Airport to do away with 12-minute entry-to-exit rule

STAFF REPORTER

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 29, 2018 00:00 IST


But cars can only spend 3 minutes at departure terminal, after which a penalty will be levied

In a huge relief to departing passengers, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will soon do away with the rule that a vehicle should enter and exit the Chennai airport premises in 12 minutes, failing which, a parking fee is levied.

As part of the new parking rules, which will be implemented in three months, the rule will be abolished. However, vehicles will be given only three minutes’ time to deboard a passenger at the terminal. If the vehicle stays next to the terminal beyond three minutes, a penalty will be collected. “We haven’t decided the penalty fee as yet. But we will give the wheelchair passengers and differently-abled passengers more time to get off,” an official said. Several passengers have time and again complained about the existing rule. As part of the new parking rules, any private vehicle coming to pick up passengers from the arrival area will not have to pay parking fee. But taxi services, arriving to receive passengers, will have to pay Rs. 60. The parking fee for vehicles will also be revised. The parking fee for a car will now be changed to Rs. 40 for up to 30 minutes and Rs. 100 for 30-120 minutes. The fee for two- wheelers will be revised to Rs. 20 for up to 30 minutes, and Rs. 25 for 30-120 minutes.

At this university, it is a long wait for a Ph.D

R. Sujatha

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 29, 2018 00:00 IST

At the Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University, it can take as much as eight years to complete a Ph.D. Candidates who had registered for Ph.D in 2011 are still awaiting a call from the University for their viva, which is the final step before the degree is awarded.

A candidate from Salem had sent five copies of her thesis, including one soft copy in 2016 to the University but is still awaiting a call for viva. Research guides blame the delay on external examiners.

The professors who guide the students blame the university’s norms. One of them is that the thesis should be evaluated by a panel of three examiners, including a faculty from a foreign university.

“The guide must provide a list of 10 experts - five Indian and five foreign, to the University Vice Chancellor, who will select a panel of three persons and returns to the guide. The guide will send out letters to the chosen panelists seeking their consent to evaluate the thesis. If they refuse then the guide must send a fresh panel of names to the VC and the process is repeated until three evaluators give consent,” an academic explained.

The process takes anywhere from a few weeks to several months. The problem lies with foreign evaluators who may refuse to participate in the process.

A TNTEU professor who has several research scholars under her said she had to make several trips to the University to ensure that the evaluation is completed. “I produced a panel of three names but the examiner from Sri Lanka refused and we had to start all over again,” she said.

A research scholar must submit the synopsis of the thesis and within six months the entire thesis. During this time, the guide is expected to forward the synopsis to the examiners and get their willingness.

University Vice Chancellor S. Thangasamy said Ph.D thesis evaluation is highly confidential.

“Sometimes guides provide names of foreign examiners with whom they are not familiar. Or they submit the names of professors which are either wrong or inappropriate for the evaluation. This will naturally delay the process. We have so far cleared 100 theses. There are probably around five students whose thesis is pending. Candidates can approach the University and we will sort it out for them,” he said.

Doctor clears the air on flying Jayalalithaa abroad

Deepu Sebastian Edmond

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 29, 2018 00:00 IST



Jayalalithaa
Says former CM had shot down the suggestion made by Dr. Richard Beale

A specialist in critical care who treated Jayalalithaa told the Commission of Inquiry looking into the former Chief Minister's death that the option of flying her abroad was discussed with government officials, who responded by saying that the AIADMK general secretary will not give consent to the proposal.

R. Senthil Kumar, a senior consultant with Apollo Hospitals, told the Justice (Retd.) A. Arumughaswamy Commission during cross-examination that the hospital did not decide on taking its patient abroad. Options were presented before relatives, who took the decision.

The controversy over taking Jayalalithaa abroad for treatment surfaced recently after comments made by Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, who said that he had suggested to Apollo Hospital authorities that the former CM be taken abroad. He went on to allege that the hospital had rejected his request.

According to V.K. Sasikala's lawyer N. Raja Senthoor Pandian, Dr. Kumar — who was cross-examined on Thursday — said that he was not aware of Mr. Panneerselvam’s request. Sasikala’s lawyer sought to turn the tables on Mr. Panneerselvam for his criticism of Apollo and extracted a testimony that the Deputy CM’s mother had sought treatment at the hospital four times since Jayalalithaa’s death.

A source said that Dr. Kumar had said that Jayalalithaa was in no condition to be taken abroad from the time of her admission on September 22, 2016, to mid-October. When her condition improved slightly, the option was discussed with various individuals, including the Health Minister, who said that Jayalalithaa will not agree to leave the country.

Dr. Kumar also said that he was outside the room when intensivist Dr. Richard Beale exited the room after discussing the possibility with Jayalalithaa herself; Dr. Beale reported that the CM had declined to be flown abroad.

All women may pray at Sabarimala

Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 29, 2018 00:00 IST


Prohibition amounts to smear on individual dignity, says SCBan is the result of hegemonic patriarchy in religion, says CJIIt is a form of untouchability, says Justice Chandrachud

The Supreme Court, in a majority opinion of 4:1 on Friday, lifted the centuries’ old prohibition on women from the age of menarche to enter the famed Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

The main opinion, shared by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, said the prohibition reduced freedom of religion to a “dead letter”, and the ban was a smear on the individual dignity of women.

‘No place for dogma’

“Relation with the Creator is a transcending one. Physiological and biological barriers created by rigid social dogma have no place in this,” Chief Justice Misra wrote.

The Chief Justice, who authored the opinion, held that the prohibition was founded on the notion that menstruating women are polluted and impure; that women, in this “procreative stage”, would be a deviation from the vow of celibacy taken by the male devotees of Lord Ayyappa for the pilgrimage. Besides, the deity in Sabarimala is himself a ‘naishtika brahmachari’ or an ‘eternal celibate.’

But Chief Justice Misra held that the ban was actually a product of hegemonic patriarchy in religion. “On the one side, we pray to goddesses and on the other, women of a certain age are considered impure. This ban exacts more purity from women than men. The ban is discriminatory.”

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, in his separate but concurring opinion, was unsparing. To treat women as the children of a lesser God was to blink at the Constitution, he observed.

He termed the social exclusion of women, based on menstrual status, a “form of untouchability.” The judge observed that notions of “purity and pollution” stigmatised individuals. To exclude women was derogatory to an equal citizenship.

Justice Chandrachud dismissed the argument that the prohibition was in keeping with the form of the deity and the vow of celibacy of the devotees.

“It is assumed that the presence of women would deviate the celibacy and austerity observed by the devotees. Such a claim cannot be a constitutionally sustainable argument. Its effect is to impose the burden of a man’s celibacy on a woman and construct her as a cause for deviation from celibacy. This is then employed to deny access to spaces to which women are equally entitled,” Justice Chandrachud rationalised. “The notion that women cannot keep thevratham(vow of celibacy) is to stigmatise and stereotype them as “weak and lesser human beings”, Justice Chandrachud said.

The Chief Justice agreed with the view that the “mere sight of women cannot affect one’s celibacy if one has taken oath of it. Otherwise such oath has no meaning.” Devotees did not go to the Sabarimala temple for taking the oath of celibacy but for seeking the blessings of Lord Ayyappa. Maintaining celibacy was only a ritual, Chief Justice Misra said.

Officials seize 29 TV sets during surprise checks at Puzhal prison

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 29.09.2018

Officials conducted surprise checks in Puzhal Central Prison here on Thursday and seized 29 television sets, 28 radios, four pressure cookers, 200kg of basmati rice, 50kg of dal, 75kg of maida flour and 60 litres of cooking oil and cots from several cells. The raid started on Thursday evening and ended late in the night.

This was the fifth raid in the cells after photographs of prisoner’s ‘personal’ life were leaked on September 14. Following the photo leak, prison officials conducted surprise checks in Prison-1and Prison-2 and seized 18 TV sets from A Class wards. Inmates were found using USB ports to charge mobile phones.

Thursday’s raid in the convicts’ prison wascarriedoutby ateam ledby prison DIGMurugesan and new superintendent Senthil Kumar.

Sources said some prisoners got special permission to use cots in their cells. These cots were being used by other prisoners since they had not been returned after those who had been originally using them left the jail. The prison officials were checking if the warders and other prison staffs had been renting the cots out to the prisoners.

Prison officials said there was nothing wrong about certain inmates enjoying differential treatment. "It's not illegal for ‘A’ class prisoners to get their own mattresses," the officer said.

The Puzhal Central Jail, which has a 212-acre campus, can accommodate up to 3,000 prisoners. It is considered one of the most modern prisons in the country.

By early 2019, this app will help you track MTC buses

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.09.2018

By early next year, commuters in Chennai will get an app that will tell them when the next MTC bus will turn up at their location.

In October, the government will identify a service provider and sign an agreement to launch a mobile application and a bilingual website. The Institute of Road Transport has floated a ₹20 crore tender for the project. The tracking system, the first for government-run transport companies, will be rolled out within 90 days of a deal being signed for the Metropolitan Transport Corporation in Chennai and over 11 months for the other seven transport corporations in the state.

“One of the biggest problems for the commuter is getting information about the arrival of buses. The result is they take other means of transport. Now we provide a ready reckoner to improve the ridership,” said transport secretary P W C Davidar. Currently, 1.8 crore passengers daily use the eight state transport corporations that have a combined fleet of nearly 22,000 buses.

The mobile app will have a single-touch SOS/panic button, which if activated will send the current location of the phone to select contacts. It also facilitates location tracking.

The app and website will display the routes, stops, and position of the buses in real time.

They will display the arrival time of the next two buses at all the stops along a route, besides suggesting the fastest and cheapest routes available for the entered journey. In case, the bus is reassigned to a different route, the depot concerned will send out a notification.

There are more than one lakh bus stops in the state and currently passengers lack exact information on the movement of buses. The new system will see GPS/tracking devices installed on the buses.

“Each bus stop in the state has already been geo-coded and a unique identity given with in-house expertise by the transport corporations,” said Davidar.

This mobile app and website will enable data analytics, trip search details (origin, destination), and route rationalization to improve the services.

The system, the first for government-run transport companies, will be rolled out within 90 days of a deal being signed for the MTC in Chennai

Panel constituted to appoint VC of MGR med college

Chennai:29.09.2018

The state health department has constituted a three-member search committee for the appointment of the next vice-chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University. The term of the present VC Dr V Geethalakshmi will end on December 28.

The panel comprising a government nominee will have former dean of Tirunelveli Medical College Sithy Athiya Munavarah as the convenor. Senior ENT surgeon Dr Mohan Kameshwaran is the governing council nominee and former DME Dr Sembon David is the senate nominee. Applications will be called from candidates and the committee will recommend names of three people to the governor, who is also the university chancellor.

The state medical university has 22-affiliated government medical college and one government dental college besides nearly 12 self-financing medical and dental colleges. The university also affiliates AYUSH and paramedical colleges. The university’s application to the state for constituent college is still pending. A constituent college will make the varsity eligible for applying to national-level ranking system. TNN