Officials seize 720kg of chemically ripened mangoes

Fruits worth Rs. 40,000 destroyed

The District Food Safety Wing of the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department has seized 720 kg of chemically ripened mangoes from a godown here on Tuesday.

A team of food safety officials, led by Dr. M. J. C. Bose, District Designated Officer, made a surprise inspection at the godown and found that the mango merchant had used calcium carbide to speed up ripening of mangos.

Dr. Bose said the merchant, who procured the mangos in the pre-ripening stage from Madurai had stocked them in the godown. The officials seized the mangoes, worth about Rs. . 40,000 and destroyed them in the compost yard.

Dr. Bose said mangoes ripened with calcium carbide pose serious health hazards and consumers could easily identify chemically ripened mangoes. These mangoes would be abnormal in size and would have black spots on the skin. The skin would look fully ripened but the pulp inside would be white, he said.

Consumption of artificially-ripened fruits would cause ulcer, insomnia and lack of appetite and even cancer, he warned.

Notice served

The merchant had been served with warning notice, he added.

Natural ripening was possible if the mangoes were stored along with bananas and papaya, he added.

TECH TO THE RESCUE - You don't need irritating 

drops 

for eye test anymore

Washington: PTI





Scientists have developed a cheap, portable camera that can photograph the retina without administering the irritating pupil-dilating eye drops. Made out of simple parts mostly available online, the camera's total cost is about $185, researchers from Universi ty of Illinois at Chicago said.The camera works by first emitting infrared light, which the iris -the muscle that controls the opening of the pupil -does not react to.Most retina cameras use white light, which is why pupil-dilating eye drops are needed. The infrared light is used to focus the camera on the retina, which can take a few seconds. Once focused, a quick flash of white light is de livered as the picture is taken.
“As residents seeing pati ents in the hospital, there are often times when we are not al lowed to dilate patients -neu rosurgery patients for exa mple,“ said mple,“ said Bailey Shen from UIC. The camera is based on the Rasp berry Pi 2 computer, a low cost, single-board computer designed to teach children how to build and programme computers. The board hooks up to a small, cheap infrared camera and a dual infrared and white-light-emitting dio de. A handful of other compo nents make up the rest of the camera, researchers said.





HIRING FACULTY FOR 30 ETHIOPIAN UNIVERSITIES

IAS officer and his son arrested in driver's murder 

case in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





In a new twist to the sensational murder of a driver on the terrace of an apartment complex at Rehmath Nagar, IAS officer D Venkateshwara Rao was arrested on Tuesday for his complicity in the killing of driver Nagaraju. The bureaucrat was charged with harbouring an offender and tampering with evidence.

After four days of the gruesome murder, police claimed the victim's bid to sodomise the officer's elder son D Venkata Sukruth was the trigger.

Deputy commissioner of police (west zone) said Venkata Sukruth and his father Venkateshwara Rao, joint secretary in the agriculture cooperation department at the Telangana secretariat, were arrested around 3pm.Sukruth was produced in court and remanded in judicial custody, while the IAS officer complained of giddiness.

He was shifted to Apollo hospital, where he is recovering, and might be produced in court on Wednesday . As per his confession, police said Sukruth hit the victim with a brick after Nagaraju attempted to sexually abuse him on the terrace of Sai Kalyan apartment on Friday night.

“We collected scientific evidence, based on which the two were arrested. The IAS officer, his younger son Shashank came near the apartment on Saturday to help Sukruth shift the body of Nagaraju.Shanshak's role will also be probed during the course of investigation. We will ascertain whether the victim and Sukruth had an sexual encounters in the past,'' the DCP said at a media briefing.

Immediately after the murder, Sukruth left the premises and returned after two hours when he realised that he forgot his bike key on the terrace. After that, Sukruth called his father and informed about the murder and the IAS officer enquired whether the body was moved out of the building or not.

“Since the body was not shifted, Rao and Sukruth planned how to shift the body all through Saturday . Accordingly , the trio went in an i10 car, registered in the name of IAS officer's estranged wife, to the apartment complex,“ the official said.

Police said Sukruth's bid to shift the body alerted a flat owner, Janakiram. On noticing the suspicious activity , he quizzed him about he heavy object. When the culprit suddenly started running, other flat owners screamed “Donga, Donga (burglar, burglar“.
A fruit stall owner saw Sukruth running away in one direction. On seeing him flee, Rao and Shashank too started to leave in a hurry . They got into a car and reached Madhuranagar, where Sukruth's mother stays. Sukruth, however, went to his father's house at Begumpet.

The IAS officer was arrested under sections 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen) and 212 (Harbouring offender) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).





Siddha Ph.D

POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK ACCOUNT

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