‘Law makes helmet wearing mandatory, not the court’

Mohamed Imranullah S.

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 00:00 IST



The judges insisted on creating greater awareness among motorists.
The Division Bench calls for status report by October 23

The Madras High Court on Thursday made it clear that it was not the court but the law that requires two-wheeler riders as well those who travel pillion to wear helmets. The police cannot pass the buck to the courts as it was actually the men in uniform who were supposed to implement the law in letter and spirit, it pointed out.

A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad said: “Respondents (Director General of Police and others) are bound to enforce the law and not to give an impression as if it is the court which insists on wearing helmets by riders and pillion riders and that no duty is cast upon them to implement the law.”

The judges went on to state: “Rider or pillion is vulnerable to sustain head injuries in road accidents. Wearing of helmet would reduce the possibility of an accident becoming fatal. A rider or pillion may not be aware of the laws or even ignore the safety measure but that does not mean the government has no role in enforcing the safety measure.”

Taking note of 41,330 lives lost and 62,413 people having suffered head injuries between 2005 and 2014 apart from 42,53,038 cases booked during the period against motorists for not wearing helmets, the judges said such deaths and head injuries could be prevented by taking a simple precaution of wearing a helmet.

Though the State government had taken cognisance of the need to enforce the law on wearing helmets and issued a G.O. on February 22, 2007 directing the police to strictly implement the rule, the order “unfortunately remains only in files,” they added. The judges also insisted on creating greater awareness among the motorists.

“Despite the alarming figures (of deaths and head injuries), the State government is claiming that steps are being taken to bring about awareness,” the Division Bench said and directed the Home Secretary as well as the DGP to enforce the 2007 GO with “full rigour.” It also sought a status report on the action taken by October 23.

The DGP had filed a report in the court stating that cases were booked against 2.72 lakh two-wheeler riders and 2.79 lakh pillion riders between August 23 and September 16 this year for not wearing helmets. It was also reported that 14,622 awareness programmes were conducted in public places and 882 in school and colleges during the period.

Further, 3,92,828 cases were registered against passengers of four wheelers for not wearing seat belts and a fine amount of Rs. 3,66,37,266 was collected during this year. As many as 9,08,033 two-wheeler riders and 2,74,988 drivers were provided counselling on the need to wear helmets and seat belts, the report claimed.

Southern suburbs gear up for rain

K.LakshmiT.Madhavan

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 00:00 IST


Water Resources Department chalks out plan to manage sub basins in Kancheepuram district

Several flood-prone areas in the city’s southern suburbs may soon be better equipped to face intense rainfall during monsoon. The Water Resources Department plans to fill in the missing links identified in water channels and surplus courses, which had made many localities susceptible to flooding.

After the 2015 floods that severely affected the southern suburbs, the WRD has chalked out a proposal for comprehensive management of sub basins in Kancheepuram district. As the entire project seeking a fund of nearly Rs. 1,000 crore is awaiting financial assistance, the department has taken up 11 projects to provide defined courses linking waterbodies and deepening lakes as part of flood protection measures. Nearly Rs. 100 crore would be spent towards the first phase of the project covering highly vulnerable areas.

One of the major projects is construction of a 760 m-long channel from Narayanapuram lake to Pallikaranai swamp near the Dr. Kamakshi hospital at a cost of Rs. 20 crore. Officials of the WRD noted that there was no defined course beneath the lake and such channels in the southern suburbs were running over patta lands that were later regularised. “We decided to construct box channels to avoid land acquisition that would further delay the project. We would incur enormous cost to acquire land for 6 m width over a 7- km long stretch,” said an official. This would mitigate inundation in areas such as Pallikaranai and Sunnambu Kolathur.

Diversion of water

Similarly, flood drain channels will be constructed to divert water from Chitlapakkam tank to Sembakkam tank, Adanur tank to Adyar river, Mudichur Road underpass along service road to Adyar river. The Pappan Channel would also be widened and a channel would be constructed from Mudichur Road junction to Adyar river.

Waterbodies in Manimangalam, Adanur, Guduvanchery, Urapakkam and Nanmangalam would also be deepened to improve storage capacity and reduce flooding up to 25% in neighbouring localities. “We also plan to form a reservoir near Orathur. This will help transfer of water to Manimangalam tank. We will also be able to store up to 1,000 million cubic feet of water in a year. This could be supplied to water-starved areas such as Anakaputhur and Pammal,” the official said.

Minor tanks

Now, minor tanks would be provided a facility to regulate water flow like in reservoirs. “We will reduce water level prior to heavy rainfall days to avoid flooding or breach,” the official added. Work is expected to start in mid-October and be completed in six months.

Meanwhile, residents said the waterbodies and watercourses must be restored to their original shape as found in the revenue villages’ maps and records. They also recalled that the Chief Minister had announced Rs. 96 crore for Chitlapakkam flood mitigation work.

Social activist P. Viswanathan noted that residents of the southern stretch of Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat were affected every year due to decreased capacity of waterbodies in Selaiyur and Chitlapakkam and also obstructions in water channels. He said work to construct a channel from Chitlapakkam Tank to Sembakkam Tank must be taken up immediately.

‘Forgotten switch’ leads to on-flight scare

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 00:00 IST

Passengers on the Mumbai-Jaipur flight wearing oxygen masks on Thursday.PTI 

Jet Airways passengers suffer nosebleed, headache after cabin pressure drops

Nearly 30 passengers on board a Jet Airways plane bound for Jaipur suffered nose-bleed and many others complained of headache during takeoff from Mumbai on Thursday after the pilots allegedly forgot to switch on a button that helps maintain cabin air pressure, said safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The drop in cabin pressure forced the pilots to return to the Mumbai airport, where five passengers underwent medical examination. There were 166 passengers on board flight 9W697, which took off at 5.55 am.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has ordered an inquiry into the incident, and the airline has de-rostered the pilots and an aircraft maintenance engineer.

During the climb, the crew allegedly forgot to select the bleed switch, due to which cabin pressure could not be maintained, a senior DGCA official said. “As a result, oxygen masks got deployed. Thirty passengers had nosebleed, a few bled from the ear and some had headache,” the official said.

Drop in oxygen levels

Turning on the bleed switch results in release of air from the engine used to maintain oxygen inside the aircraft and to provide air conditioning. However, pilots briefly turn off the switch during takeoff to use maximum engine thrust; they then need to turn it on during ascent.

When the pilots “forgot” to turn on the switch, there was a drop in oxygen levels inside the plane, which had climbed to 11,000 feet.

Aviation safety experts said such an incident was “extremely rare” as turning on the bleed switch is part of a check-list pilots are expected to mandatorily adhere to. In the event pilots forget to do so, visual alerts get activated inside the cockpit, depending on which aircraft is being operated.

A Jet Airways spokesperson said that later 144 of the 166 passengers of the original flight travelled to Jaipur via an alternative flight of the airline, while 17 of them put off their travel plans.

Five passengers who were referred to a hospital for additional check-up have since been discharged, he said.

“Jet Airways is extending full cooperation to the DGCA for the ongoing investigation and regrets the inconvenience caused,” the spokesperson said.

Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu has directed the DGCA to prepare a safety audit plan for all airlines, aerodromes and flight training schools. He has also sought a report in 30 days.

Varsities to observe ‘Surgical Strike Day’ on September 29

Vikas Pathak

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 00:00 IST


UGC writes to Vice-Chancellors to mark the event

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to the Vice-Chancellors of all universities to celebrate Surgical Strike Day on September 29 to mark the event along the Line of Control that day in 2016. The letter also desires that students pledge their support for the armed forces in writing that day.

“All higher education institutions with NCC units shall organise a special parade on September 29, after which the NCC commander shall address them on the modalities of protection of the borders,” says the UGC letter. “The university/colleges may organise a meeting, calling ex-servicemen who will sensitise the students about the sacrifices made by the armed forces in protecting the borders.”

Plea to institutions

The letter also issues an instruction to students: “The students shall pledge their support for the armed forces by writing letters and cards, which may be produced in both physical and digital format.” These letters of support, it says, will be publicised in the conventional and social media.

The UGC letter says that physical letters of support so received may be sent to nearby cantonments and shared with Army officers visiting various colleges to meet students. It also asks institutions to encourage their students and faculty to visit the multimedia exhibition to be organised at India Gate in Delhi or in State capitals, important towns and cantonments across India.

But not all senior academics seem enthused.

Historian Aditya Mukherjee of JNU, co-author of the book India's Struggle For Independence, disagreed with the idea of taking a pledge of nationalism from the people. “This is typically the BJP trying to project themselves as the nationalists. They have this great deficit of not being part of the national movement. Now they are trying to force it on people and militarise campuses. They wanted to install tanks in JNU and if we oppose it, they will call us anti-national,” he told The Hindu.

‘I WAS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE I HAD TO OVERCOME IN MY LIFE’

Sidharthan.V@timesgroup.com 21.09.2018

I am truly glad to be among youth and college students of Tamil Nadu, we have a course to charter, and that’s why I am here. There is an unspoken government order banning me from entering colleges. I hope this makes you as angry as it makes me. I want you to go back to your colleges and let others know that the government is concerned that when you and I get together, we might make a new Tamil Nadu, and that is scaring them,” began Kamal Haasan addressing the students of different colleges and young entrepreneurs at Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, in Coimbatore, recently. He added, “No one has the right to stop you and me from conversing with each other, we will continue our conversations. The government thinks we need an auditorium or institution for us to get together and have a chat, but we don’t need all that, even an open ground is enough for us, you gather anywhere, I will break all the barriers and come to meet you,” as the audience in the auditorium erupted.

Talking about people who ask him not to talk politics in educational institutions, he said, “I heard that there are few colleges that have ‘do not discuss politics within the campus’ in its prospectus. I don’t find that right at all. What will the students who have chosen political science as their degree discuss in college? Politics is something that will have a huge impact in your life in future, you have to understand what this is and for that you need to discuss politics, so that you are able to assess what is right. I am stressing on it so much because I should have entered politics when I was your age, but I didn’t. I apologise for that. The reason why I am persuading you to enter politics is because you shouldn’t be regretting later that you should have entered politics earlier, like me. If the current political scenario can be changed, it can only be done by youngsters. The existing politicians can only make it better, but we can’t change it.”

The legendary actor-turned-politician also answered several questions from students and entrepreneurs. When he was quizzed about overcoming unemployment, he answered, “There are one crore newly graduated students coming out college every year in India, but is there job to accommodate every one of them? The number of government jobs are decreasing by the day, private organisations are on the rise, small-scale industries are also rising. The world is not going to be filled with workers, but with entrepreneurs — such a change is on the anvil. Pursue what you like, it is not necessary to like what you study, but that education is definitely going to help. The only way forward to beat unemployment is through small industries and micro entrepreneurs.”


KAMAL HAASAN

I did not choose acting, it chose me: Kamal Haasan

Answering a question on the biggest obstacle he has had to overcome in life, Kamal said, “Me; I was the biggest obstacle I had to overcome in life. Nobody stood in my way; everybody was ready to help me. I had too many good teachers, I have been a lucky man and inspite of it, if my progress has been slow it is only because of me. To overcome me was the most difficult thing, and I think I have managed to do it.”

When quizzed about how dirty politics is, and how he is going to survive, he said, “I was taught to be clean by my parents, but on the way to my school the streets used to be very dirty, people defecate publicly, so do animals. But I can’t stop going to the school, my education is in that corner and in between people are defecating, I will tap dance, step over it, but I will reach my destination.”

Talking about the importance of agriculture he said, “Agriculture and education are the two departments we need to improve in as a nation, the rest will fall in place, businessmen and entrepreneurs have no choice but to follow. We have to take care of our land and soil, the fauna and flora of our land is what will feed us. Extracting hydrocarbon is also important, but if it is a fertile agricultural land, please let that be even if you find diamonds beneath it, because during drought you can only depend on what grows above the soil and not the ones beneath it.”

On acting he said, “I did not choose acting, it chose me. I was at an age where I had no choice, I was three. The truth is that acting chose me and I liked it because it was one good way of getting out of school. A good actor should watch people around him, an actor is no less than a writer, poet or any person who is artistic. There is no subject that is taboo to him and beyond his comprehension. He will become that, if he doesn’t know he will learn. The beauty of being an actor is that he will learn a bit about all the roles he plays, when an actor plays a doctor, he will at least become a compounder or nurse by the time he finishes playing the role.”


Kamal Haasan

THE BEAUTY OF BEING AN ACTOR IS THAT HE WILL LEARN A BIT ABOUT ALL THE ROLES HE PLAYS, WHEN AN ACTOR PLAYS A DOCTOR, HE WILL AT LEAST BECOME A COMPOUNDER OR NURSE BY THE TIME HE FINISHES PLAYING THE ROLE AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION ARE THE TWO DEPARTMENTS WE NEED TO IMPROVE IN AS A NATION, THE REST WILL FALL IN PLACE...

SECURITY RISK TOO’

Paytm says Google Pay violates user privacy

Digbijay.Mishra@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:21.09.2018

A new battle is being waged in the domestic payments ecosystem. Paytm has written to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), saying that Google Pay’s privacy policy has scope of violating user privacy and potentially risking the security of the country.

In a letter to NPCI boss Dilip Asbe, Paytm said Google Pay shares user data within group companies and thirdparty platforms in India and abroad, which can be risky given that Google Pay is an unregulated payments platform and stores data outside the country.

Paytm had previously complained to the NPCI about WhatsApp, saying the latter was given unfair advantage at the time it entered the peer-to-peer payments business via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Google, however, responded that the company does not use any individual UPI transaction data for monetisation purposes, such as for advertisements, and all its actions are in line with applicable laws. Google Pay operates on UPI and recently completed one year of operations.

UPI is the fastest growing platform for digital payments, and a number of domestic and global players — including Paytm, Flipkart’s PhonePe, Google Pay and WhatsApp — have been fighting for a share of it. UPI witnessed over 300 million transactions in August, registering a growth rate of over 30% from July, when it clocked around 235 million transactions. In September last year, the same stood at just about 30 million.

A Google Pay spokesperson said in an emailed response that the service shares user data as may be required for the purpose of processing transactions or providing Google Pay Services with its authorised partners. “These include participating banks, banks on UPI infrastructure, bill aggregators, merchants on the Google Pay for Business program and with whom the users are transacting and billers such as utility services, etc. Sharing of this information is in accordance with applicable laws and requisite consent obtained from the user and in conformity with standard industry practice,” the spokesperson said.

An email sent to NPCI’s spokesperson had not elicited a response till the time of going to print.

It felt like a pin was being pierced into my ears, recounts passenger

Flyers Say After Oxygen Masks Dropped, Neither Cabin Crew Nor Pilot Made Any Announcement

Manju.V@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:21.09.2018

At least five passengers of a Jet Airways flight suffered ear and nose bleeding due to low cabin pressure early on Thursday during the aircraft’s ascent here. Both pilots are grounded and the Aircaft Accident Investigation Bureau has begun an inquiry.

Jet Airways said the five, taken to hospital, have been released. It added that 144 of the 166 passengers later travelled to Jaipur by an alternative flight.

The switch that works the crucial air-conditioning in the pressurized aircraft cabin is usually kept on. “Omission of such vital items after takeoff checklist, such as putting engine bleeds ON, is sheer negligence of standard operating procedure which could have led to a major emergency if both the pilots had also suffered an ear injury, like some of the passengers, said a senior pilot. Ankur Gala, 38, one of the five passengers taken to Nanavati hospital, had blood stains on his trousers. “It felt like a pin was being pierced into both my ears. Passengers were in a state of shock,” said Gala. “After the oxygen masks fell, there was no announcement or any instruction from the cabin crew. I put on the mask, but blood from my nose collected into the mask and dripped onto my clothes,” he added.

Some of the passengers who finally arrived in Jaipur at 12.30pm were shocked that flying could be so terrifying. “I was experiencing pain in my nose and ears and I thought it could be my problem only, though I have been a frequent flyer. Thereafter, I saw the passenger next to me bleeding from the nose. Suddenly oxygen masks came down. Shockingly, neither the cabin crew nor the captain made any announcement. We landed at the terminal at Mumbai and it was utter chaos initially,” said Prashant Sharma.

The 11-year-old Boeing 737 (VT-JGS) operating Jet flight 9W69 lifted off from Mumbai airport at 6.15am. Aircraft climb at a rate of about 1,500 feet per minute and so the Jet aircraft would have crossed 10,000 feet altitude within fivesix minutes, which was when the cabin altitude aural warning would have gone off (see graphic).

For the full report, log on to www.timesofindia.com(Inputs by Sumitra Deb Roy and Malathy Iyer)

Aviation ministry orders safety audit of all airlines, airports
New Delhi

: Civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday ordered a safety audit of all scheduled airlines and airports amid recent incidents related to safety of passengers.

The minister has also ordered a probe into the Jet Airways flight incident, which is being investigated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), an official statement said. “Minister has further directed that safety audit should be commenced forthwith and a report to this effect should be submitted for his perusal within 30 days,” a statement from the ministry added. TNN