Now, get 'Chicken 65' for as low as `50 from district jail

By Anilkumar T | Express News Service | Published: 01st February 2018 01:11 AM |


Actor Manikandan inaugurating the sale of the new dishes at the Kakkanad District Jail on Wednesday | K Shijith

KOCHI: 'Chicken 65', a hot favourite among meat eaters here, will now be part of the menu of lip-smacking fare prepared by inmates of the Kakkanad District Jail under the Prison Department's 'Food for Freedom' campaign. Most importantly, the dish can be had at highly affordable rates. Besides, 'Chilli Gobi', a perennial hit with the veggies has now been included in the menu.Despite the city hotels and restaurants charging as much as `180 for the non-vegetarians' preferred choice, the public can buy 100 gm of 'Chicken 65' for as low as `50 from the counter set up in front of the jail. Chilli gobi will be available for `20 a plate. 

" At present, we will offer the new dishes on an experimental basis. Around 250 packets of 'Chicken 65' will be made available for sale through the counter in the days but based on demand we will increase it gradually," said G Chandrababu, Jail Superintendent. He said with the inclusion of new items on the menu, the jail will be able to rake in a monthly profit of at least `8 lakh.

"After starting chicken biriyani and chilli chicken sale some time back, the monthly revenue shot up from `2.5 - ` 7 lakh. Though the pilgrimage season affected the sale of the non-vegetarian items, we are expecting to do brisk business in the coming days," he said. "The new project kicked off with actor Manikandan inaugurating it on Wednesday evening," Chandrababu said.

The outlet also sells ghee rice, chicken biriyani and chicken curry and the ‘Metro Freedom’ chappathis prepared by the inmates at reasonable prices. The items are hugely popular among the public, especially among the work force at the Infopark nearby.
A plate of chicken biriyani at the food court run by the inmates costs only `60. The biriyani is sold in 500g portions.

Contempt plea in Delhi High Court against UGC, DU, other universities

By PTI  |   Published: 31st January 2018 07:11 PM  |  

NEW DELHI: A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking initiation of contempt action against the University Grant Commission and Delhi University (DU) for not complying with its decision to appoint an 'ombudsman' in all the varsities for redressal of students' grievances.

The contempt petition which came up before Justice V Kameshwar Rao listed it for hearing on February 7.

The high court had last year directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to set up a system to redress the grievances of students in all varsities, including Delhi University, within four months.

It had directed DU to "take necessary steps forthwith and appoint the ombudsman" expeditiously in terms of provisions of the UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations of 2012.

The contempt petition filed by Brajesh Singh, a law graduate, alleged deliberate and willful non-compliance of the court's February 3, 2017 order, which had said that failure of the universities to appoint an ombudsman or constitute Grievance Redressal Committees (GRC) for colleges would defeat the very object of the grievance redressal mechanism provided under the regulations.

"Over the time, GRC constituted by the varsity (DU) is merely a dead paper body in the absence of office of ombudsman and due to willful disobedience by the contemnors. Due to nonof the functioning Grievance Redressal Regulations, 2012, students of the varsity are compelled to take remedy from this court by filing writ petitions for their genuine grievances,"

the contempt plea claimed.

The high court had in its last year's order observed that all colleges and universities in the country need to have a mechanism to redress the grievances of students.

It had said that appointment of an 'ombudsman' in every university and a GRC for every college or group of colleges was "mandatory" and provided for under the Regulations.

The court had passed the ruling while disposing of a PIL filed by a former law student, alleging non-compliance of the UGC regulations with regard to appointment of ombudsman by universities, particularly the DU.

As per the regulations, the ombudsman "shall be a parttime officer appointed for a period of three years or until he attains the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier", the bench had noted in its judgement.

Emirates may allow voice calls on India flights, apart from Wi-Fi

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com
 

New Delhi: Emirates may soon allow flyers to, from and over India to make calls using their mobile phones, apart from offering onboard internet. The Dubai-based mega airline has told TOI it will seek regulatory approvals to allow “customers to connect using Wi-Fi and mobile phones over India very soon.”

Emirates’ head of customer experience Patrick Brannelly told TOI: “TRAI recommendation to allow in-flight Wi-Fi and mobile services on flights within Indian airspace is good news for our customers. We are confident that our satellite data providers will engage with the Indian authorities to establish regulatory clarity for licensing and operations, to meet necessary requirements, thereby allowing our customers to connect using Wi-Fi and mobile phones over India very soon.” About voice calls, the Emirates website says: “Make calls on your mobile just as you would when you’re on the ground. To make calls or use data on your mobile, your mobile phone or global roaming provider must have a roaming agreement with our service providers. You’ll be charged by your service provider in line with international roaming rates.”

Kochi beef row: University campus shut down indefinitely

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi: With increased tension at Cochin University College of Engineering Kuttanad (CUCEK) campus over the ‘beef row’, authorities have decided to indefinitely close down the campus. North Indian students had alleged that they were fed beef and when they protested, they were assaulted inside the campus.

“We have decided to indefinitely close down the campus from today (Wednesday). Meanwhile, we are also trying to resolve the issue,” said Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) vice-chancellor J Letha. The decision was taken after the talk between Cusat and striking north Indian students failed on Wednesday. Of the 3,500 plus students at CUCEK, around 500 are north Indians.

At the meeting, Letha said an inquiry will be conducted and the report will be submitted within four days based on which action will be taken. The students were told that if they had missed any exam over the past few days, then the university would conduct a re-exam after the inquiry.

“To ensure a safe environment for students, they were also promised police security on campus,” said an official who was present at the meeting.

However, the students didn’t agree and insisted that college principal Sunil Kumar should be immediately suspended for ‘hurting the religious sentiments of the north Indian students’. Cusat authorities rejected this demand and said action will initiated only after an inquiry is conducted.

At a camp inaugurated by the principal last Thursday, organisers offered tea and cutlets. North Indian students alleged that they were misled into eating beef cutlets by saying that the item was vegetarian.

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IN THE COURT

‘Dean gets threat for case against govt’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai: The Madras high court Madurai bench was on Wednesday told that dean-cummedical officer of the Government Medical College in Karur, S Revwathy, has been threatened by officials for opposing the government's action to appoint another person as the DME. Revwathy has been fighting for her right to get the promotional post of state’s director of medical education (DME).

Her counsel, S Alagarsamy told the court that the petitioner has been threatened by top officials of the health and family welfare department. They had allegedly threatened her saying, “You moved the court against the government’s action appointing government medical college (Coimbatore) dean A Edwin Joe as the DME, due to which we (the officials) had to drop him from the post of DME. Thus, you (petitioner Revwathy) will not retire peacefully?" Revwathy is going to retire on February 28 this year.

Med college opens genomics centre

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute and MedGenome launched a genomics centre here on Wednesday . The centre will offer a research platform for scientists and help doctors translate cutting edge Next Generation Sequencing-based genomic solutions into new and actionable patient services. A genetic health clinic will be set up that will offer counselling to patients on hereditary cancers, pregnancy-related matters and genetic and neurological disorders.

Forget easily? Put things in visual context: Expert


TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: Imagine a loaf of bread soaked in milk, grains of rice bouncing off an umbrella or a hot boiling cup of coffee being poured over your mobile phone. Instead of remembering these objects mentioned individually in the form a list, placing them in a visual and spatial context makes it automatically easier for your brain to remember them, according to international memory athlete Daniel Kilov who interacted with students at Anna University on Wednesday.

Kilov, who has won several memory championships, spoke during theinternational techno-management fest of Anna University, Kurukshetra, on the campus.

“The language of memory is association. There are two ways to remember – one is through memory for things and other being memory for words. Don’t treat your memory as a filing cabinet but as a laboratory where alchemy takes place,” said Kilov. He stated that practising recalling and testing ourselves over and over again was a better technique for embedding long-term memory rather than even writing. He also encouraged using mnemonic techniques like the ‘method of loci’ which is based on linking something to a place you are familiar with toembeditin your memory.

The fest was inaugurated by governor Banwarilal Purohit who said the fest will help bring about more industry-academia exchanges. Higher education minister K P Anbazhagan, who was also present, said the university was taking up all preparations to conduct the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions online for the first time this academic year.

This 12th edition of the fest which will continue till February 3 will feature more than 35competitive event.