Five-day Yercaud festival from May 12 

Special Correspondent 
 
SALEM, May 05, 2018 00:00 IST

The annual summer festival and the flower show in the hill station of Yercaud will be held from May 12 to 16.

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami will inaugurate the five-day festival on May 12, in the presence of Ministers Dindigul C. Srinivasan (Forest), Vellamandi N. Natarajan (Tourism) and R. Duraikannu (Agriculture).

District Collector Rohini R. Bhajibhakare held preliminary discussion with the officials on the successful holding of the event at the Collectorate on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Bhajibhakare said that all efforts have been taken for holding the summer festival in a fitting manner.

The Horticulture Department has taken steps to decorate the Anna Park with more than one lakh flowers for the flower show. Moreover, fruit show and vegetables decoration show will also form part of the festival.

The achievements of various government departments will be showcased through a special camp on all the five days. The Animal Husbandry Department will organise dog show, the Integrated Child Development Programme will conduct healthy baby contest, traditional food contest, and the Mahalir Thittam rangoli contest. Tourism Department will conduct various competitions for tourists.

The Collector directed the officials to take steps for keeping the hill station clean and tidy and garbage-free on the festival days to welcome the tourists and also create infrastructure, medical, drinking water and other facilities. The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation will operate special buses from different parts of western districts to Yercaud. She said that the usage of plastic bags and other articles have already been banned on the hill station and called upon the tourists to make the annual event a plastic-free festival.

The Forest Department has taken steps for distributing about one lakh saplings free of cost to the visiting tourists during the festival days.

R. Sukumar, District Revenue Officer, R. Sadheesh, Corporation Commissioner, Arul Jothi Arasan, project director, M. Prabhu, deputy director of horticulture, Janarthanan, District Tourist Officer and others were present.

Velankanni lodges reel under water shortage 
 
R. Krishnamoorthy 
 
Nagapattinam, May 05, 2018 00:00 IST

There has been a spurt in number of pilgrims during the summer vacation

Hotels and lodges in Velankanni are grappling with water shortage as there has been a spurt in the number of pilgrims visiting the town during the summer vacation.

While drinking water is supplied by the Velankanni town panchayat twice a week, for other purposes like washing and cleaning, the hotels and lodges are dependent on water supplied by privately operated tanker lorries.

There are over 150 small lodges within a radius of three to four kilometres from the Velankanni shrine, and their water requirement goes up substantially during the week-ends.

According to Town Panchayat sources, the number of visitors during weekdays ranges from 10,000 to 15,000, and during weekend, the turnout soars to over 20,000.

Big hotels located two to three kilometres away from the seashore have been able to dig very deep borewells, to meet their daily needs, but those within one kilometre from the coastline are not able to derive any utility of the highly saline groundwater.

"We purchase water in quantities ranging from 3,000 litres to 12,000 litres on a daily basis from tanker lorries depending on the demand situation. Fortunately, we are not yet in a situation of lowering occupancy due to shortage of water," Kannaiyan, a functionary of the Velankanni Hotel and Lodges Association said.

The water is supplied by tanker operators who have dug borewells in private lands in the surroundings of Velankanni town including Sikkal and Therku Poigainallur village.

The town panchayat that sources water from the Kollidam Combined Drinking Water Scheme has executed two large tanks with storage capacity of nearly five lakh litres from where water is supplied to the hotels and residential localities for drinking purposes once in two or three days, and, at times of acute demand, once a week.

The local body has put up RO plants, each with a capacity to process 2,000 litres of groundwater, at 19 locations, to augment water supply across the 15 wards, official sources said.

With sea water ingress on the rise over the years, the hotels are in a situation of perpetual dependence on private tanker lorries.

While stating that salt water intrusion is a constant threat to groundwater quality, Mr. Kannaiyan felt the situation could be remedied through establishment of a desalination plant.

The small lodges in the region lack the financial mite for such a project that would entail enormous costs, he said.

We purchase 3,000 litres to 12,000 litres of water on a daily basis... Fortunately, we are not yet in a situation of lowering occupancy due to shortage of water

Kannaiyan
Velankanni Hotel and Lodges Association

Card payment norm troubles engineering aspirants 
 
Karthik Madhavan 
 
COIMBATORE, May 05, 2018 00:00 IST

Use of debit or credit card to apply for admission to engineering courses through the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) 2018 process seems to have troubled a few aspirants. With the admission and counselling process going completely online this year, the aspirants will have to apply online and during the application process pay online as well.

A few aspirants found this difficult in the first two days of the application being made available online, said sources in two of the three TNEA Facilitation Centres (TFCs).

They reached the TFCs fully prepared to apply online but did not have either credit or debit card. They offered cash. But the people manning the TFCs rejected them saying that they did not accept cash and should pay only using either debit or credit cards. Or through net banking facility, said sources.

People, who offered cash to pay for the application, were under the impression that they would have to pay cash to apply, as they did in the past or did so with other institutions. For such aspirants, the people manning TFCs suggested that they call up friends or family members get their card details to complete the online application process, they added.

The other big issue was of the aspirants not having e-mail account. Anticipating the problem, the volunteers at the TFCs helped them in creating e-mail accounts as well. The other issues were wrong entries or spelling mistakes in entries and queries related to community to be entered in the application form.

A source at a TFC said the confusion was related to similar sounding communities like Vanniyars or Vaniyars. The volunteers had helped out aspirants in such issues as well.

As far as CBSE candidates were concerned, the volunteers had to tell them that they would have to wait till the publication of results as they would have to enter marks online. Plus Two students under the State Board need not wait as they could enter their 2018 Plus Two examination registration number. For, the TNEA would directly get the marks from the School Education Department based on the registration numbers entered.

The first two days saw 92 aspirants apply at the TFC at the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, 22 aspirants apply at the TFC at the Anna University Regional Centre, Coimbatore, and 141 aspirants apply at the TFC at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology.

Court declines to stay govt order on nurses’ wages 

Special Correspondent 
 
KOCHI, May 05, 2018 00:00 IST

Interim order after comprehensive hearing on petition

The Kerala High Court on Friday declined to stay the government order fixing the minimum wages of nurses working in private hospitals at Rs. 20,000.

When the petition filed by the Kerala Private Hospitals Association came up for hearing, the counsel for the association sought to stay the order. However, the court said that an interim order could be passed only after having a comprehensive hearing on the petition.

In the petition, secretary of the association Hussain Koya Thangal and others said the notification had certain procedural illegalities. According to the petitioners, the mode of fixation of minimum wages under Section 5 of the Travancore Cochin Literary Scientific and Charitable Societies Act had not been followed.

Besides, the categorisation of private hospitals based on bed strength was illegal. As per the order, the revision of minimum wages was being implemented with retrospective effect from September 1, 2017. This was against the various principles laid down by judgments of the High Court and the Supreme Court.

The petitioners pointed out that the charter of demands of the unions should have been dealt with under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. As per the provisions of the Act, when a demand for revision of wages was raised, the proper course for the government was to refer the disputes for conciliation.

If conciliation failed, a report should be forwarded and the matter should be referred to a court or tribunal. Therefore, the fixation of minimum wages should be based on the established principles of law and in accordance with the scheme of the enactment and any deviation would be illegal.

As per the order, the minimum pay for nurses working in private hospitals with a bed strength up to 100 would be Rs. 20,000. If it was implemented, it would affect several hospitals, the petitioners said.

The petitioners pointed out that there was bar on issuing a fresh notification as the writ petition questioning the revision of wages implemented in 2009 was still pending before the High Court. In fact, all coercive steps against the members of the association was stayed by the court then.

Help for NEET candidates pours in
Group In Rajasthan Offers Food, Lodging

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   05.05.2018

Even as the government announced an assistance of ₹1,000 to every student writing the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET) for MBBS admissions outside the state, several organisations as well as individuals on social media pitched in with help on Friday.

However, what hascome as a big relief for some students who reportedly got centres in Rajasthan was the support pledged by Rajasthan Tamil Sangam, a small group representing people from Tamil Nadu working and settled in that state. The organisation said it would arrange for picking up NEET candidates and parents from railway stations, bus stands and airport, provide accommodation, local transport to exam centres and drop them at the place from where they will return to Tamil Nadu.

S Muruganantham, 24, from Salem who works for Smart Cities project in Jaipur, told TOI that those who needed help could contact Rajasthan Tamil Sangam president Soundaranayagi on phone number 08696922117 or members Muruganantham (09790783187) and Bharathi – 07357023549.

In Madurai, though 14 of the 289 candidates appearing for NEET will be travelling to Ernakulam to write the examination, none could avail of the monetary benefit on Friday. This was because the education department did not have cash to give them at short notice and the schools which were asked to disburse it were also closed as it was beyond 4 p.m, when the students came there.

The TNSTC announced two special services from Tirunelveli to Ernakulam where many candidates were allotted centres on Saturday morning.

Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi Nagapattinnam said in Trichy that it had received calls from NEET candidates and were giving cash assistance to the tune of Rs 5,000 to help them reach their centres. A few coaching centres in Chennai which had trained students from across the state said a few of their students were travelling out of the state to write NEET. S.K Engineering Academy, Chennai said two of its students had been allotted centres in Kochi. “One student is from Nagarcoil and the other from Kanyakumari. They had put even their third preference as places nearby but still they don't seem to be facing any issues regarding their allotted location. They already left for Kerala from Chennai on Friday morning," said a representative of the institute.

While 82,000 students from the state wrote NEET last year, this year the numbers have increased to over 1.1lakh. NEET director Sanyam Bharadwaj said that there had been an increase of over 30% in registrations from Tamil Nadu this year. Approximately 1,000-1,500 students may have to travel outside the state to write NEET in other centres.

CBSE sources said that students would be allotted centres as per their second or third preferred locations given in the application forms if not within the state. Education department officials meanwhile said that 39 students from government and government aided schools will be writing out of Tamil Nadu (in Kerala and Karnataka).

With inputs from Chennai, Trichy, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tirunelveli. 



BULGING NUMBERS: While 82,000 students from the state wrote NEET last year, more than 1.1 lakh students are appearing this year

Will boycott MCI inspections if forced to pose as profs: Docs
Claim Govt Hoodwinked MCI For College Permissions

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai 05.05.2018

:The state health department has misrepresented associate doctors as professors for five years in order to renew ‘permission’ for continuing MBBS courses in many of its 22 medical colleges. The false representation was made to the Medical Council of India despite 50% vacancies in professor posts.

The issue came to light, on Friday when the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association launched a “non-cooperation” protest ahead of inspections by the MCI.

Association president Dr K Senthil announced on Friday that government doctors will boycott the upcoming inspections in government colleges if the directorate of medical education forces associate professors to pose as professors for the day. More than 500 of the 1,020 professor posts in the 22 medical colleges are vacant, he said.

This serious shortage of faculty may lead to de-recognition of colleges during the MCI inspection in the ensuing months. “Every year, assistant and associate professors are posted as ‘professors’ in these colleges for a day. They appear before the inspection committee and return to their regular posts a day after inspection,” Dr Senthil said. In many medical colleges, students have no professors in several departments. “This fraudulence won’t happen again even it means that the state medical colleges have to lose recognition,” he said.

Director of medical education Dr A Edwin Joe admitted that the process for promotions was halted five years ago when the government found anomalies in several promotions.

“We have now prepared a revised list. It has sent to the health department for approval. We will fill the all posts by month-end,” he said.

In 2015, after former chief minister J Jayalalithaa announcement in the assembly promotion orders were issued orders for 157 doctors. No promotion orders were issued after that.

The association’s demand to speed up the promotion orders is pending with the government for the last five years. In 2017, when association told the government doctors would boycott inspections, the government promised to work on resignations. That did not happen, said association secretary Dr N Ravishankar. “The shortage is high in newer colleges of rural areas. We have adequate number of qualified doctors, but the state has not promoted them as professors. In most cases, doctors’ salary doesn’t even change much despite promotion. More than 200 associate professors who have worked for nearly 25 years retired without promotions,” he said.

1:22 MBBS & engg seat gap a concern: Kovind

Shanmughasundaram.J@timesgroup.com

Vellore: 05.05.2018

There is an urgent need to bridge the gap in the number of healthcare professionals in the country and to reform medical education, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Friday.

Inaugurating the centenary celebrations of medical education programmes at Christian Medical College (CMC) here, he said there were 15 lakh undergraduate engineering seats in the country, but only 67,352 UG medical seats. “And about 20% of those seats have been added in the past four years. As a country and a system, we need to address this gap,” he said.

Stating that TN had exceptional health indicators and was a model for the rest of the country, the President said institutions like the CMC had contributed a lot to the state acquiring this reputation. “The principles that must guide public health are equity and efficiency, quality and quantity and access and affordability. Healthcare is a service. Yes, it is also a business, but there is no greater business than saving a life,” he said.


Award row: Prez office moves PMO

Upset by the controversy over 55 awardees keeping away from national film awards event, Rashtrapati Bhavan is believed to have conveyed its unhappiness to the PMO over the shortcomings of the I&B ministry, which was informed of the President’s reluctance to be part of lengthy award functions. P 15

Prez praises CMC for taking up research on rotavirus vaccine

Hailing Ida Sophia Scudder, the founder of CMC, the President said health indices were very poor and average life expectancy was just about 24-year when the country was under colonial rule. “One person died every minute of tuberculosis and one in four babies died in first year and epidemics and diseases were rampant and Independence was still a dream,” he said.

“It was in such an India that Ida Sophia Scudder devoted her life to healthcare and set up a medical school in 1918,” he said, adding that the institution she founded had a justifiable reputation for excellence.

The country’s first reconstructive surgery on leprosy patients was carried out in CMC and so was the first successful open heart surgery and the first kidney transplant, Kovind said. He also lavished praise on the institute for taking up research on the rotavirus vaccine, hepatitis, malnutrition, bio-engineering and stem cells that underlined its commitment to research that is relevant to the country’s health needs.

In his address, deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha P J Kurien said institutions like the CMC deserved all the support and encouragement they could get from the government of the day.

Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit released a book, ‘Healing for the Nation,’ as part of the celebration.

Vellore collector S A Raman, director of CMC Dr Peter and principal of the institution Dr Anna B Pulimood were also present.

Later in the day, the President inaugurated the kidney transplant and cardiac unit in Sri Narayani Hospital and Research Centre and offered prayers at the Golden Temple. He planted saplings on the Golden Temple premises and took part in a yagam.