3 flights nearly end up on same runway at Mumbai airport

Manju.V@timesgroup.com

Mumbai 26.05.2018

: An Air India aircraft less than two minutes to touchdown at Mumbai airport was told by air traffic control to pull up and go around after the controller noticed an IndiGo aircraft on the ground, waiting to depart, had begun moving to enter the active runway. The Tuesday night runway incursion incident is being investigated by the Indian civil aviation regulator.

The incident occurred at around 9.45 pm, during the evening peak hour at the congested Mumbai airport which handles about 950 takeoffs and landings in 24 hours, all on a single operational runway. Since May 17, a navigation aid called the Instrument Landing System (ILS), which eases the workload of air traffic controllers and pilots during landing, has been switched off and so air traffic congestion was high.

At 9.42 pm, an Alliance Air ATR aircraft operating Flight 91651to Bhavnagar was holding on taxiway N3, while an IndiGo A320 operating Flight 6E 5153 to Kolkata was holding on taxiway N1. Both aircraft were holding short of runway 27 and both pilots were awaiting ATC instructions to enter runway 27 to take off. At the same time, an Air India A321 aircraft flying in from Ahmedabad was on final approach to land on runway 27.

The ATC asked the Alliance Air commander to enter runway 27, line up and wait. Pilots read back the instructions given to them by air traffic control. “But both the pilots read back the instructions, one after another,’’ said a source. Seconds later, the tower controller saw both aircraft moving to enter the runway. “When Alliance Air was passing 800 feet, the Air India aircraft was at 1,400 feet about 5 km behind. The Air India aircraft then turned left, as instructed by the controller. A minimum vertical separation of about 1,000 feet and horizontal separation of about 5.5 km are required to be maintained between two aircraft,’’ said the source.

R K Saxena, general manager (air traffic management), Mumbai airport, denied that there was a breach of minimum separation between the Alliance Air and Air India aircraft at any point An IndiGo spokesperson said: “The Indi-Go flight was advised to enter runway 27 for departure. While entering the runway, the IndiGo pilot saw another aircraft lining up on runway 27. Our pilot stopped the aircraft at the holding position.’’


NARROW ESCAPE: Air planes of Air India, IndiGo & Alliance Air were involved in the fiasco

AIIMS BHOPAL Adv. toi 26.05.2018

Govt bus set ablaze with passengers inside
Elderly Man, Wife Among Three Injured

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai/Coimbatore: 26.05.2018

A group of men torched a TNSTC bus in Tuticorin on Friday evening, even before all the passengers could climb down, leaving three with burns.

The police identified the injured as Sudalaikannu, 70, and his wife Valliammal of Meignanapuram and Jabakumar, 25, of Karaikudi, adding that Valliammal had suffered serious burns.

The incident occurred during the statewide bandh called by opposition parties to protest against Tuesday’s police firing during the anti-Sterlite protests and the arsonists are suspected to be members of groups or parties supporting the bandh.

The bus was on its way to Tirunelveli from Udankudi when three men on two bikes forced the driver to pull over to the side at Karungulam bridge near Srivaikundam. After attacking and chasing away the lone policeman on guard there, the trio stormed into the bouse, emptied a can of petrol over the rear seat and set a match to it even before all the 49 passengers had got down.

In Coimbatore, the bandh was near total with almost 80% of shops and commercial establishments downing shutters in the district. But for essential services like pharmacies, even small eateries and hotels remained closed till evening. While government buses plied as usual, a section of private buses and majority of autorickshaws, whose drivers are affiliated to trade unions led by some of the opposition parties, kept off the roads. Government offices, however, functioned as usual though the number of public visiting them was low. There were sporadic protests mostly by DMK workers condemning the arrest of working president MK Stalin in Chennai. Advocates boycotted the courts for the second day while farmers stayed away from the monthly grievances redressal day meeting at the collectorate. Tamil Maanila Congress chief G K Vasan, who was in Coimbatore, told reporters that shutting down the Sterlite copper smelter plant in Tuticorin was the only solution to quell the protests. “Rather than approaching the issue with a political perspective, the government should handle it with a humanitarian perspective. The plant should be immediately shutdown and the arrested protesters released,” he said.

In Madurai, the respose was lukewarm with a majority of shop owners and commuters going about their business as usual. About 90% of the shops remained open. A modicum of support was seen in the rural pockets of the district as 20% of the shops downed shutters. As public transport services were not affected seriously, people faced no trouble in reaching their workplace.

Net connection restored

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Friday cancelled its order blocking internet services in Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts. As for Tuticorin, a decision would be taken later depending on the situation. The decision to resume internet services in the neighbouring districts was taken after the situation turned normal in the wake of violence and police firing in Tuticorin. “The government decides to rescind the internet blockade in Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts following a report from the director general of police on the situation improving in these two districts,” said a communique from home secretary Niranjan Mardi to DGP, IG-intelligence and DDG, Term Cell, Tamil Nadu circle. The order said the government had to block the services to prevent further violence. TNN 


REDUCED TO ASHES: The bus had 49 passengers when it was set afire

Bank manager in trouble over dubious deposits

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore: 26.05.2018
J Arul Selvi of a self-help group (SHG) named Everest Magalir Kuzhu who sells idli dough was surprised to find that ₹9 lakh deposited into her savings bank account in March. But she was shocked recently to find that the same amount has been deducted from the account of her SHG.

“The amount was deposited in two instalments — ₹4.5 lakh on March 26 and equal amount on March 28,’’ she said. Exactly a week later, the entire amount was withdrawn and deposited back into the SHG account from her personal account. It was not just her account where such dubious transactions had taken place. Funds were transferred from 14 SHG accounts to the members’ personal accounts and then transferred back, all in the month of March in Nilambur town panchayat in Coimbatore.

SHG women said that the transactions ranged from ₹4.5 lakh to ₹20 lakh. They were perplexed at the unauthorised transactions more so because the cash was not swindled but returned to their SHG accounts. Now a probe has found that it was a bank manager who did these dubious transactions driven by annual targets and show adequate number of bank transactions.

The deputy general manager of Canara bank, Coimbatore district, D Ganeshan, conducted an enquiry at the Nilambur branch of the bank on Friday. He accepted that the irregularity had taken place.

“We will take disciplinary action against the manager T R Radha and conduct a detailed enquiry,” he said. The inquiry also revealed that the manager was doing this for the past seven months. But SHG women were in the dark till now since they neither got any SMS in their phone. Nor were they allowed to make entries in their passbook even for their personal transactions.

When K Ramamurthy, a social worker, got to know about it, he wrote to the bank seeking details. “But Radha refused to reply to the letter. After much persistence, the bank agreed and gave pass books of 15 SHGs with updated financial transaction history. It was then that the women realized that such transactions were made.”

Saradha Mani of the group named Annai Teresa Mahalir Kuzhu said there were about 60 such SHGs that had an account in that branch. “It was only this month that we got to know that the money is being taken from my account. We were worried as we could be in trouble with the government for such dubious transactions. We were also scared if the money was being misused,” she said.

While for some only one such transaction had taken place, for a few two or three transactions took place.

The bank does an average transaction of about ₹40 crore every year and the irregularity is about ₹42 lakh in these 14 accounts.

Ganesan, however, said no money was credited from any external account nor was SHG money siphoned off. “We generally set targets of 10-15% increase in transactions every year. So, the manager wanted to show higher transactions to meet targets. But transferring money and taking them back without the permission of the account holder is unacceptable,” he said. There are totally 59 branches in the district and the official said they will conduct enquiries in all of them. 

Kerala CM seeks probe into ‘organ theft’ by Salem hosp
Hosp: Organs Harvested With Kin’s Consent

Salem: 26.05.2018

A day after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan sought a probe into the complaint against a private hospital in Salem in connection with removing internal organs of a brain-dead patient from his state, the hospital authorities on Friday denied any foul play and said the organs had been harvested with the family members’ consent.

The younger brother of the deceased also confirmed that the organs were harvested with their consent, but he said there was something dubious about performing the postmortem at night as that was unusual.

Pinarayi had on Thursday had written to chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, urging him to order a probe into the complaint lodged by the family members of P Manikandan, 24, of Meenakshipuram in Palakkad district in Kerala, whose organs were allegedly removed before his body was handed over to the kin.

As per the letter, Manikandan and six others were injured in an accident near Kallakkuruchi in Villupuram district on May 18 while they were returning to Meenakshipuram from Chennai. They were admitted to the Vinayaka Mission Super Specialty Hospital in Salem, the same day.

Hospital sources said the condition of P Manikandan and A Manikandan was critical. Others, identified as A Pambavaasan, 18, S Karthick, 23, V Vigneswaran, 16 and K Govindan, 24, had received only minor injuries.

On May 20, doctors declared P Manikandan braindead and put him on ventilator. According to the Kerala chief minister’s letter, the hospital authorities demanded from his kin ₹3 lakh towards treatment charges and another ₹25,000 for taking the body to Meenakshipuram. Since the family didn’t have the amount, they were asked to sign a few papers, it said.

Dr V P Chandrasekaran, chief operating officer of VIMS, told TOI that the organs were harvested with the consent from the kin of the deceased and after informing the Tamil Nadu Network for Organ Sharing.

Subsequently, kidneys, corneas, liver, intestines, pancreas, heart and lungs were harvested and sent to Fortis Hospital and Global Hospital in Chennai, KMCH in Coimbatore and Manipal Hospital in Salem. The hospital also used one. 

PMK leader ‘Kaduvetti’ Guru dies of lung infection

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 26.05.2018
PMK leader and Vanniyar Sangam chief J Gurunathan (referred to as Kaduvetti’ Guru by partymen), the firebrand speaker, known for his hate speeches, breathed his last at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai where he was undergoing treatment for lung infection. He was 58 and had several criminal cases pending against him, most of which were in connection with murders or for his hate speeches.

A two-time PMK MLA, having been elected from Andimadam in 2001 assembly election and from Jayankondam in the 2011 assembly election, Guru was the righthand man for party’s founder S Ramadoss, who gave a free-hand for Guru at party meetings to hit out at political opponents and against some within the party. He unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Tiruvannamalai constituency, part of the Vanniyar belt in north Tamil Nadu.

Born on February 1, 1961, Guru belonged to Kaduvetti, a village in Ariyalur district. It was P T Elangovan, PMK’s MP from Dharmapuri (1999-2004), who introduced Guru into Vanniyar Sangam in the 80s. But, the latter’s strongman tactics brought him closer to Ramadoss, as Guru helped the Sangam establish its roots in the Ariyalur belt as well as neighbouring districts. His rise was meteoric, when he succeeded P T Arulmozhi, elder brother of Elangovan, as chief of Vanniyar Sangam in 2001-02.

He was a rabble-rouser and had no fears hitting out against powerful leaders like former chief ministers M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, whose government jailed him under the National Security Act (NSA) in May, 2013. 

Ramzan homework with a message: Do chores, earn money, give to poor

Kamini.Mathai@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 26.05.2018

At this city school, the month of Ramzan isn’t only about fasting and feasting but also that time of the year when students are instructed to be busy on their feet.

At Al Qamar Academy in Chennai, lessons on the meaning and significance of Ramzan are accompanied with a chore sheet for students, a list of things they can do at home, to ease parents’ workload as well as earn a little money for charity. “We explain to the children about how they need to help their parents who may feel tired as they are fasting during this month. The younger children are asked to do chores around the house like watering the plants or folding clothes while the older ones are asked to help with the cooking or sweeping the house,” says Aneesa Jamal, principal of the school in Kottivakkam. “Parents are asked to pay them small amounts like ₹5 for each chore,” adds Aneesa. This year, the school has identified 14 mosques to help.

At the end of the week or month, the money collected is either used to buy dates distributed at mosques for the daily iftar or to help the lesser privileged in the community, says Aneesa, who adds that this practice has been followed in the school for more than five years now.

“The school gives each student a clay pot into which parents deposit the money we earn from our chores,” says Samreen Saleemudeen, who has just completed her Class X at Al Qamar.

“It’s fun to break the pot at the end of the month and see how much money we have earned,” adds Samreen.

But for Samreen, over the years, doing the chores has become more than a mere fun activity, it has become a way of life. “During this month I collect money for the work I do, but the chores have now become a force of habit with me. I’ve begun helping my parents and doing work around the house the rest of the year as well, because I want to,” adds Samreen, who helps out by sweeping and washing utensils. “For the past few years I have begun fasting as well, so this ‘homework’ has also made me understand how hard my parents work,” she says. 



JOY OF GIVING: Students with packets of dates to be distributed to the poor