Karur medical college submits proposal to DME to admit students 

C. Jaisankar 
 
KARUR, June 21, 2018 00:00 IST

Directorate to seek permission from Medical Council of India

The Directorate of Medical Education (DME) will soon submit a proposal to Medical Council of India, seeking its nod for admission of students to Karur Government Medical College for 2019-20.

Rosy Vennila, Dean, Karur Medical College, told The Hindu that as the head of the college, she had submitted the proposal with the DME. After due process, it would soon be forwarded to MCI. It had been planned to admit 150 students in the first year.

Dr. Vennila said indications were that the MCI team would visit Karur in September to inspect the infrastructure.

Besides inspecting the new premises of the college at Sanapiratti, where construction works were on, the team would also visit the existing Government Hospital in Karur. The hospital had already been made part of Karur Medical College.

Construction works

The construction works were making steady progress. The departments of anatomy, physiology and bio-chemistry were required for conducting classes for first year MBBS students. Hence, construction works for these departments would be completed within three months.

Similarly, the administrative building and students hostels would be ready by the time the MCI team visited the hospital.

Exuding confidence on getting MCI nod for starting the college, Dr. Vennila said the present Government Hospital at Karur had 400 beds.

It had more than 70 doctors, including specialists, in various departments. The hospital, started in 1920, had been performing high-end surgeries. On an average, it received 1,500 to 1,800 outpatients daily.

The GH premises was part of Karur Medical College. The available infrastructure was more than the standard requirements of MCI.

In addition to 400 beds, additional blocks with 700 more beds would be established at the new premises. All works would be completed before classes began for first year in 2019-20.

Court hears bribery case 

Staff Reporter 
 
DINDIGUL, June 21, 2018 00:00 IST



Collector T.G. Vinay coming out of the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Dindigul on Wednesday.

G. Karthikeyan

Collector T.G. Vinay on Wednesday appeared before the Chief Judicial Magistrate court and recorded his statement in connection with a bribery case pertaining to 2016.

He was examined by the prosecution and cross examined by defence counsel M. Kannappan as a first witness out of total 14 witnesses in this case.

He had given the sanction order to the police to prosecute the case and act further.

Velusamy, a junior assistant at Keeranur Town Panchayat office near Palani was nabbed while accepting bribe from one Kalimuthu who had applied for a building plan approval. The junior assistant had reportedly demanded a bribe of Rs. 9,000.

Acting on a complaint from Kalimuthu, sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption set a trap and caught him red-handed while receiving the bribe.

Find alternatives to Jet Airways flights: CII 

Staff Reporter 
 
COIMBATORE, June 21, 2018 00:00 IST


Trade body says withdrawal of flights will hit businesses

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has written to the Ministry of Civil Aviation to fill the gap in flight connectivity for Coimbatore with Chennai and Bengaluru in view of Jet Airways’ move to withdraw seven daily services to the two metros from July 1. It has also sought the intervention of Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, as he represents Tamil Nadu in the Central Government.

M. Ramesh, chairman of CII Coimbatore zone, said the withdrawal of the services to Bengaluru and Chennai would affect the industry and frequent travellers in the region.

“Flights to the two cities are always witnessing more than 90 % occupancy, proving the patronage. The withdrawals of seven services to these cities in prime slots will have a big impact as many businesses in the region are aligned with the operation of these flights. We request the ministry and other airlines to have alternative services to fill the gap,” said Mr. Ramesh.

Ravi Sam, former chairman of CII, said the issue was brought to the notice Mr. Pon Radhakrishnan and he had agreed to take all possible efforts to tide over the problem. S. Narayanan, immediate past chairman of CII, said the withdrawal of the services had left room for other operators to make use of the prime slots connecting Coimbatore with Chennai and Bengaluru. He, however, pointed out that the announcement made at a short notice caused concern. R. Ramamurthy, vice president of CODISSIA, said the fares of flights operating to Chennai and Bengaluru might increase owing to Jet Airways’ decision.The services to be suspended by Jet Airways are four ATR 72-500 flights (roughly 70 seats each) operating to Chennai and three similar flights operating to Bengaluru, which would result in the loss of close to 30,000 seats (two way) a month on the two sectors.

Cancer survivors celebrate hospital’s achievement 

Special Correspondent 
 
Chennai, June 21, 2018 00:00 IST



Prathap C. Reddy, executive chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, with a child who underwent a transplant. 

Apollo marks 1,000th bone marrow transplant

Manimegalai was pregnant and happy.

However, the joy of starting a family was short-lived for the 30-year-old Sub-inspector of the Commercial Criminal Investigation wing in Tiruvarur, when she went for treatment for high fever. A series of tests followed and she learnt that she had acute myeloid leukaemia, a form of blood cancer.

All she wanted was to be treated and hoped that she could have a healthy baby. “My department was helpful. I have medical insurance which I used. The people in the district donated a day’s salary. All of this was pooled and my family sold some land for the treatment,” she said.

That was in 2012 and her baby, weighing 1.5 kg, was born through Caesarean section. She received an autologous bone marrow transplant and seven sessions of chemotherapy.

At an event organised by the Apollo Hospitals to mark the 1,000th bone marrow transplant performed by the institution, she said, “I am 100% cured of blood cancer.” Several patients from countries such as Tanzania, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also shared their experiences at the event.

Prathap C. Reddy, executive chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group, said he had set up the hospital to enable middle class people who could not afford to travel to America for heart surgeries that could cost as much as $50,000. Today it cost about $3,500 in India, he said.

More post offices offer Aadhaar enrolment 

K. Lakshmi 
 
CHENNAI, June 21, 2018 00:00 IST


Brisk service:Postal staff have been trained to offer services related to Aadhaar cards.K. Pichumani 

Around 43,500 people have either enrolled or updated their details this year in region: Postmaster-General

Residents may have better access to Aadhaar enrolment and related services now. The Department of Posts has increased the number of post offices offering the services manifold in the last two months in the State.

There are nearly 2,833 post offices across the State. Of this, nearly 1,435 post offices now allow residents to enrol for Aadhaar or update their information. Officials of the Postal Department said more post offices were empanelled due to growing demand. The number of post offices providing the service has gone up from a mere 120 in April across the State.

R. Anand, Postmaster-General, Chennai city region, said about 43,500 people had either enrolled or updated their details so far this year in the region, including Vellore and Puducherry. Residents can approach 316 post offices in Chennai city region for the service.

However, a few residents complained about mistakes in updating data in Ambattur post office that has delayed the process for over a month now. Responding to the complaints, Mr. Anand said about 1,300 postal staff members had been trained for Aadhaar transactions and the issue would be looked into.

Staff agitation

Members of the All India Postal Employees Union wore black badges to work on Wednesday and participated in demonstrations across the State protesting against the inadequate infrastructure.

J. Ramamurthy, the union’s circle president, said the department had undertaken core system integration, which was expected to bring all postal services under online platform. But, instead of increasing speed of transactions, it had only delayed the process and affected customers.

Statutory bail only if police err: HC 
  Mohamed Imranullah S. 
 
CHENNAI, June 21, 2018 00:00 IST


Refuses to grant such bail on any other ground but for delay in completing inquiry

Grant of statutory bail to an accused due to the failure of the police to complete investigation within the stipulated time “is a sort of a rap on the knuckles of the police”. Therefore, such a bail cannot be granted on other grounds such as failure of a judicial magistrate to pass a formal judicial order on an application filed by the police for extension of judicial remand period, the Madras High Court has ruled.

Justices M. Venugopal and P.N. Prakash held so while dismissing criminal appeals preferred by five individuals seeking statutory bail in cases booked against them by National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges of planting bombs to kill prominent personalities in Madurai and Puducherry in 2014. Thiruselvam, Kaviarasan, Kalai alias Kalailingam, Karthick and John alias John Marteen were the five appellants.

The judges held that statutory bail, also known as default bail, could be granted only if the police had failed to submit a final report, after completing the investigation, within the statutory period prescribed for different kinds of offences and not on other grounds such as mistakes committed by judicial officers. “The maxim Actus Curiae Neminem Gravabit — an act of the court shall prejudice no one — cannot be ignored.

‘No provision in law’

“This court cannot hold that failure of a Magistrate/judge to pass judicial orders on extension of remand applications would entail default bail to the accused and thus invent an hitherto unknown new category of default bail. Such a ground for bail cannot be founded either under Section 167(2) or under Section 437 Code of the Criminal Procedure,” Mr. Justice Prakash said while penning the judgment for the Division Bench.

The appellants were suspected to be members of Tamilar Viduthalai Padai and to have played a role in planting a pipe bomb under the car of the incumbent Chief Minister of Puducherry V. Narayanaswamy in July 2014. They were also accused of having planted a similar bomb near a supermarket on the outskirts of Madurai in the same year. Both these cases got transferred from the local police to the NIA.

AIIMS will fulfill long-felt need in south Tamil Nadu, says doctor 

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published Jun 21, 2018, 2:23 am IST

The institute should be equipped with adequate infrastructure in terms of doctors and medical machinery. 


Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, revenue minister R.B.Udayakumar and Madurai Collector K.Veera Raghav Rao inspect the place in Thoppur, near Madurai, where AIIMS will come up soon, on Wednesday. (Photo:DC)

CHENNAI: The decision to establish a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Thoppur in Madurai will fulfill the long-felt need for such an institute of medical excellence in south Tamil Nadu, according to Dr. S. Gurushankar, chairman, Meenakshi Mission Hospital, Madurai.

Hailing the Centre and state government for taking steps to ensure the institute, he said the new AIIMS, once completed, would give a big boost to healthcare infrastructure of the state. “It will help correct regional imbalances in the availability of affordable, high-quality healthcare and medical education. Both patients and medical students will benefit,” he said.

Pointing out that the newly announced AIIMS for other parts of the country have faced delays in completion and unfulfilled vacancies, Dr. Gurushankar urged the government to ensure “proper planning” and execute the project.

“The government should ensure that the AIIMS at Madurai is completed on time and opened to the public as soon as possible. The institute should be equipped with adequate infrastructure in terms of doctors and medical machinery,” he said and added that there should be special focus on setting up super-specialties like cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology and pulmonology.

This will enable patients from the region to avail advanced medical care nearer their homes and not travel to big cities for treatment.

AIIMS a boon for southern districts: Pon Radhakrishanan
AIIMS will be a boon for Tamil Nadu, and particularly the people of 13 districts in and around Madurai would benefit from it, Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishanan has said.

Expressing happiness over the Centre’s announcement to establish AIIMS at Thoppur in Madurai, Mr. Radhakrishnan told reporters after visiting the site at Thoppur on Wednesday that the foundation stone laying function for the institute would be held soon. “This has brought a great honour to the Tamils, especially when it is going to come up in Madurai. We should be thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this,” he said.

Meanwhile, District Collector Veeraraghava Rao said about 200 acres of land to set up the institute would be handed over to the Central government for AIIMS, once the Government Order is issued. The government would provide all the support required for establishing the AIIMS, including power and water supply, he added.

Lauding the announcement, BJP state president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan said the BJP-led government would initiate more such projects for the betterment of Tamil Nadu.

State Revenue Minister R. B. Udayakumar exuded confidence that the AIIMS project will take off smoothly. “We have more land than is required for the project,” he expressed. State Cooperation Minister Sellur K. Raju thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami for brining the project to Madurai.