 68-metre 787-10 is the longest variant of Boeing’s Dreamliner range of aircraft. With exceptional operating efficiency and advanced technology, the newest addition to the fleet is designed to offer a more tranquil cabin experience. Customers can look forward to customisable lighting preferences with large electronically dimmable windows, cleaner air, and a quieter and smoother ride.

The 787-10s are configured with 337 seats in two classes, featuring 36 Business Class seats and 301 Economy Class seats. SIA invested US$350 million in the introduction of the new regional cabin products on an initial 20 787-10s. The cabin products feature fully-flat beds and direct aisle access for all Business Class customers, ergonomically-designed contour backrests with six-way adjustable headrests in Economy Class, and personalised in-flight entertainment (IFE) experience for all customers.

“Singapore Airlines is delighted to start services on this latest generation aircraft to Chennai. In line with our commitment to product and service excellence, the comfort of the Boeing 787-10, will provide Indian customers with an uparalleled travel experience,” said David Lim, General Manager India, Singapore Airlines.

Forum against redeployment from Annamalai University

It is in contravention of a G.O. that allows deployment of only Assistant Professors
17/12/2019, , SANJANA GANESH,MADURAI

Lecturers at Madurai Kamaraj University have raised objections to redeployment of nine teaching staff from Annamalai University to the departments of History, Business Administration, Physics, Biochemistry, Botany, and Tamil.

Madurai Kamaraj University Faculty Association (MUFA), in a letter submitted to the administration, said that while a Government Order dated November 7 explicitly stated that only Assistant Professors would be deployed during redeployment, Associate Professors and Professors had been assigned posts.

Quoting his own example, P. Nagoorkani, Assistant Professor, Department of Modern History, who has filed a writ petition before Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, says he worked as a professor at the Madurai Kamaraj University for 12 years. However, improper implementation of promotions under career advancement scheme (CAS) affected his elevation to the post of Associate Professor.

“When teaching staff in the capacity of Associate Professors and Professors come to our departments, they automatically gain seniority over us based on designation. The concept of station seniority - based on the professor’s term - does not hold good,” he says.

Mr. Nagoorkani, in his writ petition, has said that though an initial phase of redeployment by the Higher Education Department to various colleges was completed in 2016, an extension of three years was provided to each of the professors through a separate government order. “The redeployed professors may probably hold on to their term continuously with more government orders in their favour,” he says.

MUFA has also stated that the government order defies the powers of the Syndicate, the highest body in the university.

“Ideally, any sort of deployment or recruitment must happen only after approval from the Syndicate. The Higher Education Department has bypassed this body to allow redeployment,” an office-bearer said.

“With several vacancies available through the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB), why is the government choosing to assign people from Annamalai University to MKU? There are several other colleges that are short-staffed,” he said.

Vice-Chancellor M. Krishnan said the administration had merely received the government order. “We will be able to determine if we are rejecting it or comply with it only after the syndicate meeting which is likely to be held in January first week,” he said.

Railways cancels trains to Howrah, strands scores

The Chennai - Howrah section is one of the most high-demand railway routes. The two daily trains run with 100 per cent occupancy throughout the year.

Published: 16th December 2019 05:01 AM 

Passengers stranded at Central after the cancellation of West Bengal bound trains on Sunday in Chennai | P jawahar
By B Anbuselvan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Abrupt cancellation of Howrah-bound trains in the wake of protests in parts of West Bengal against the Citizenship Amendment Act, has left Chennai’s Central station flooded with hundreds of labourers from West Bengal and parts of the North-East.

The workers, including women and children, who usually travel in unreserved compartments of the Chennai - Howrah Coromandel Express and Chennai - Howrah Mail have been languishing on the platforms of the Central station as the two trains were cancelled on Saturday and Sunday.

Shockingly, some workers from Assam said they were trying to leave the city as they feared they might be attacked over the new legislation.

The workers had been asked stay on the platforms near the ticket counters but had neither been given food nor blankets by railways.

The Chennai - Howrah section is one of the most high-demand railway routes. The two daily trains run with 100 per cent occupancy throughout the year.

While the Puducherry - Howrah Weekly Express, Yeswanthpur - Howrah Express and Mangalore Central - Santragachi Vivek Express are cancelled, short termination of Kanniyakumari - Howrah Express at Chennai Egmore has left passengers stranded at Katpadi, Salem and Tirupur. Surprisingly, the Chennai - Santragachi special fare special train, which left Central station on Saturday, was operated up to Nayudupetta (110 Km) and returned to Central within a few hours.

Abdul Sohil, a labourer from Assam, said he was leaving with his family out of fear of being attacked in Chennai. “A few years ago, my brother and his friends were attacked in Bihar. So I am leaving with my wife and children.”

Ashish Mukerjee of West Bengal, who was also stranded at Central station, said he had stayed at a hotel in Vepery for the past two days just to board the Howrah Express on Saturday. “Now, I have to go back and search for accommodation and food,” he said.

The situation was different for passengers in Puducherry, Katpadi and Yeswanthpur on Saturday.

Cancellation of Puducherry - Howrah weekly express and Yeswanthpur - Howrah expresses were informed to rail passengers just 30 minutes before departure of the trains. There were about 2000 passengers on board the trains.

K Baskar of Tiruvallur rail passengers association, who is also a member of Divisional Rail Users’ Consultative Committee (DRUCC), Chennai, questioned the railways preparedness to handle emergency situations. “It’s irrational to cancel trains just 20 minutes before departure. The Yesvanthpur - Howrah Express reaches Katpadi around 12.10 am. If the decision of cancellation of trains is taken just a few hours before the departure, how can passengers make alternative plans or return to their homes at odd hours,” he asked.

Baskar added that Howrah-bound trains could have easily been operated up to Bhubaneswar and from there alternative arrangements could have been made.

A senior railway official, however, said the decision was taken on safety ground. “All major stations, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bhubaneswar are saturated and no additional trains can be added,” the official said.

Flight services to West Bengal have not been affected and ticket prices have not witnessed any significant increase, industry sources noted. “Except corporate passengers and medical tourists, rail passengers will not prefer flight travel in the event of cancellation of train services,” said a travel agent.

In between Poll duties and administrative works, when do Tamil Nadu government teachers teach?

Tamil Nadu’s 2.16 lakh government school teachers are expected to teach a whopping 54.72 lakh of the State’s children but between election duty, administrative tasks, training programmes and filing re

Published: 15th December 2019 05:37 AM |

By Sushmitha Ramakrishnan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government school teachers say they struggle to find time to plan lessons and teach students amidst all the chores with which various government departments burden them. Some of these tasks include election duty, data entry and administrative work.

Several schools lack clerks or computer operators, adding to the number of duties that the State’s 2.16 lakh government school teachers must juggle while educating a whopping 54.72 lakh students!

Too many to handle

Public perception of government teachers tends to be one of well-paid staff with summer holidays, prone to absenteeism. The reality, however, is hardly cushy. Let’s take one of the government schools in Chennai. It has a strength of about 700 students at the primary level alone.

These students were managed by just nine teachers in the last week on November. This means each teacher handled over 70 students till 4 pm each day that week.

Is the school short-staffed? Not really. The school has 20 teachers at the primary level, but 10 had been sent to attend a training programme organised by the central government, and one had taken leave. The remaining teachers barely got through their additional duties, let alone teach that week.

The situation is the same at schools across the State. Venkatesan Kumar (name changed), headmaster of an elementary school in Tiruvannamalai with over 100 students, told Express what his day was like last Tuesday.

After waking up at 7 am, Venkatesan helped with household work and left for a village 30km from his house for election duty. He was stationed at the camp till 5 pm and received two nominations for the local body elections.

“After that we had to submit the nominations to a Block Level Officer. I reached home by 6 pm,” he said.

As a result, he was unable to teach classes or do any of his administrative work at school. His absence also affected the other teachers on duty. Of the three teachers at the school, one was on maternity break. The other two had to manage students from five classes and complete all the admin work. “I had to request a teacher who wanted a sick leave to come to school,” he said.

A government middle school teacher from Vellore told Express that for two months, she has had to visit voters door-to-door everyday after school hours.

“I would reach home at 4.30 pm after school, cook dinner for my husband and children and leave for election duty by 6 pm. I would return only by 8.30 pm as we have to finish updating the list of all voters in the streets designated,” she said.

(Teachers have not been given door-to-door duty for the upcoming rural local body elections).

Digital India — without Internet

One of the more time-consuming tasks that the teachers have to complete daily is the uploading of student attendance.“Teachers have to update students’ attendance online by 11 am, but the government has not given us an Internet connection,” the headmaster from Tiruvannamalai said.

While most teachers use their mobile data to upload the attendance, in schools in remote areas they have to walk out of school premises to find a mobile signal to upload the data.

“Almost everyday, one teacher will have to step out of class for at least 15 minutes to upload the attendance,” he said, adding the school education department’s app was prone to glitches which took more class hours to sort out.

This problem is not restricted to rural areas. The headmistress of a higher secondary government school in Chennai said that school had a slow Internet connection donated by an NGO. Despite this, government school administrators are expected to fill in over 50 different particulars on the Educational Management Information System (EMIS).

After the introduction of the EMIS, teachers are also expected to update details such as attendance, performance, parents’ particulars and Aadhaar details regularly. Teachers are also responsible for obtaining community certificates for students and ensuring that they apply for scholarships and competitive exams.

“We have to regularly fill in students’ particulars and information on their Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation System online too. Sometimes the website crashes and we have to re-do all the work. We do not have computer operators to do this work, so I have to pull teachers out of classes to do it,” the headmistress said.

Multiple reports

The various training programmes conducted by the State and Centre were another stressor. Teachers said they were useful but while one of them was away the other teachers had to cover their classes and admin duties.

Also, they were expected to learn and implement pedagogical techniques prescribed by the Samagra Shiksha (SS) and show proof of it.

As schools are not accountable to a single governing body, teachers have to submit reports and records to the State School Education Department or Elementary Education Department, SS, State Council for Education Research and Training and their respective local bodies if they are corporation schools.

“We are constantly monitored and we have to submit reports on how we implement new teaching methodologies suggested by the government. However, we do not get the time to practice it or make changes to our routine,” said the headmistress of a corporation school in Chennai.

Further, the lack of clerical staff in most schools means teachers also have to personally send out the post. “Teachers were also asked to canvas for subscription to Amma scooters today (Thursday),” the corporation school headmistress said. A high school teacher from Kancheepuram pointed out that teachers were also expected to conduct awareness campaigns for school enrolment, against dengue and other issues of public interest. “We are also expected to formulate reports if a student contracts a seasonal infection,” she added“State government schools are in dire need of administrative staff and computer operators for data entry work,” said PK Ilamaran of TN Government Teachers Association.

Students in need of support

A middle school teacher from Tiruvannamalai said students needed extra time to cope with the revamped syllabus.

“The revamped syllabus is great but the children need extra support to cope. Therefore it is the teachers that need to double up somehow,” she said.

She pointed out that most of the students at the government schools came from difficult backgrounds and did not always have parents who could help with their studies.

“It is our job to evaluate the needs of each child and provide them both academic and personal support. We need time to engage with students to understand their strengths and weaknesses,” she said.

Another middle school science teacher from the same school said that with the pile of non-academic work to get through, she found it difficult to finish her lesson plans.

“We struggle to finish the syllabus in time. But since we’re forced to complete the syllabus no matter what, sometimes we only teach the sure-shot questions and important parts of some chapters and skip the rest,” she said.

“Private school teachers do not have to do this. They have the time to focus on students and their welfare,” Ilamaran pointed out.

‘Not so bad’

A senior official from the School Education Department said the department could do little about the problem as various government bodies designate work for the staff.

“The government delegates election duty. EMIS entry work is given by SS. Only some additional work is directly delegated by the department,” the official said.

Pradeep Yadav, principal secretary to the School Education Department said the government had been doing everything in its capacity to reduce teachers’ workload.

He said the State only scheduled additional work for after school hours or weekends.

“The government is aware of the statutory duties that teachers have and we try to reduce it as much as possible,” he said, adding that EMIS was introduced to reduce teachers’ work.

Out of syllabus work they do

Election duty | To receive nominations for the local body elections, teachers have to spend a whole day at a designated village keeping them away from school

Updating data online | In schools without proper internet connections, particularly those in rural areas, finding signal and uploading the attendance takes multiple attempts during and between classes and keeps teachers occupied even until 10.30 am

Administrative work | Owing to lack of helpers or administrative staff, teachers are left to doing tasks like sending posts, drafting final reports, filling forms, which takes anywhere between just half an hour to at least half a working day

Training programmes | Training planned during school working days takes a teacher away from school for a whole day leaving the remaining teachers to handle a large number of students

Difficult backgrounds

A teacher said most government school students came from difficult backgrounds and did not always have parents who could help with studies.

“It is our job to evaluate their needs and give them academic and personal support,” she said.

Over 10-year wait for subway at Radha Nagar

According to residents, after there were frequent deaths at the crossing, locals rallied for a subway for both pedestrians and light vehicles like cars and jeeps.

Published: 16th December 2019 02:06 AM

The level crossing at Radha Nagar where residents have been demanding a subway for the safety of pedestrians and motorists for the past 10 years | Ashwin prasath

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Despite a long wait for over a decade, work on Radha Nagar Subway at the railway level- crossing (LC27) at Chromepet, is yet to resume.

According to residents, after there were frequent deaths at the crossing, locals rallied for a subway for both pedestrians and light vehicles like cars and jeeps.

In 2009, work on the level-crossing was taken up by Southern Railway after which the State Highways Department was supposed to take up construction of approach roads. However, since then, the project has run into several roadblocks including in land acquisition, leaving the project with no developments so far.
In response to a plea by Pallavaram MLA E Karunanidhi, highways department had told a division bench of the High Court in July this year that work on the subway is to begin at the earliest. In March, the court held that the approach ramps should be formed within 18 months. However, highways officials told Express that tenders had not been floated for the project yet.

“This is a demand that is yet to be fulfilled for the last 15 years. This will not only help save lives at the level-crossing, but also allow emergency services like ambulances to reach the residents sooner,” the MLA said. The subway will link Old Pallavaram to GST road. Radha Nagar road is a 20-feet road that is not built to handle the congestion caused by waiting vehicles at the crossing.

“First there were land acquisition issues. Then there were talks of limiting the subway usage to only pedestrians which was also met with opposition because of traffic congestion issues. We sincerely hope that work will begin soon on the project,” said C Murugaiyan, a resident of AGS colony. When contacted, highways officials said tenders will be floated soon and work orders will be issued thereafter.

Sabarimala revenue touches ₹104 cr.; heavy rush continues

16/12/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,PATHANAMTHITTA

Long wait: Pilgrims waiting for darshan at the Ayyappa temple. Special Arrangement

The Travancore Devaswom Board has collected revenue worth ₹104 crore from Sabarimala as on Saturday, according to board president N. Vasu.

Mr. Vasu said this was in sharp contrast with the ₹64 crore revenue collected during the same period in the previous pilgrim season.

He said Aravana sales had fetched a revenue of ₹43.4 crore as on Saturday against the ₹23.8 crore earned during the same period last year.

The hundi collection of ₹35.5 crore as on Saturday too showed considerable increase, compared to the ₹25.6 crore collection received during the same period in 2018, he said. Mr. Vasu said the board was yet to count coins, worth not less than ₹5 crore, it received as offerings from devotees.

The holy hillock witnessed a heavy rush on Sunday too with the increase in the flow of pilgrims during the weekend.

Pilgrims had to wait seven to eight hours in the long-winding queue leading to the temple premises.

21 days not enough for probe into rape cases, says NCW chief
‘States must adopt a realistic stance for concrete result and not fan sentiments’

16/12/2019, P. SUJATHA VARMA,VIJAYAWADA

The timeframe of 21 days given to the police to complete investigation and the courts to convict the accused in rape cases under the new Disha Act promulgated by the Andhra Pradesh government is “too less”, says National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Rekha Sharma.

Speaking to The Hindu on the phone, Ms. Sharma said the governments should get realistic and not fan public sentiments. “I welcome the Andhra Pradesh government’s move but I am apprehensive about the new Act’s effective implementation.”

Speaking about the fast track courts constituted by States in the past, she said they did not give the desired results and cited the example of Madhya Pradesh’s “alarming rate of atrocities against women and very few or no convictions”.

The women’s panel chief also expressed fears that the situation might give rise to new problems.

Pointing out that the police not filing FIRs in many cases was an issue of concern, Ms. Sharma said the problem might become worse now since the department would have to complete the investigation within the stipulated time.

“There is a shortage of judges and how the State (A.P.) can implement the new law effectively in the given scenario is to be seen,” she said. “Three months’ time should be given for a concrete result. We don’t want the governments to act in haste while dealing with a sensitive issue like rape.”

Referring to the Disha case, she said it could have perhaps been averted had the police acted swiftly. “To save their skin, they encountered the accused. People who hurled abuse at the police initially, showered petals on them after the encounter,” she said, adding that it was not a healthy sign.

Woman delivers baby at Egmore railway station

16/12/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

A pregnant passenger from Andhra Pradesh delivered a baby at the Chennai Egmore railway station early on Saturday.

The baby and mother were later admitted to the Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Hospital for Children, Egmore.

A senior official of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) said Venkatesh, a resident of a village near Renigunta from Andhra Pradesh, had brought his wife Ramya, 25, who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy, for attending an interview in the city. After completing the interview the couple had gone to Egmore railway station on Friday night to return to their native place.

Train delayed

However the passengers were informed that their train had been delayed and would leave on Saturday morning.

The couple decided to sleep on the platform of the railway station to board the early morning train.

The RPF official said on Saturday around 3 a.m. the woman developed labour pain and delivered a girl without any one’s help. A patrol team of the railway protection force in the morning found that the woman had delivered a baby and took her to the emergency ward in the railway station where the medical specialists administered first aid to her and her baby. Later both the mother and the baby were shifted to the Egmore Children's Hospital.

Not all vehicles have Fastag facility

16/12/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Even as the Centre has postponed its decision to make Fastag facility mandatory at toll plazas of National Highways Authority of India, a majority of vehicles passing through Nanguneri toll plaza in the district lack the service.

However, the number of motorists purchasing Fastag increased from 80 to 100 during the last week at the toll plaza, an employee in the Chennai-Nagercoil section said.

The Ministry of Road Transport Highways has extended the deadline to equip all lanes at toll plazas with Fastag payment mode to January 14.

“We have kept one hybrid lane each on both directions and the remaining four each are for Fastag-enable vehicles only,” another employee said.

Whenever the number of vehicles on hybrid lanes go beyond 15, another lane is opened to allow drivers to pay cash. “This is to avoid overcrowding at the toll plaza. Sometimes, the piling up of vehicles leads to unnecessary confrontations,” he added.

Some of the vehicle users attempt to forcibly enter the Fastag lanes without having the facility even after employees waiting at the entrance guide them to the right lanes.

“We are yet to start imposing double fees on users as many of them are yet to understand the rules,” he said.

Meanwhile, some vehicle users complain that the Fastag facility is black-listed for “unknown reasons”.

According to a driver proceeding to Chennai, employees at Chittampatti toll plaza told him that his account was blacklisted despite having recharged his account for ₹1,200 on Saturday evening.

“I dont know why it has been blacklisted. Even those at the plazas are not able to explain it to me,” he said after paying cash.

A similar complaint was made by C. Joshua, who runs a dairy in Madurai.

“A few of my vehicles have Fastag facility under a closed user group account. But often my truck drivers complain that the facility has been blacklisted at some of the toll gates on the way to Chennai, especially at the one in Vikkiravandi,” he said.

While stating that CUG facility of Fastag helps him to keep a tab on his trucks and the toll expenditure, Mr. Joshua says he does not get a satisfactory response from the toll plaza staff or from the bank or from the customer care helpline of Fastag.

“Those at customer care speak only Hindi and often do not respond properly. Even when I pay through my nose to change the tag with a newer one, by paying ₹250 each time, the balance money in the particular tag is not reverted to the main account for days together. I do not know what to do?” he said.

A toll plaza employee says it can be due to various reasons including lack of network connectivity.

At Chittampatti, at least five to seven vehicles are seen queing up at each of the two hybrid lanes on Sunday, as there is no facility here for digital payment.

‘Mandatory to link PAN-Aadhaar by Dec. 31’

16/12/2019,NEW DELHI

It is mandatory to link your PAN with Aadhaar by the end of this year, the Income Tax Department said in a public message on Sunday. “Building a better tomorrow! To reap seamless benefits of income tax services, complete the vital link before 31st December, 2019,” it said. It is mandatory to link your PAN with Aadhaar, according to the public message issued a fortnight before the deadline ends. PTI

Health Ministry avoids answering MPs’ queries on NEET
Citing court rulings, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan says the test is compulsory
16/12/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The Union Health Minister recently avoided giving specific answers to a set of starred questions from DMK Lok Sabha MPs on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), and instead relied on court rulings to state that aspirants had to compulsorily take the test for securing admission to medical courses.

On Thursday, T.R. Baalu and M. Selvaraj sought to confirm whether only 100 students secured admissions to the MBBS course through NEET without attending any private coaching classes, out of the 4,850 seats in government and self-financing colleges in Tamil Nadu during the current academic year.

The MPs sought to know whether the Central government had received any request from the States/Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu, seeking exemption from NEET for admission to the MBBS course; whether the government was aware of the observation of the Madras High Court that NEET should be scrapped as it was unfair to government school students; whether the government proposed to scrap NEET or give an exemption from the test to Tamil Nadu and other such applicant States/UTs in the interest of the poor and rural students and to help them get admission; and if so, the details thereof and the action taken thereon.

In his reply, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said: “Section 10D of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, prescribes the conducting of a uniform entrance examination, namely the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), to all medical educational institutions at undergraduate and postgraduate level(s). The NEET is followed by a common counselling, conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services and the designated authorities of the State governments for admission to the respective quota seats. However, no data with regard to admissions of the students made [sic] with or without taking private coaching classes is maintained centrally.”

The Ministry had received requests from T.N. and Puducherry to exempt students from having to appear for NEET. “The proposals were in direct contravention of Section 10D of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and thus, the same were not supported by the Ministry.”

SC order

Further, the Madras High Court had not recorded any observation for the scrapping of NEET, the Minister said.

He also cited the Supreme Court order dated April 11, 2016, stating, “...in R.P. 2159-2268 of 2013 in T.C. (c) 98 of 2013 had allowed conducting of NEET and the apex court vide order dated 09.05.2016 also clarified that only NEET would enable students to get admission to MBBS or BDS studies.”

Senior citizens dread idea of bank mergers

Fear New Tech, Losing Access To Local Branch

Rachel.Chitra@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:16.12.2019

The prospect of six public sector banks losing their identity following their merger with other lenders is giving anxious moments to longterm customers, particularly senior citizens. Their fear is the closure of the next-door branch and having to deal with a new bank with new systems following the mega-mergers announced by the government in August 2019. For 71-year-old Debabrata Ghosh and his wife Keya (60), who live in Asansol, 210 km from Kolkata, the announcement of bank mergers has been unsettling and disturbing. The couple has for decades banked with Allahabad Bank. But their bank will soon be merged with Indian Bank, which also has its own branches. Fearing the necessity of having to travel a distance of 15-16 km, the couple — who suffer from chronic severe back pain — have reluctantly decided to shift their savings in part to a private bank. Besides Allahabad Bank merging into Indian Bank, the other consolidations are Oriental Bank and United Bank with Punjab National Bank. Additionally, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank are merging with Union Bank, and Syndicate Bank is merging into Canara Bank. While the bank chiefs are downplaying branch closures, bankers say that such rationalisation is part of every merger.

Between June 2018 and 2019, SBI shut down 420 branches and 768 ATMs in India, while the combined entity of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank shut 40 branches and 274 ATMs in this period. For the same period, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank, IOB, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and other PSUs have also closed both bank branches and ATMs. In response to a recent RTI query by Neemuch-based activist Chandrashekhar Gaud, the RBI said that over 3,400 branches of 26 PSU banks were either closed or merged in the last five years — some 75% belonging to SBI alone. There is also the fact that services could get disrupted during the merger. “PSU bank staff will be tied up with the logistics and procedural aspects of bank mergers for nearly one year. Regular banking like business growth, servicing senior citizens will suffer,” said All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) general secretary Harvinder Singh.

Former Vijaya Bank union member and current Bank of Baroda employee Prakash Rao feels, “For smaller banks like Vijaya Bank, Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank, their base is farmers and poorer customers — and they’ve catered to their needs for years. But for a big bank, only high-value customers would matter, volumes would matter. The decades-old relationship you might have shared with bank staff at your local branch would be lost.”

“For nimble youngsters, it is irrelevant if the bank branch or ATM is 1km away or 10km away. They have health and ease of using technology like net banking, mobile apps and e- wallets. But for a senior citizen with health ailments like arthritis, even crossing the road gets really challenging,” says A B Shetty, the 67-year-old chairman (Karnataka) of AIBOA.

“With the 10-bank merger plan, senior citizens, farmers and daily wagers earning ₹130- ₹150 a day will be affected — I know of old people who have to now travel for more than an hour and spend ₹50-₹60 for a withdrawal of ₹2,000 in monthly pension,” said Manohar Shetty, member of farmers’ union Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene speaking of the impact of branch closures in small cities. Former bank employees feel door-to-door banking services promised by the government to senior citizens will prove a challenge, given India’s size. “What is the point of introducing door-to-door banking for senior citizens? As a senior citizen and former bank manager, I’d say PSUs would be better off just maintaining their current services and number of bank branches,” added Shetty, who is also the president of the Vijaya Bank Retired Employees Association. According to a banker with SBI, senior citizens find it most difficult to deal with change. They get worked up emotionally — and changes like a new branch, travelling a few more kilometres can prove traumatic.

Why do schools need to go beyond syllabus

Schools need to design a special curriculum that looks beyond the books and offers holistic education to a child, writes Neerja Birla

16.12.2019

The true purpose of education is to make minds not careers, says a popular proverb. One of the epiphanies that one has as an adult is that being a good student in the school has nothing to do with success or happiness in life. We find that our education has not prepared us for daunting challenges, difficult emotional or social experiences. Book learning – that is the official term for what we get in schools. Not a practical education, and by no means a holistic education that focuses on developing all the aspects of a human being and not just the academic prowess.

Mahatma Gandhi believed that education is the process of training the head (learning to know), hand (learning to do things for a livelihood), and heart (learning to be). This would be the kind of education that informs the mind, imparts practical life skills, opens the mind to independent and creative thought, puts the students in touch with their emotions and motivations, and teaches them how to be empathetically human. The goal of such an education would be to shape a good human being and citizen who can handle the challenges of life in healthy and responsible ways.

If we truly want to prepare students for the future that awaits them, schools must look at going beyond the books and designing a curriculum that offers holistic education to the child.

LEARN ABOUT THE SELF

Every human being goes about his/ her life trying to figure out who am I, what is my purpose? Right from the early years in school, we must be able to support and augment this journey of discovery so that children develop a keen sense of self, self esteem and self respect. Mental health education in this context can help children understand their feelings, motivations and their fears. This understanding of the self will be the much-needed bedrock of confidence that stays with the child their whole life.

LEARN ABOUT OTHERS

From the self, the journey moves towards understanding the people around us. The classroom experience needs to evolve from students competing for grades to students working together so they can learn to form friendships and deal with complex social interactions. How do my actions affect others? How do I process, deal with and get along with the actions of others? Teaching children about the feelings of others lays the foundation for strong interpersonal skills that will be invaluable in their professional and personal lives. It will give them a lifelong ability to build cohesive social units, excel at managing relationships and social challenges.

LEARN ABOUT THE UNKNOWN

How will our children react when they will face the new ideologies, technologies and opinions? We live in a time when everything is being redefined – from what childhood is to what it means to be human. The advantages of all our inventions are diverse but so are the possible risks – a greater stage for success implies a greater risk of failure. The most significant measure of a human being is how he/she responds to things that are unknown – how does one face the uncertainties of life while being true to ourselves and our values? No textbook can teach that.

We have all heard about the three R’s of education – reading, ‘riting and ‘rthimetic. With holistic education, we would be able to further enhance it with a few more R’s – relationships, resilience, responsibility and respect for life. When we educate the whole child, we can rest assured that we have moulded a human being who has the knowledge, life skills, and the strength of mind and character to face any challenges that the future might bring. That is why there is nothing more important than making sure we do just that in our schools today.

(The author is founder and chairperson of The Aditya Birla Education Trust)

LEARN ABOUT THE WORLD

There are many things that we learn in schools, many of which we rarely use in real life. One wonders if we were given training in life skills such as decision making, time management, negotiation, critical thinking, leadership, or even parenting, it would have helped us more. Without a practical knowledge of how the world works and the things we need to know to operate successfully in it, it does not matter how talented one is

Woman who kept savings in banned notes passes away

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  16.12.2019

Tirupur: P Rangammal  of Boomalur in Tirupur district, the younger among the two elderly siblings who came into the limelight after it was discovered that they had saved ₹46,000 in old notes ignorant of the demonetisation exercise, died on Sunday.

The 72-year-old woman was suffering from tuberculosis for a long time. She was admitted at the Perundurai Government Medical College four days ago after her health deteriorated. She died at the hospital on Sunday morning and her body was cremated in her native village on Sunday evening. After the plight of the deceased and her sister K Rangammal, 75, grabbed media attention, the district administration had issued orders to provide them ₹1,000 each as old age pension. Moreover, a Chennai-based school trust had donated them ₹46,000 to compensate their loss.

Don’t pop too many pills, doctors warn senior citizens

Avg No. Of Pills Prescribed For Elderly Patients Is Eight: Survey

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:16.12.2019

The elderly now live longer than ever, and many believe pills can vanquish their problems and pains. An increasing number of people above 60 years of age are victims of polypharmacy, taking five or more drugs at one go.

While doctors say it may be tough to say how much is too much, patients and doctors should work together to ensure that every pill they pop is necessary. A recent city-based survey done at a multi-speciality hospital showed that the average number of drugs prescribed for patients was eight. Prescription analysis of more than 100 patients showed that some take up to 15 pills a day, but none less than two. Further studies showed that there were reactions between two (or more) drugs. Researchers from C L Baid Metha College of Pharmacy and Mangalore-based Srinivas College of Pharmacy concluded that protocols should be developed to monitor geriatric patients’ prescriptions.

Geriatricians say drugs are prescribed by different specialists who don’t communicate with each other. Further, if the patients are hospitalized, doctors making the rounds add to the list and some of the drugs they prescribe may be unnecessary or not compatible.

In some cases, patients don’t revisit doctors for years but keep reusing old prescription. “It is one of the commonest problems we see,” says senior geriatrician Dr V S Natarajan. “Most specialists prescribe vitamins, calcium and sleeping tablets without seeing what other medications patients take. In many cases, these are unnecessary,” he said.

Such prescriptions push up cost of medicines. “I don’t have a health insurance. Insurance companies quote a very high premium and even those don’t cover medical bills,” said Radha Mani, a 69-year-old house wife who has been taking at least 17 medicines a day. “When I met with an accident, specialists added medicines to strengthen my nerves and bones, which I took for years. When I met my primary physician four years later, he cut down six drugs and tapered down at least four of them,” she said. Since then, her medical bills have come down by ₹1,200 a month.

Senior doctors often caution juniors, particularly specialists, about prescribing medicines. “I tell them that any drug that is worth using can cause harm. We always suggest drug therapy in the elderly should be kept to a minimum,” said diabetologist Dr V Mohan. “As policy, we now write exercise and diet on top of most prescriptions, particularly if they are above 60 years old,” he said.

ரூ.1,000 பொங்கல் பரிசு: 20 முதல் வினியோகம்

Added : டிச 14, 2019 22:53

ரேஷன் கடைகளில், அரிசி கார்டுதாரர்களுக்கு, 1,000 ரூபாய் ரொக்கம் அடங்கிய, பொங்கல் பரிசு தொகுப்பை, வரும், 20ம் தேதி முதல் வினியோகம் செய்ய, கூட்டுறவு துறை முடிவு செய்துள்ளது.

ரொக்க பணம்   தமிழக அரசு, 2.05 கோடி அரிசி கார்டுதாரர்களுக்கு, பொங்கல் பரிசு அறிவித்துள்ளது.அதன்படி, ஒரு ரேஷன் கார்டுதாரருக்கு, தலா, 1 கிலோ பச்சரிசி, சர்க்கரை; தலா, 20 கிராம் முந்திரி, திராட்சை; 5 கிராம் ஏலம்; கரும்பு துண்டு, 1,000 ரூபாய் ரொக்கப்பணம் போன்றவை வழங்கப்பட உள்ளன. பொங்கல் பரிசு தொகுப்பை, பயனாளிகளுக்கு வழங்கும் பணியை, முதல்வர் இ.பி.எஸ்., நவம்பர், 29ல் துவக்கி வைத்தார். மறுநாள், பல கார்டுதாரர்கள், ரேஷன் கடைகளுக்கு சென்று பொங்கல் பரிசு கேட்டனர். அவை வழங்கப்படாததால், மக்கள் ஏமாற்றத்துடன் திரும்பினர்.ரேஷன் கடைகளில், எப்போது முதல் பரிசு தொகுப்பு வழங்கப்படும் என்று, அரசும் தெரிவிக்கவில்லை. இதனால், பலரும் பரிசு தொகுப்பை எதிர்பார்த்தபடி உள்ளனர்.

தற்போது, முந்திரி, திராட்சை, ஏலத்தை, கூட்டுறவு சங்கங்கள் கொள்முதல் செய்து, பாக்கெட் செய்யும் பணியில் ஈடுபட்டு வருகின்றன. விவசாயிகளிடம் இருந்து, கரும்பு வாங்கப்பட்டு வரும் நிலையில், கூட்டுறவு வங்கிகளில், தேவைக்கு ஏற்ப, 500 ரூபாய் நோட்டுகளும் இருப்பு வைக்கப்பட்டு உள்ளன. சாதகமாகும்இந்நிலையில், உள்ளாட்சி தேர்தல் தேதி அறிவிக்கப்பட்டாலும், 'பொங்கல் பரிசு வழங்க தடையில்லை' என, மாநில தேர்தல் ஆணையமும் தெரிவித்துள்ளது. ஓட்டுப்பதிவுக்கு முன், கார்டுதாரர்களுக்கு, 1,000 ரூபாய் வழங்கினால் தான், தேர்தல் முடிவுகள், தங்களுக்கு சாதகமாக இருக்கும் என, அ.தி.மு.க.,வினர் கருதுகின்றனர்.

இந்த விபரத்தை, கூட்டுறவு சங்க தலைவர்களாக உள்ள, ஆளுங்கட்சியினர், அரசிடம் தெரிவித்துள்ளனர். இதனால், 20ம் தேதி முதல், பயனாளிகளுக்கு, பொங்கல் பரிசு தொகுப்பை வழங்க, கூட்டுறவு துறை முடிவு செய்துள்ளது.
- நமது நிருபர் -

'போதை' நகரமாக மாறி வருகிறது, 'கோவில்' நகரம்! : அமைதி காக்கும் போலீசார் மீது, 'ஆக் ஷன்' அவசியம்

Added : டிச 14, 2019 22:28



 முருகப் பெருமானின் ஆறுபடை வீடுகளில் ஒன்றான, கோவில் நகரமாக விளங்கும் திருத்தணியில், தற்போது, கஞ்சா விற்பனை, அமோகமாக நடப்பதால், போதை நகரமாக மாறி வருகிறது.

கஞ்சா விற்பனையை தடுக்காமல், கைகட்டி வேடிக்கை பார்க்கும் போலீசார் மீது, கடும் நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும் என, சமூக ஆர்வலர்கள் வலியுறுத்தி உள்ளனர்.

திருவள்ளூர் மாவட்டம், ஆந்திர மாநில எல்லையோரம் அமைந்துள்ளது திருத்தணி. தமிழ் கடவுள் முருகப் பெருமானின், ஆறுபடை வீடுகளில், ஐந்தாம் படை வீடாக, சுப்ரமணிய சுவாமி இங்கு எழுந்தருளி உள்ளார்.இதனால், கோவில் நகரம் என்ற பெருமை அடைந்த திருத்தணி, தற்போது கஞ்சா விற்பனை செய்யும், 'போதை' நகரமாக மாறி விட்டதாக, சமூக ஆர்வலர்களும், ஆன்மிகர்களும் ஆதங்கப்படுகின்றனர். அந்தளவிற்கு, நகரின்,மூலை, முடுக்குகளில் எல்லாம், கஞ்சா பொட்டலங்கள் அமோகமாக விற்பனையாகிக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றன.

எங்கிருந்து வருது?
தமிழகம் முழுவதும், 'சப்ளை' செய்யப்படும் கஞ்சா, ஆந்திர மாநிலத்தில்இருந்து, திருத்தணிக்கும் வருகிறது. அதுவும் மொத்தமாக அனுப்பாமல், சில்லரையாக, பொட்டலங்களில் மடிக்கப்பட்டே அனுப்பப்படுகிறது. இது குறித்து, கஞ்சா விற்பனையை நன்கு அறிந்த சமூக ஆர்வலர் ஒருவர் கூறியதாவது:ஆந்திர மாநிலம், நகரி மண்டலத்திற்கு உட்பட்ட, ஓ.ஜி.குப்பம் கிராமத்தில், கஞ்சா விற்பனை சத்தமின்றி, கனஜோராக நடக்கிறது. கஞ்சாவை, 10 கிராம், 20 கிராமாக பொட்டலங்களில் மடித்து, பெண்களிடம் கொடுத்து, விற்பனை செய்கின்றனர்.அவர்கள், கை பையில் மறைத்து, ரயில் மற்றும் பஸ்களில், பயணியர் போல், திருத்தணிக்கு வந்து, இங்குள்ள வியாபாரிகளிடம் சேர்க்கின்றனர். ரயில் அல்லது பஸ்களில் புறப்பட்டதும், திருத்தணியில் உள்ள வியாபாரிகளுக்கு, மொபைல் போன் வாயிலாக தகவல் தெரிவிக்கப்படுகிறது.

விற்பனை எங்கே?
ரயில் நிலையத்திற்கு வரும் வியாபாரிகள், பெண்களிடம் கஞ்சா பொட்டலங்களை வாங்கி, மின்னல்போல் பறந்து விடுகின்றனர்.கையில் கஞ்சா பொட்டலங்கள் கிடைத்ததும், திருத்தணி கமலா தியேட்டர் ரயில்வே நடைமேம்பாலம், நேரு நகர், பெரியார் நகர், நந்தி ஆற்றின் கரையோரம்உள்ள வீரட்டீஸ்வரர் கோவில் அருகில், முருகப்ப நகர், எம்.ஜி.ஆர்.நகர் பழைய வேளாண் துறை கட்டடம் உள்ளிட்ட இடங்களில், விற்பனை களை கட்டுகிறது.அதேபோல, கே.ஜி.கண்டிகை பஜாரில் இருந்து, எஸ்.அக்ரஹாரம் செல்லும் சாலையில் உள்ள ஒரு வீட்டில், பெண் ஒருவர், கஞ்சா பொட்டலங்களை பதுக்கி வைத்து, விற்பனை செய்வதாகவும் கூறப்படுகிறது.இவரிடம், இளைஞர்கள், பள்ளி மாணவர்கள் அதிகளவில் வந்து, கஞ்சா வாங்கி, தங்கள் எதிர்காலத்தை இழந்து தவிக்கின்றனர்.இவ்வாறு, அவர் கூறினார்.

திருத்தணியில் நடந்து வரும் கஞ்சா விற்பனையை, போலீசார் கண்டும், காணாமல், கைகட்டி வேடிக்கை பார்க்கின்றனர். எனவே, திருவள்ளூர் மாவட்ட எஸ்.பி., மற்றும் போதை பொருள் தடுப்பு பிரிவு போலீசார் இணைந்து, கஞ்சா விற்பனை செய்யும் கும்பலை, கூண்டோடு பிடிக்க வேண்டும்.அவர்களுக்கு துணைபோகும் காவலர்கள் மீதும் நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும் என, பொதுமக்களும், சமூக ஆர்வலர்களும் வேண்டுகோள் விடுத்துள்ளனர்.

தனிப்படை வேட்டை
இது குறித்து, திருத்தணி டி.எஸ்.பி., - ஆர்.சேகர் கூறியதாவது:வீரட்டீஸ்வரர் கோவில் அருகே, கஞ்சா விற்பனை செய்த மூன்று வாலிபர்களை, 45 நாட்களுக்கு முன் கைது செய்தோம். மேலும், கஞ்சா விற்பவர்கள் யார்; அதை பயன்படுத்துவோர் யார் என்று கண்டறிய, என் தலைமையில், போலீஸ் தனிப்படை அமைத்து, திருத்தணி முழுவதும் கண்காணித்து வருகிறோம்.சில கல்லுாரி மாணவர்கள், ரயிலில் திருத்தணிக்கு வந்து, கஞ்சா உபயோகப் படுத்துவதாக தகவல் கிடைத்துள்ளது.கஞ்சா அடிக்கும் கல்லுாரி மாணவர்கள் பட்டியல் தயாரிக்கும் பணியில் ஈடுபட்டு உள்ளோம். தற்போது, திருத்தணி பகுதியில், கஞ்சா பொட்டலங்கள் மொத்தமாக எடுத்து வந்து விற்கப்படுவதில்லை.இவ்வாறு, அவர் கூறினார்.

'மனநலம் பாதிக்கும்; புற்றுநோய் தாக்கும்'
கஞ்சா அடிப்பது சமீப காலமாக அதிகரித்து வருகிறது. பள்ளி, கல்லுாரி மாணவர்கள் உட்பட பலர், கஞ்சா போதைக்கு அடிமையாகி வருகின்றனர். கஞ்சா போதையால், மன ரீதியாக பாதிப்புகள் வரும். அதனால் குழப்பம் ஏற்படுவதுடன், எந்த வேலையையும் செய்ய தோன்றாது. பசி இருக்காது என்பதால், உடல் ரீதியான பாதிப்புகள் அதிகரிக்கும். புகையிலை பயன்படுத்தி, கஞ்சா அடிப்பதால், நுரையீரல் பாதிப்பு, புற்றுநோய் உள்ளிட்டவை ஏற்பட வாய்ப்புள்ளது. கஞ்சாவுக்கு அடிமையானவர்கள், அதிலிருந்து மீள்வதற்கு, கீழ்ப்பாக்கம் மனநல காப்பகத்தில் உரிய சிகிச்சை அளிக்கப்படுகிறது.பூர்ணா சந்திரிகா, இயக்குனர், கீழ்ப்பாக்கம் மனநல காப்பகம்கஞ்சா வினியோகிப்பது எப்படி?ஆந்திர மாநிலத்தில், கஞ்சா செடிகளை உற்பத்தி செய்து, பின், கஞ்சா இலையை துாள்களாக தயாரித்து, பிளாஸ்டிக் கவரில் அடைக்கப்பட்டு, கேரளாவிற்கு கடத்தப்படுகிறது. அங்கு கஞ்சாவை, 10 கிராம், 20 கிராம் என, பொட்டலங்களாக கட்டி, தமிழக- - ஆந்திர மாநில எல்லையான நகரி பகுதியில், சிலருக்கு சப்ளை செய்யப்படுகிறது.பின், திருத்தணி மற்றும் எல்லையோர கிராமங்களில் உள்ள சிலர் வழியாக, கஞ்சா விற்பனை செய்யப்படுகிறது. கஞ்சா விற்பவர்கள், 10 அல்லது 20 பாக்கெட்டுகளை, பைகளில் மறைத்து, இளைஞர்கள், மாணவர்களுக்கு விற்கின்றனர்.தினமும் குறிப்பிட்ட நேரத்திற்கு வராமல், ஒவ்வொரு நாளும், ஒரு நேரம் ஒதுக்கி, தேவைப்படும் இளைஞர்களை, மொபைல் போன் வாயிலாக அழைத்து, விற்பனை செய்கின்றனர்.

இதனால், இக்கும்பலை பிடிக்க முடியாமல் போலீசார் திணறி வருகின்றனர்.8 மணி நேரம் போதை திருத்தணி ரயில் நிலையம் அருகே, ஆந்திர மாநிலத்தில் இருந்து வரும் பெண் ஒருவர், வாடிக்கையாக, இளைஞர்கள், மாணவர்களுக்கு, ரகசியமாக கஞ்சா விற்று செல்வதாக கூறப்படுகிறது. 10 கிராம் கஞ்சா பாக்கெட், 100 ரூபாய்; 20 கிராம் கஞ்சா பாக்கெட், 200 ரூபாய் என, விற்கப்படுகிறது அதே போல, வேலுார் மாவட்டம், அரக்கோணம் தாலுகா, அமீர்பேட்டை, அரக்கோணம் ஆகிய பகுதிகளிலும், கஞ்சா விற்கப்படுகிறது. திருத்தணியில் சிலர், இருசக்கர வாகனங்களில் சென்று, ஒரு பொட்டலம், 50 ரூபாய்க்கு வாங்கி, திருத்தணியில், 100 ரூபாய்க்கு விற்கின்றனர் கஞ்சா உபயோகிக்கும் பெரும்பாலான இளைஞர்கள், சிகரெட்டில் கஞ்சா துாள்களை சேர்த்து உபயோகிப்பதால், ஆறு முதல், எட்டு மணி நேரம் வரை போதை இருப்பதாக கூறப்படுகிறது. இதனால், மதுபானங்களை விட, கஞ்சாவுக்கு அடிமையானவர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகமாக உள்ளது.6 மாதங்களில் 12 பேர் கைதுதிருத்தணி காவல் நிலைய எல்லையில், பல்வேறு வழக்குகளில் மர்ம நபர்கள் பிடிபடும்போது, பெரும்பாலானோர், கஞ்சா போதைக்கு அடிமையாகி இருப்பது தெரிய வருகிறது.

கடந்த வாரம், மொபைல் போன் பறிக்கும் கும்பலை பிடித்தபோது, அவர்களிடம் கஞ்சா பொட்டலங்களும் இருந்தன. இதையடுத்து, போலீசார் அவர்களை, கஞ்சா வழக்கில் கைது செய்தனர். இப்படி, ஆறு மாதங்களில், 12 பேர் கஞ்சா வழக்கில் கைது செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளனர். ஆனால், கஞ்சா வியாபாரிகள் யாரும் இதுவரை சிக்கவில்லை.

- நமது நிருபர் -

ஜன., 7ல் ஷீரடிக்கு சிறப்பு ரயில்

Added : டிச 14, 2019 22:25

சென்னை: இந்தியன் ரயில்வே உணவு, சுற்றுலா கழகமான, ஐ.ஆர்.சி.டி.சி., சார்பில், மதுரையில் இருந்து, ஜனவரி, 7ம் தேதி, ஷீரடிக்கு, தனி சிறப்பு ரயில் இயக்கப்படுகிறது.

இந்த ரயில், திண்டுக்கல், கரூர், ஈரோடு, சேலம், ஜோலார்பேட்டை, காட்பாடி, சென்னை, சென்ட்ரல் வழியாக செல்லும்.இப்பயணத்தில், மஹாராஷ்டிரா மாநிலத்தில், ஷீரடி, பண்டரிபுரம், ஆந்திராவில், மந்த்ராலயம் சென்று வரலாம். ஆறு நாட்கள் சுற்றுலாவுக்கு ஒருவருக்கு, 5,670 ரூபாய் கட்டணம். மத்திய, மாநில அரசு ஊழியர்களுக்கு கட்டண சலுகை உண்டு.மேலும் தகவலுக்கு, சென்னை, எம்.ஜி.ஆர்., சென்ட்ரல் ரயில் நிலையத்தில் உள்ள, ஐ.ஆர்.சி.டி.சி., மையத்தை, 90031 40680, 90031 40681 என்ற, மொபைல் போன் எண்களில் தொடர்பு கொள்ளலாம்.

பெரியகோவில் கும்பாபிஷேகம் அதிகாரப்பூர்வ அறிவிப்பு

Added : டிச 14, 2019 22:12


தஞ்சாவூர்: தஞ்சை பெரியகோவில் கும்பாபிஷேகம், பிப்., 5ம் தேதி நடைபெறுகிறது என, மாவட்ட நிர்வாகம், அதிகாரப்பூர்வமாக அறிவித்துள்ளது.

கடந்த, 1980- ஏப்., 3ம் தேதியும், 1997 ஜூன், 9ம் தேதியும், தஞ்சாவூர் பெரியகோவில் கும்பாபிஷேகம் நடைபெற்றது. 23 ஆண்டுக்கு பின், கும்பாபிஷேகத்திற்கான திருப்பணிகள் நடைபெற்று வருகின்றன.மூன்று மாதங்களுக்கு முன், அடுத்த ஆண்டு, பிப்., 5ம் தேதி, தஞ்சை பெரிய கோவில் கும்பாபிஷேகம் நடைபெறும் என, சமூக வலைதளங்களில் தகவல் பரவியது.ஆனால், மாவட்ட நிர்வாகம் அதிகாரபூர்வமாக அறிவிக்கவில்லை.கடந்த, 2ம் தேதி, பாலாலயம் நடைபெற்றது.

அப்போதும், அரண்மனை தேவஸ்தானம் அறிவிப்பு வெளியிடவில்லை. சில நாட்களுக்கு முன், ஆய்வு மேற்கொண்ட, டி.ஐ.ஜி., லோகநாதன், 'கும்பாபிஷேகம் 5ம் தேதி நடைபெறும்' என, தெரிவித்தார். ஆனால், மாவட்ட நிர்வாகம் அமைதியாக இருந்தது, சர்ச்சையை ஏற்படுத்தியது.இந்நிலையில், நேற்று முன்தினம், கலெக்டர் கோவிந்தராவ் தலைமையில் ஆலோசனை கூட்டம் நடந்தது.அப்போது, பிப்., 5ம் தேதி, காலை, 9:00 மணி முதல், 10:00 மணிக்குள் கும்பாபிஷேகமும்; பூர்வாங்க பூஜை ஜன., 27ம் தேதி காலை, 9:00 மணிக்கு துவங்கி, பிப்., 1ம் தேதி வரை நடைபெறும் என, கலெக்டர் கோவிந்தராவ் தெரிவித்தார்.

மன உளைச்சலில், 'நிர்பயா' குற்றவாளிகள் ; திஹார் சிறையில் பாதுகாப்பு தீவிரம்

Updated : டிச 15, 2019 00:51 | Added : டிச 15, 2019 00:03


புதுடில்லி : 'நிர்பயா' வழக்கில், துாக்கு தண்டனையை எதிர்பார்த்து காத்திருக்கும் நான்கு குற்றவாளிகளும், கடும் மன உளைச்சலில் இருப்பதால், அவர்களை போலீசார் தீவிரமாக கண்காணித்து வருகின்றனர்.

டில்லியைச் சேர்ந்த மருத்துவ மாணவி நிர்பயா, 2012 டிசம்பரில், கூட்டுப் பாலியல் பலாத்காரத்திற்கு ஆளாகி, மருத்துவமனையில் இறந்தார். இந்த வழக்கில், அக் ஷய், முகேஷ், பவன் குப்தா மற்றும் வினய் சர்மா ஆகியோருக்கு, 2017ல், துாக்கு தண்டனை விதிக்கப்பட்டது. இவர்கள் எந்த நேரத்திலும் துாக்கிலிடப்படலாம் என்ற நிலையில், குற்றவாளி அக் ஷய் தரப்பில், உச்ச நீதிமன்றத்தில், சீராய்வு மனு தாக்கல் செய்யப்பட்டது. இந்த மனு, நாளை மறுநாள் விசாரணைக்கு வருகிறது.

இந்நிலையில், துாக்கு தண்டனையை எதிர்பார்த்து, டில்லி திஹார் சிறையில் காத்திருக்கும் நான்கு குற்றவாளிகளும், கடும் பதற்றத்துடனும், மன உளைச்சலுடனும் காணப்படுவதாகவும், அவர்கள் உணவு உட்கொள்ளும் அளவு, வழக்கத்தை விட, மிகவும் குறைந்து விட்டதாகவும் போலீசார் தெரிவித்தனர்.இதையடுத்து, இவர்கள் தங்களை தாங்களே காயப்படுத்திக் கொள்ளவோ, தற்கொலை முயற்சியில் ஈடுபடவோ கூடாது என்பதால், ஒவ்வொரு குற்றவாளியையும், தலா நான்கு முதல், ஐந்து போலீசார் வரை, 24 மணி நேரமும், சுழற்சி முறையில் கண்காணித்து வருகின்றனர்.

மேலும், நான்கு குற்றவாளிகளும், நேற்று முன் தினம், 'வீடியோ கான்பரன்ஸ்' மூலம், நீதிமன்றத்தில் ஆஜர்படுத்தப்பட்டனர். அவர்கள் நால்வரின் அடையாளத்தையும், நீதிபதி உறுதி செய்தார்.

ஆண் நண்பர் மீது வழக்கு பதிய மனு!

நிர்பயா வழக்கில், துாக்கு தண்டனையை எதிர்பார்த்து காத்திருக்கும் நான்கு குற்றவாளிகளில், பவன் குப்தா என்பவரது தந்தை, டில்லி நீதிமன்றத்தில், மனு ஒன்றை தாக்கல் செய்தார்.அதில் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளதாவது:நிர்பயா பாலியல் பலாத்கார சம்பவத்தின் போது, அவருடன் இருந்த ஆண் நண்பரின் வாக்குமூலம், இந்த வழக்கின் தீர்ப்பில், முக்கிய பங்காற்றியது. சம்பவம் நடந்த பின், அந்த நபர், பணம் பெற்று, 'டிவி' சேனல்களுக்கு பேட்டி கொடுத்து உள்ளார்.

இப்படிப்பட்ட நபர், பொய் சாட்சியம் கூறியிருப்பதற்கும் வாய்ப்பு உள்ளது. இவர் மீது, போலீசார் வழக்கு பதிய உத்தரவிட வேண்டும்.இவ்வாறு அதில் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது.'இந்த வழக்கை, விசாரணைக்கு எடுத்துக் கொள்ளலாமா, வேண்டாமா என்பது குறித்து, வரும், 20ல் முடிவு செய்யப்படும்' என, நீதிபதி உத்தரவிட்டார்.

Day before exam, question paper leaked through teachers' Whatsapp group in Tamil Nadu

With the question papers for this exam being prepared at the district level, the School Education Department has initiated an inquiry to find which district the leaked paper is from.

Published: 13th December 2019 12:59 PM 

By Express News Service

COIMBATORE: A day before the start of the half-yearly exams for class-IX students, a question paper for the Tamil subject was leaked through a WhatsApp group for teachers.

With the question papers for this exam being prepared at the district level, the School Education Department has initiated an inquiry to find which district the leaked paper is from.

While no teacher has been held accountable for the leak yet, the question paper showing up in the WhatsApp group had many members leaving it to avoid suspicion. Screenshot of the leaked question paper on a WhatsApp group for teachers

The half-yearly exams have been scheduled to be held from December 13 to 23; Tamil is the first paper.

While the Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE) prepares the question paper for classes VI to XII for the annual/board exams, the ones for the other exams are done at the district level.

The paper that was leaked could have come from any district, pointed out Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary School Graduate Teachers Association (TNHHSSGT) District President T Arulanandham.

"If officials were to check all the question papers prepared in the districts, they would be able to find out the origin of the leaked paper. However, some private parties too prepare question paper similar to that of the districts and release it around exam time," he said.

The question paper's appearance on the WhatsApp group has had two reactions from teachers -- while some have left the group, fearing departmental action, a few seemed to have circulated the paper in other WhatsApp groups.

Even as this does not come under the purview of the DGE, its Director C Usharani said that they would be looking into this.

A senior official in the School Education Department said that the question papers were first released in Krishnagiri district but the leaked paper is not the same as the one released there. All chief educational officers have been asked to check the papers in their district, the official added.

If student takes leave, parent will get SMS

Soon parents will be able to check if their kids showed up at school by just checking mobile inbox.

Published: 14th December 2019 05:13 AM |

By N Dhamotharan

Express News Service

COIMBATORE: Soon parents will be able to check if their kids showed up at school by just checking mobile inbox. While only private schools have so far adopted the policy of alerting the parents if the students are absent, government and aided schools have decided to follow suit.

The School Education Department has asked headmasters to update the mobile numbers of parents in the students’ records on the Education Management Information System (EMIS) portal. A test run of the system is slated for January; it will be implemented in full from the next academic year. Acting upon the instructions, the headmasters started uploading/updating contact information of parents on the portal on Friday.

PG doctor bitten, beaten with slipper at Madurai GH by patient’s kin?

The incident happened at the CEmONC Block in GRH, where the Tiruchy-based postgraduate student doctor was on the duty.

Published: 15th December 2019 05:36 AM

By Express News Service

MADURAI: A 31-year-old postgraduate (PG) student doctor at the Septic Labour Theatre (SLT) in Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) was allegedly beaten up on Saturday morning by two women after they were denied entry into a sterile ward with her footwear on, to visit an expectant mother. One woman has been arrested while the other is absconding.

The incident happened at the CEmONC Block in GRH, where the Tiruchy-based postgraduate student doctor was on the duty. It is alleged that a pregnant woman’s mother-in-law G Murugeswari (52) tried to enter the ward with her slippers.

The student doctor told a staff nurse to ask Murugeswari to leave her footwear outside. But Murugeswari and her relative K Rajarajeshwari (29), reportedly barged in and abused the doctor.

The doctor’s husband said: “The duo turned violent. While Rajarajeswari hit my wife on the face with footwear, Murugeswari bit her hand. My wife bled from her ears and mouth, and fell unconscious. She is under treatment.” GRH doctors went on a strike demanding action.

Thrissur roads remain in miserable state

With the pipe laying works under AMRUT project progresses in the city, the major roads are still in a bad condition.

Published: 15th December 2019 06:58 AM 

By Gopika Varrier

Express News Service

THRISSUR: With the pipe laying works under AMRUT project progresses in the city, the major roads are still in a bad condition. The corporation had dug up roads including High Road, Pallikulam Road and Mundupalam-Sakthan Round Road for laying the pipelines. While the civic body conducted maintenance work of those roads that come under its purview, despite public protests, the PWD is yet to asphalt the roads.

Due to the bad condition of the roads leading to Swaraj Round, commuters have to bear the brunt of annoying traffic snarl-ups for hours. The bad condition of roads is also leading to a spurt in the number of accidents. This year, three people lost their lives in accidents at Sakthan Stand which forced the corporation to install a foot overbridge.

Thrissur Railway Passengers Association general secretary P Krishnakumar said a coordinated effort from all departments was necessary to bring down number of accidents. “All departments should coordinate the repair work. Technical upgrading of departments is a must so that if there are issues like pipe bursts, the officials concerned get the alert digitally and work can be started without wasting time,” he added.

Surprise inspections in Andhra Pradesh's engineering colleges to verify affiliation

Inspections in Ongole and Singarayakonda based colleges have already been completed and the rest spread across the district will be assessed soon.

Published: 15th December 2019 08:29 AM |

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University- Kakinada. (Photo | PTI)

By Express News Service

ONGOLE: Officials of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University- Kakinada (JNTU-K) and Acharya Nagarjuna University are conducting joint inspections in engineering colleges of the district affiliated to it in order to verify their affiliation and infrastructure facilities. Inspections in Ongole and Singarayakonda based colleges have already been completed and the rest spread across the district will be assessed soon.

As per reports, JNTU-K has started these random checks to assess the administrative and academic level of these colleges which receive certification from the university on fulfilling certain terms and conditions for a stipulated time period.

The State government is implementing the fee reimbursement scheme for all engineering students belonging to BPL category and in view of increased expenditure of college maintenance, all college managements are requesting the government to increase fee reimbursement amounts and as soon as possible.

“This is a common exercise underway in all JNTU affiliated engineering colleges across the State and will continue for a few more days. We are mainly checking whether the colleges are complying to the student-teacher ration as per the All India Council for Technical Education(AICTE) norms,” an official on the inspection team said.

Tamil Nadu to create database on all clinical establishments in the state

Among other objectives, the move will also help control quackery.

Published: 14th December 2019 06:23 AM |

By Sinduja Jane

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services is planning to conduct street-by-street inspection across the State, to identify unregistered clinical establishments. Officials said this would be the first time the State will collect comprehensive data on all hospitals, clinics and laboratories.

In 2018, the government enacted the Tamil Nadu Clinical Establishment Act, which mandated every hospital, clinic and laboratory, to register with the health department. The deadline for this was November 30.

The officials said those who failed to apply or whose application was rejected should be closed down by November 30. But since there is no proper data available on clinical establishments in the State, officials said they are unable to take action.

"Only if we have data, we can say how many hospitals are registered and how many failed to do so even after the deadline expired. Only then we can take action. But, since there is no data, the officials are left only with the option of conducting street by street inspection to find the violators," a health department official told Express.

"During such inspections, if we find any establishments that is not registered, we will give them two more days to complete the process," the official added.

The officials are also planning to get hospitals' data from the Union Health Ministry, which has begun the project of mapping of the hospitals across the country.

The Health department had introduced the Tamil Nadu Clinical Establishment Act, 2018, to streamline functioning of hospitals and also to control quackery. Under this Act, all establishments, including Indian Medicine and Homeopathy clinics, hospitals and laboratories, both private and government are mandated to register with the government.

The officials told Express that from June 1, 2018, till first week of October this year, 32,678 clinical establishments applied for licence. Among them, licence was given to 2,483 hospitals and clinics. The verification was completed for over 7,000 establishments.

In Chennai, licence had been issued to only around 60 hospitals. The clinical establishments which applied for licence and verification process is pending, can be considered as registered.

Snakebites claimed 3,000 lives between 2016 and 2018

The figure provided is not even the tip of the iceberg, says expert

15/12/2019, SHIV SAHAY SINGH,KOLKATA

A common krait.

More than 3,000 people died of snakebite between 2016 and 2018, data provided by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence to Parliament says.

The number of deaths in the past three years stood at 3,013 — 1,068 in 2016, 1,060 in 2017 and 885 in 2018. West Bengal with 609 deaths in the three years —138, 268 and 203 — alone accounted for 20% of the victims.

The data, tabled in the Lok Sabha on November 29 in response to a question by P.P. Chaudhary, also points to the high incidence of the cases — 1.78 lakh cases in 2016, 1.58 lakh in 2017 and 1.64 lakh in 2018. The other States with high number of deaths are Odisha with 365 (120, 147 and 98) and Madhya Pradesh 248 (113, 96 and 39). Andhra Pradesh recorded 230 deaths (28, 85 and 117) and Tamil Nadu 132 (44, 38 and 50).

The Ministry described snakebite as an “accidental/occupational hazard in tropical and subtropical countries, where rural populations are mainly affected”.

Jose Louise, who works with the Wildlife Trust of India, has along with other experts developed a web application called SERPENTS providing real time help to victims, location of hospitals and related information. He said the figures provided “are not even a tip of the iceberg.” “The actual number would be much higher. By collating newspaper reports of the past four months in certain States, I could find hundreds of deaths in only a few States,” Mr. Louise said.

Referring to a 10-year-old girl in Kerala who died of a snakebite in her school recently, he said it is good that people took note of it but such incidents happen everywhere. He said States like West Bengal are more prone to the problem as it does not produce anti-venom and sources it from Tamil Nadu.

‘Not trained enough’

Dayal Bandhu Majumdar, West Bengal’s State-level resource person for snakebite management and training, said the high number is because of high reporting of cases in the public hospitals of the State. A large number of deaths occurs because the primary health centres do not have anti-venom and doctors are not trained sufficiently to deal with bites, the doctor said. “In West Bengal since 2012 we have started in-service training of doctors to deal with bites. It should be tried across the country,” he said.

Dr. Majumdar said over 90% cases are because of the ‘Big Four’ species which are common cobra, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper and common krait.

In the reply, the Health Minister pointed out that there are five anti-venom manufacturing centres in the country.

Assam govt. employees to cease work on December 18

15/12/2019, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA,GUWAHATI

Employees of the Assam government on Saturday announced that they will cease work on December 18 in protest against the new Citizenship Act.

Sadou Asam Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) president Basab Kalita said all employees of the State will not attend offices on December 18. “We have opposed the Bill since the beginning and will continue to do so till the Act is revoked,” he said.

When members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) came to the State in May last year to take opinion of the people of Assam on the Bill, the SAKP had submitted a memorandum raising Mr. Kalita said. “We have also extended our support to the AASU in its three-day ‘Satyagraha’ from December 16,” he added.

The employees had also supported the protesting students on December 11.

Meanwhile, officials said that Internet services across the State will remain suspended till December 16 to prevent alleged misuse of social media in disturbing peace and to maintain law and order.

‘Neither the system, nor people changed since 2012 incident’

Nirbhaya’s mother says parents need to empower daughters, teach sons how to behave with girls

15/12/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,GURUGRAM

Nirbhaya’s mother on Friday said that neither the system nor the people had changed over the past seven years since the gruesome incident of rape and murder of her daughter on December 16, 2012. She said it seemed that they were still in 2012.

Speaking at a day-long annual TEDx event themed, ‘Bold + Brilliant – TEDx Gurugram Women 2019’, at Westin Hotel near IFFCO Chowk here, Nirbhaya’s mother said parents needed to empower their daughters so that they did not have to face what they had been through over the past seven years. She added that we also need to teach our boys as to how to behave with girls.

Jointly organised by Garage Society, a Hong Kong-based flexible co-working space provider, and TEDx Gurugram, the event saw participation of celebrated women working in different fields, such as media, urban transport, psychological counselling and documentary photography.


‘Equal opportunities’

“We teach our boys to be bold and courageous, but scare our girls by asking them to be cautious every time they step out. We have to remove this fear from their minds. We need to treat them at par with our sons and provide them equal opportunities for education,” she said.

Accompanied by her husband, she said her husband and elder son were her pillars of strength over all these years. She said her husband, despite working in a private firm, did not allow her to go alone for any event and had always managed to come with her.

She also recalled the family’s financial struggle and how her husband sold their ancestral land in Uttar Pradesh to provide for their daughter’s fee for a paramedical course.

In an indirect reference to the delay in execution of death sentence to the convicts in the 2012 gang rape-cum-murder case, she asked if only criminals had the human rights. “Our daughters also have some human rights,” she added.

Among others, Rahagiri Day Movement leader Sarika Bhatt; Country Director, BBC Media, Priyanka Dutt; Psychological Counsellor, Chumki Bose and Documentary Photographer Cheena Kapoor spoke on different women-related issues pertaining to their respective fields.

JNU VC says students tried to attack him

15/12/2019,NEW DELHI

JNU Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar on Saturday claimed that a group of 15-20 students surrounded him “in a violent manner” on the campus and abused and tried to attack him but the university security staff and police personnel rescued him. The university has been seeing protests over hike in hostel fees. PTI

Ramadoss reverses stand on the death penalty; wants it applied for sexual crimes

PMK leader says T.N. should take a cue from law passed by A.P.

15/12/2019, STAFF REPORTER,CHENNAI

S. Ramadoss

Despite having opposed the death penalty in the past, PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Saturday demanded that the Tamil Nadu government pass a law similar to the one adopted by Andhra Pradesh, endeavouring to conclude the trial of cases of sexual violence within 21 days.

In a statement, Dr. Ramadoss said, “The PMK had earlier advocated strongly against the death penalty. We even held conferences against it. However, the Nirbhaya case in New Delhi and the death of a 7-year-old girl in Thoothukudi in 2012 prompted a change in our stance. Those who commit gruesome sexual violence against women and children should be given the death penalty.”

Batting for a strong law against sexual crimes in T.N., akin to the one passed by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly recently, he said, “There is no doubt that the Andhra Pradesh government’s initiative is revolutionary. The A.P. law states that a charge-sheet should be filed in 7 days and the case should be heard by a court within the next 14 days. With the addition of 9 new sections to the existing law, hanging by death is prescribed as the maximum punishment for sexual violence against women and children,” he noted.

“The feeling that punishment has to be immediate is the reason why people celebrate police personnel who shoot those accused of committing such crimes. It is necessary in the times in which we live,” the PMK leader said.

He demanded that such punishment should be given to the four men accused of raping a pregnant woman in Cuddalore recently.