A clarification

Times of India  31.10.2018

Many of our readers have objected to the headline “189 feared dead as plane flown by Indian crashes into Java Sea”. Nowhere in our report was there even the slightest suggestion that the crash may have been caused by pilot error. In fact, the report quotes a senior airline official to say he was “an experienced B737 pilot with impeccable credentials”. Besides reporting on the crash itself, TOI sent a reporter to Captain Suneja’s home and quoted friends saying he was a “gem” and that “flying was his passion”. Our report described him as a “proud pilot and a dedicated family man” whose death was not only a tragedy for his family but also “the entire neighbourhood”. Clearly, it was never our intent to be insensitive. As an Indian paper, we look for Indian connections in global stories -- the overwhelming majority of them are happy, inspiring stories of Indians who've done outstandingly well in their respective fields of work or study. But there are also some sad stories -- of Indian passengers in a plane crash, or Indians being among those killed in a terror attack in another country. The death of an Indian pilot on Sunday fell in that category. For us, it brought home a tragic incident that took place thousands of miles away. Having said that, we sincerely apologise for any hurt we may have caused. That's last thing we intended to do.

LEARNING WITH THE TIMES: TOI 31.10.2018

This Diwali could be good news for your ears, too

The Supreme Court issued guidelines ahead of Diwali to rein in pollution caused by fireworks, allowing only ‘green’ firecrackers. While doubt has been expressed over how effectively the SC order will be implemented, pollution levels during the festival show why strict regulation is desirable

How is noise measured and what is ambient noise level?

Noise is measured in a relative unit called decibel (dB). Unlike metre and kg, which are absolute units, decibel is simply the ratio between two sound levels — measured sound pressure level 75

at a point/time as compared to the minimum sound pressure level that a person with good hearing can detect. As sound levels may fluctuate, the best way is to measure it over a defined period, expressed in dB(A) Leq (A signifies weighted average).

How does air quality change on Diwali?

If one looks at the Air Quality Index (AQI) data for different locations in Delhi, air on Diwali in 2017 was extremely polluted. For nearly all locations, AQI was at ‘very poor’ level.

What are the sound levels created by various human activities?

A person with normal hearing can detect sound between 0 dB to 140 dB. Sound between 120 dB to 140 dB can cause pain in normal people. The decibel scale is logarithmic and hence an increase of 10 dB will mean a 10-fold increase in sound level. Thus, a 20 dB increase will mean a 100-fold increase. When sound intensity is doubled, the increase is only by 3 dB. If a drilling machine is causing 80 dB noise then two machines with same noise level will have a combined effect of 83 dB.

HC allows pension for 2nd widow of teacher

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:31.10.2018

Setting aside an order passed by the state denying family pension to the second wife of a deceased government teacher, the Madras high court has directed the authorities to provide the pension benefit to her, since her marriage was held with the consent of the first wife whose children had no objection to payment of pension to their stepmother.

Justice M V Muralidaran passed the order while allowing the plea moved by Sagaya Marthal challenging the denial order passed by Tamil Nadu principal accountant general on March 27, 2013. According to the petitioner, her husband A Duraisamy was working as secondary grade teacher at the Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Peravurani, Thanjavur district. He retired from service on July 31, 1998 and passed away on December 29, 2007. Her husband had nominated her in the ration card and bank accounts though she was the second wife.

The petitioner said they had been married after getting the consent of the first wife, who also died. The legal heirs through the first wife, gave no objection in favour of the petitioner for getting pension but when the petitioner made a representation to the authorities it was rejected.

TIMES OF INDIA 30.11.2018 SEARCH COMMITTEE NOTIFICATION

Govt declares 23 public holidays in 2019

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:30.10.2018

The government on Monday declared 23 public holidays, under the Negotiable Instruments Act, for government offices and all commercial banks, including cooperative banks, for 2019.

“The government directs that all the offices under the control of the government be closed on the dates specified in the notification and all Saturdays and Sundays in the year 2019,” chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan said in an order.

The list of public holidays are: New Year (Jan 1), Pongal (Jan 15), Tiruvalluvar Day (Jan 16), Uzhavar Thirunal (Jan 17), Republic Day (Jan 26), Telugu New Year (Apr 6), Tamil New Year and Dr B R Ambedkar’s birthday (Apr 14), Mahaveer Jayanthi (Apr 17), Good Friday (Apr 19), May Day (May 1). Ramzan (Jun 5), Bakrid (Aug 12), Independence Day (Aug 15), Krishna Jayanthi (Aug 23), Vinayagar Chathurthi (Sept 2), Muharram (Sept 10), Gandhi Jayanthi (Oct 2), Ayutha Pooja (Oct 7), Vijaya Dasami (Oct 8), Diwali (Oct 27), Milad-un-Nabi (Nov

10) and Christmas (Dec 25).

November 5 announced holiday

Chennai:

The government on Monday declared November 5 as a holiday for all offices, schools, colleges and educational institutions. November 6 is Diwali for Tamil Nadu. A government order said November 10 (second Saturday) will be a working day to compensate the extra holiday. TNN

To get girls to college, this couple bought a bus with their PF money

Reaching campus has become safer and quicker for girls in several villages of Rajasthan as a retired couple, who lost their daughter, runs a free bus service to get them to class

Avijit.Ghosh@timesgroup.com 30.10.2018

Two years ago, paediatrician Rameshwar Prasad Yadav was driving to Churi, his village in Rajasthan, when he saw four girls standing by the road in the pouring rain. His wife Tarawati offered them a lift. In the conversation that followed the couple learnt that the girls went to a college in Kotputli, the closest town about 18km away, but their attendance was awfully low. Though it doesn’t rain too often in this part of the country, the girls usually had to trudge 3 to 6km on a hot and dusty road — stones are mined in the area — before reaching the public bus stop. “The boys misbehave with us on the bus,” one student told them.

The story touched their hearts. “After we reached home, my wife asked me, ‘Apan kuchh kar sakte hain kya (can we do something for them)?” The doctor replied with another question: “If our own daughter was alive today, how much would we have spent on her education and wedding?” “Around ₹20 lakh,” she estimated.

“I decided to buy a bus for them,” says Yadav. The government doctor took ₹17 lakh from his general provident fund — 75% of the total — added ₹2 lakh from his savings and bought a white Tata Starbus for ₹19 lakh. The bus provides free rides to and from college for the girls of Churi and the villages of Pawala, Kayampura Baas and Banethi in central Rajasthan’s Jaipur district. Yadav invited the four girls of that life-changing monsoon afternoon in 2016 to inaugurate it. “After our daughter’s death, there was a sense of loss. But now there’s is a feeling of fulfilment,” says Tarawati.

The couple married young and had a daughter, Hemlata, when Tarawati was

18. In 1976, Yadav was preparing for the medical entrance test when his six-month-old daughter caught a fever. “My wife took her to a doctor who gave her an injection. Her body turned blue and she died soon after,” he remembers. It was a loss he struggled to overcome. “We wanted a daughter but had three sons thereafter. Now, I feel I have 50 Hemlatas,” he says.

The 40-seater is a boon for the girls who hated the overloaded public buses and the harassment they faced every day. The daily discomfort affected their attendance records. “Parents would ask why they needed to go to college every day,” says Yamini Chaturvedi, who teaches home science. She recounts the case of a poor parent who was wary of sending his daughter to college unaccompanied. “He would call to check if the lecturer had arrived and only then send her,” she says.

With the ‘nishulka beti vahini’ ferrying them, the girls are showing up for class in larger numbers. Aman Verma, a BA second-year student in Kotputli’s Shrimati Pana Devi Girls College, says she saves Rs 40 and one hour every day. “My attendance has almost doubled,” says Aman, whose father lost a leg in an accident and whose mother works as a farmhand.

Retired teacher Vishnu Dutt says Rameshwar Prasad he is no Yadav and wife Tarawati longer worried about how his three daughters will get home from college. Surendra Singh Tanwar of Baneti says, “But for the bus, many girls might have dropped out.”

In an area where parents worry about the safety of girls, even selecting the bus driver required careful thought. Yadav hit upon an ingenious idea. Four drivers from neighbouring villages had applied for the job. He asked the parents of all 37 girls who had registered for the bus service — the number has swelled to 62 since — to name the driver they preferred. “Thirty-four of them named Laxman Singh,” he says. Aging yet spindly, Singh is under instructions not to let any male step inside the bus. “Not even me. Once when driving the girls home, he ignored me on the road. I rewarded him Rs 100,” says Yadav.

The doctor, who runs a private practice about 50km away in Neem Ka Thana after retiring from government service last July, is aggrieved that he has to pay road tax. “I spend ₹36,000 every month on diesel, salary of the driver and conductor. The authorities have waived the toll, but I still pay ₹5,000 as road tax every month. I have written to the authorities to waive it but it’s futile,” he says.

The bus, now a year old, has given wings to the dreams of girls like Pooja of Baneti who wants to join Delhi Police. Aman wants to be a nurse. Kajal wants to join the Army. It is also a message. “I want the bus to motivate others to do positive things and discover the joys of giving,” says Yadav. He drives a finely-aged 12-yearold Maruti 800.



After our daughter died, there was a sense of loss. Now, we feel we’ve helped 50

189 feared dead as plane flown by Indian crashes into Java Sea
He Was In Talks For Job With Airline In India

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

An Indonesian Lion Air aircraft with 189 people on board, flown by an Indian captain, Bhavye Suneja, crashed into the Java Sea on Monday soon after taking off from Jakarta at 6.20am local time (4.50am IST), killing everyone on board.

Things went horribly wrong as soon the Boeing 737 Max got airborne for its destination, Pangkal Pinang. The pilot made a request to return to the airport two to three minutes after take-off and the air traffic controller cleared it. But the plane plunged into the sea about 10 minutes later.

The B737 had joined Lion Air fleet on August 15, 2018 and had flown for about 800 hours. Once the debris was located, a search and rescue operation was launched. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation and urged Indonesians to “keep on praying.” Distraught family members gathered at crisis centres set up by the authorities at airports, hoping desperately for a miracle. But no survivor was found, said Bambang Suryo Aji, director of operations at the Search and Rescue Agency. “My projection is there is no survivor. The bodies of the victims already found were not intact any more. It is very likely that all 189 people are dead,” he said.

The VP of a leading airline in India that operates the Boeing 737 said Suneja was considering returning to India. “We spoke this July. He was a very sweet person. Being an experienced pilot of the B737 with an incident-free record, we were keen to have him with us because of his impeccable credentials. His only request was that he wanted a Delhi posting as he is from the city,” said the senior official.

NO WORDS: Relatives of passengers on the ill-fated flight at Depati Amir Airport in Pangkal Pinang, Indonesia. Two babies and a child were among the 189 on board