Tamil Nadu government hospitals raided after bribery complaints

The officials also conducted raids at Government Chengalpet Medical College Hospital a few days ago.

Published: 08th December 2018 05:36 AM |

A photo of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital
By Express News Service

CHENNAI : The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption officials conducted raids at government hospitals across the State, allegedly following complaints of hospital workers demanding bribes from patients, on Friday. In Chennai, the raids were conducted at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children.


According to sources at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, the officials entered the hospital around 10. 30 am and searched the premises including the hospital kitchen and provisions storeroom. 

At Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children, the officials inspected wards, kitchen, storerooms, scan centre and searched the premises.

The officials also conducted raids at Government Chengalpet Medical College Hospital a few days ago. “We have given a strict warning to workers not to take bribe from the patients and are monitoring them. We also alerted our hospital staff following the raid at Government Chengalpet Medical College Hospital recently. However, the officials did not come to our hospital on Friday,” said a hospital official.

Female students bear brunt of unchecked moral policing on Chennai campuses

Arts and science colleges across Chennai have women’s hostel curfew at 7 pm, with a few colleges even capping it at 3 pm.

Published: 09th December 2018 05:05 AM |

Image for representational purpose only

By Sushmitha Ramakrishnan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Two weeks ago, an hostel warden in the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras put up in the notice board, among other things, the number of ‘used condoms’ they found in a dustbin in the hostel room of a student. The incident caused much outrage among the student community over what they see as moral policing of the students. When Express spoke to students of many other colleges in the city, the stories students shared were far more regressive. Often, mundane everyday activities of students, particularly female students, comes under scrutiny and starts defining their character.

The students are questioned for speaking to students from the other gender and sometimes sent out of the classrooms when the teacher thinks the dress of a female student is too revealing. Swarna*, a student in a women’s arts college in the heart of the city, says she was reprimanded by her hostel warden once for accidentally dropping a cover with sanitary napkins in front of her hostel room.

“She said that I need to start acting like an adult woman now. How can I be so shameless? The warden said that my character was questionable,” she recalled. Swarna said that day, she saw her roommate carrying a suitcase she had brought from home after holidays, and rushed to help her way through the staircase. “I dropped the cover with the pad outside my room and went to help my friend, when the warden walked through the corridor,” she said. The warden had asked Swarna to enlist the possible outcomes, if a gardener or a another male casual worker in the hostel saw it instead.

It was an all girls college with men doing only small clerical jobs. “The Head of my Department used to go around the campus during the inter-collegiate cultural events we hosted, and take pictures of girls, if they were seen casually chatting with boys,” said Rupal* from the English Literature department of another all-women college in the city. The teacher would allegedly call these girls later and ask them if these boys were their boyfriends and threaten to inform their parents.

One day Samir* was talking to a few female friends on college, when a teacher stopped and allegedly commented, “He’s a Muslim. He can have four wives. That’s why he talks to women.” In Anna University for example, there are no strict restrictions on what girls wear within the hostel, but when they go to the mess for dinner, they should wear full pants as boys would be there. “When hostel girls wear leggings to classes, some teachers ask the girls to go back and change,” said Kavya*, a second-year student from the varsity. MK Surappa, the Vice-Chancellor of the university said that there should be no regulatory mechanism to prevent students from wearing what they want. “Different people have different tastes. It will be retrograde to control them,” he said.

A student from another college in Coimbatore said that her teacher had lined up all the girls who wore leggings to stand out of the class and asked other students what they looked like with such skimpy clothing. In another women’s college in the city, the hostel warden asked a student to explain why she was wearing laced underwear, pointing to her clothes hanging on the laundry line. “I didn’t think any explanation I gave would make sense to her,” said Sneha*.

Discriminatory hostel curfews is another issue. Arts and science colleges across Chennai has women’s hostel curfew at 7 pm, with a few colleges even capping it at 3 pm. However, men do not have any such restriction. Even though colleges have a curfew for men’s hostel on paper, most do not enforce it.

“There were no restrictions on when boys moved in and out of college. But girls were not allowed to go out after 6:30 pm. Let alone leaving the campus, we weren’t even allowed outside the hostel” said Madhu* , a recent political science graduate in an arts and science college in the outskirts of the city. “The warden asks “How will I know what all you do outside?”

“The safety of these students are in our hands. The girls may be bold, but if somebody does something to them outside the college, we are responsible for it. Which is why we have different curfews for girls and boys,” said the warden of one of the girls’ hostel blocks in the college.However, in the same college, a student from the chemistry department was slapped by a male classmate in broad daylight, said Madhu adding that the victim had fallen down injuring her head. “When students asked the college to take action on the boy, the dean of women students had allegedly asked the girl to not only consider his future,” she rued.

While these are only a few examples, girls who wear shorts or sleeveless clothing, hug boys, go out with boys, go for weekend trips, stay on the phone for long or behave friendly with male workers on campus are often treated differently, say students. (Names of all students changed)

Former V-C appears before suicide probe team

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SALEM, DECEMBER 09, 2018 00:00 IST

C. Swaminathan, former Vice-Chancellor, Periyar University, appeared for an inquiry before the Salem City Central Crime Branch police in connection with the death of K. Angamuthu, former Registrar, who committed suicide.

Angamuthu was the Registrar of Periyar University from 2012-15 and later after relinquishing office continued as Physical Education Director of the university, till he committed suicide in his native Perundurai in Erode district in December last year.

The Perundurai Police, based on the details found in the suicide note, registered a case against a few persons, including Dr. Swaminathan, for abetting his suicide.

Later, the case was transferred to the Salem City Central Crime Branch police.

The Central Crime Branch police issued summons to 15 persons to appear for an inquiry in connection with the suicide of Angamuthu. Dr. Swaminathan appeared before the Central Crime Branch police on Saturday, sources said.

MKU professor faces harassment charge

Pon Vasanth B.A

MADURAI, DECEMBER 09, 2018 00:00 IST

Ph. D scholar files plaint against guide

A full-time research scholar at Madurai Kamaraj University’s Centre for Film and Electronic Media Studies has filed a harassment complaint against her research guide and Head of the centre K. Karnamaharajan. But he has denied the charges.

In the complaint submitted to the Registrar of MKU, the scholar, a native of Kerala, has accused the professor of abusing her and demanding that she do everything he suggested, including sexual favours, if she wanted to obtain her Ph. D degree.

The scholar accused him of taking Rs. 2 lakh to admit her as a full-time scholar.

According to the complainant, he checked her daily schedule and attendance in the hostel. Recently, he issued a memo for being absent and threatened to cancel her Ph. D registration.

Refuting her allegations, Mr. Karnamaharajan said the research scholar, who completed her M. Phil in MKU and joined as a full-time scholar a year before, regularly absented herself without prior information and failed to complete her research-related tasks.

“I have messages, email communications and other records that will prove my innocence,” he said. The research scholar also submitted a complaint with the Convenor’s Committee of MKU that met at the campus on Saturday. While MKU Registrar V. Chinniah could not be reached for a comment, university officials said that the scholar had been asked to appear before a committee set up to enquire into the issue on Wednesday.

TNPSC Group I exam results delayed again

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

CHENNAI, DECEMBER 09, 2018 00:00 IST

Morale dipping after two-year wait: candidates

The declaration of results of the Group I examination by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) has been delayed. While the Combined Civil Services I examination was notified on November 25, 2016, the results of the main examination are yet to be released, over two years on.

Candidates have requested the TNPSC to declare the results, alleging that the delay was causing a dip in the morale of thousands of candidates who have been working hard for the competitive examination.

The TNPSC notified the Combined Civil Services I examination (Group I) for filling up 29 vacancies in the post of Deputy Collector, 34 vacancies of Deputy Superintendent of Police, eight posts of Assistant Commissioner in Commercial Taxes Department, one post of District Registrar, five posts of District Employment Officer and eight posts of District Officer in Fire & Rescue Services.

Preliminary exam

The preliminary examination was held on February 19, 2017. A total of 1.37 lakh candidates appeared for the examination.

The number of applicants admitted to the Main written examination held on October 13, 14 and 15 in 2017 was more than 50 times the number of applicants to be recruited. Most of the 4,602 candidates who were shortlisted for the main examination have requested the TNPSC to quicken the process of declaration of results.

Hidden cameras found in women’s hostel bathrooms in Chennai, owner arrested

TNN | Dec 4, 2018, 01.42 PM IST

CHENNAI: The Adambakkam police on Tuesday arrested a man who runs a women’s hostel in Thillai Ganga Nagar after inmates found hidden cameras in bathrooms, halls and other places. The cameras were hidden in electrical sockets, bulbs, rods and other places.

The police said seven young IT professionals were staying in the hostel run by Sampath Raj, 48, in Thillai Ganga Nagar first street.

The women grew suspicious about the activities of Sampath after he had made frequent visits to the hostel claiming to check the rooms. He allegedly placed the cameras in the name of carrying out renovation work in the rooms.

The women checked the rooms and the bathrooms thoroughly and found hidden cameras.

Hidden cameras were found in electrical sockets and other places.

A police officer said Sampath had kept changing the position of the hidden cameras until he “got a proper view.”

The police seized the hidden cameras and footages. Further investigations were on.

Tiruvannamalai govt schoolteacher sentenced to rigorous 

imprisonment for sexual assault of orphan girl

TNN | Dec 4, 2018, 07.25 PM IST

TIRUVANNAMALAI: A fast track mahila court in Tiruvannamalai on Monday sentenced a 38-year-old government schoolteacher to seven years rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old orphan girl.

The victim was a Class VIII student at Adi Annamalai Panchayat Union Middle School in Tiruvannamalai in 2013. Her English teacher, N Soundararajan, who was married and has two children, sexually assaulted her several times.

The victim was an inmate of a children’s home on the Girivalam path. She was admitted to the home by her elder brother and elder sister when she was three years old after their parents had died.

Special public prosecutor G Archana said, “The accused, who was initially molesting the girl in the staff room while he was alone, later started taking her to his home when his wife and children were away. The sexual assault came to light on February 20, 2013 after Soundararajan, who was 33 then, forcibly took her home the previous night by threatening to fail her in English paper in the annual examination.”

“He sexually assaulted the girl the whole night and dropped her near the children’s home situated on the Girivalam path in Tiruvannamalai in the early hours of February 20,” Archana said.

The in-charge of the children’s home questioned the girl and came to know about the sexual assault she had suffered. The in-charge alerted the girl’s sister who was married and living about one kilometre away from the home.

The sister filed a complaint with the Tiruvannamalai all-woman police. The police booked him under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences ( POCSO) Act and the IPC. Police sources said Soundararajan was the first person to be booked under the POCSO Act in Tiruvannamalai district after the law came into force in November 2012.

On Monday, magistrate S Natarajan sentenced him to seven years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of 10,000 on him. The magistrate also directed the district legal service authority to assist the girl in getting a victim compensation of Rs 4 lakh under the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) scheme.