Minister inaugurates facilities at govt. hospital in Vellore

STAFF REPORTER

VELLORE, FEBRUARY 02, 2019 00:00 IST



Quality treatment:Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar inaugurating the emergency care unit at the Vellore hospital, on Friday.C. Venkatachalapathy


Hospitals in the State will be upgraded at Rs. 190 crore: Vijaya Baskar


Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar inaugurated multiple facilities at the Government Vellore Medical College Hospital in Adukkamparai, on Friday.

The facilities included an early intervention centre at a cost of Rs. 99 lakh, Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative (TAEI unit) (Rs. 2.13 crore), cath lab (Rs. 3.89 crore), extension of haemodialysis unit (Rs. 97.5 lakh) and magnetic resonance imaging unit (MRI) (Rs. 6.5 crore).

The TAEI unit will serve the entire district and handling emergency cases including accident victims, said Mr. Vijaya Baskar.

Following the Australian methodology in extending emergency medical care, 75 hospitals in the State would be upgraded at a cost of Rs. 190 crore, he said.

Tamil Nadu is maintaining a good record in organ donation, the Minister added.

Organ donation

Speaking at the event, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan refuted allegations on organ donations.

Fifteen 15 organs can be harvested from a human corpse and it has been prioritised by Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan), he said.

While Transtan only puts out the priority list, the recipient is finalised by the recipient hospitals, he added. The list of patients waiting for heart and lung transplant is given by the recipient hospitals.

Transtan coordinators then put up the priority list based on the date of registration of the patient.

Commercial Taxes Minister. K.C. Veeramani, Director of Medical Education, A. Edwin Joe, GVMC Dean, Dr. R. Shanthimalar, District Sub-Collector K. Meghraj participated.

New Dean takes charge

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, FEBRUARY 02, 2019 00:00 IST

K. Vanitha, who was transferred from the post of the Dean of Government Medical College Hospital in Sivaganga, took charge as the Dean of Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) and Madurai Medical College (MMC) here on Saturday.

S. Shanmugasundaram, who was serving as Dean (in charge), GRH and MMC, retired from service on Friday, a release said.

Academic conferences must focus on outcome: MKU V-C

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, FEBRUARY 02, 2019 00:00 IST

Minister for Revenue R. B. Udhayakumar distributing awards at Madurai Kamaraj University on Friday.S. JamesS_James

Academic conferences organised in educational institutions must focus on outcomes that can have an impact on the society, said M. Krishnan, Vice-Chancellor, Madurai Kamaraj University here on Friday.

Addressing the gathering at the inauguration of 41st All India Criminology Conference organised by the Department of Political Science at MKU in collaboration with the Indian Society of Criminology (ISC), he said that academic conferences, often organised with public money, must not just be avenues for gathering and deliberation. Highlighting that the three-day conference on criminology had chosen an apt theme of 'Prevention of crime and control strategies in contemporary world and way forward,' he appealed to the organisers and delegates to come up with a set of recommendations to the State and Central governments.

Welcoming the suggestion, Tamil Nadu Minister for Revenue R. B. Udhayakumar, who inaugurated the conference, said that the State government will be receptive to the recommendations made by the academicians participating in the conference.

Stating that ensuring law and order was crucial for development, he said proper maintenance of law and order was a major contributing factor for Tamil Nadu in attracting huge investments in the recently concluded Global Investors Meet.

Arvind Tiwari, president, ISC, in his address, stressed on the need for holistic efforts to control crime, considering the different types of crimes and the complications involved in tackling them.

Beulah Shekhar from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and Riyaz Ahmed N. Mangoli from Rani Channamma University received award from ISC for their contribution to the field of criminology.

State told to send proposal to shift private medicos to govt. colleges

Legal Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 02, 2019 00:00 IST

Proposal should be sent within two weeks, says HC

02.02.2019

The Madras High Court on Friday directed the State government to send a proposal to the Medical Council of India for transferring over 100 students of Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Medical Sciences (PRIMS) — a private institute lacking in infrastructure in Kancheepuram district — to the 22 government medical colleges in the State.

A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam ordered that the proposal should be sent within two weeks and thereafter the Board of Governors, acting in supersession of the MCI, should consider the proposal and forward their proposal to the Centre within a fortnight.

On receipt of MCI’s recommendations, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should issue appropriate orders within two weeks and submit them in a sealed cover before the court on March 28.

The interim orders were passed on a writ appeal preferred by the State government. The appeal had challenged an order passed by Justice T. Raja, whereby the State was directed to accommodate all the students of PRIMS only in government colleges.

Senior counsel P. Wilson and R. Silambannan contended that the State government could not wriggle out from its responsibility.

MTC cuts back on small bus service after losing market share to autos

R. Srikanth

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 02, 2019 00:00 IST

Out of favour:A combination of reasons has led to the MTC slowly reducing the number of small buses .File photo

With demand flagging, the corporation finds it is not profitable to operate the fleet

For a short while, immediately after their introduction, small buses were all the rage in suburban areas. No longer. Share autos have once again become the go-to choice for those looking for last-mile connectivity. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) is now slowly reducing the number of small buses on the roads. In some areas, there are no longer any.

MTC initially had a fleet of 100 small buses, which it increased to 200, based on demand from interior areas in the city. Several localities like Pallikaranai, Nanganallur, West Velachery, Chromepet, Guduvanchery, West Mambalam, parts of Saidapet, Mogappair, Moolakadai, Retteri and MKB Nagar benefitted from the introduction of small buses.

Multiple reasons

But now commuters are picking share autos and other modes of transport over MTC’s small buses.

A combination of reasons has led to this state of affairs — the increase in the number of share autos, an inadequate number of small buses, uneconomical routes, hike in wages of drivers and conductors and, to some extent, Chennai Metro beginning to operate its own share autos. A senior MTC official said that, on average, 180 small buses are being operated daily. The main reason for the administration losing interest in operating small buses is that they are no longer financially viable.

M. Raghavan, a resident of Nanganallur, pointed out that the frequency of S85 (Alandur Metro to Velachery) and S11 (Alandur Metro to Moovarasanpet) had been reduced.

Snake found in mid-day meal of government school in Maharashtra

ANI

Published  Feb 1, 2019, 1:24 pm IST

A government school in Nanded came under fire after a snake was found in the mid-day meal that was being served to students.

The incident took place on Thursday in Garagwhan Zilla Parishad primary school located in Hadgaon tehsil of Nanded district (Photo:ANI)

Nanded: A government school in Nanded came under fire after a snake was found in the mid-day meal that was being served to students.

There are no reports so far if any student has consumed the meal.

The incident took place on Thursday in Garagwhan Zilla Parishad primary school located in Hadgaon tehsil of Nanded district after the school staff started serving the 'khichdi', they found the snake in the large vessel.

Soon as the matter came into light, the school administration stopped serving the meal and prevented around 80 girl-student from consuming it.

The parents of girl reached school and demanded the woman who made the meal to be terminated and legal action school be taken against her.

When contacted, the Nanded Education Department officials denied the claims and said that incident never happened. The district administration is yet to take action.

The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (Mid-Day Meal Scheme) was launched in 1995. The objective of this scheme was to give the boost to the universalisation of primary education and impact on the nutrition of students in primary classes.

Implemented around 1996, the 'khichdi' is part of the weekly nutrition menu for the children in all government schools in the state to discourage dropouts, especially among girls, with over 1.25 crore students benefiting from it daily.

Anna University to conduct supplementary exam for final year students

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | A RAGU RAMAN

PublishedFeb 2, 2019, 3:11 am IST

It further passed another resolution to help the university students who are studying under CBCS.

Anna University

Chennai: Anna University is planning to conduct a supplementary exam for final year students studying under Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) on its four campuses.

The academic council of Anna University relaxed arrear rules for the students studying under CBCS (2017 regulations) in affiliated engineering colleges and allowed them to write arrears immediately following semester exams.

It further passed another resolution to help the university students who are studying under CBCS.

Under the CBCS, if the students failed to clear a subject, they have to reappear along with regular students when that course is offered next time. It means if a student could not clear a course in an odd semester, he or she can only reappear for the exam when the course is offered next year.

"The new rule will help the university students to finish their courses within the four years instead of spending an extra year if they fail to clear the subjects in seventh or eighth semesters," a member of the academic council said.

The Choice Based Credit System was introduced at four campuses of Anna University - College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet, Alagappa College of Technology and School of Architecture and Planning in Guindy - in 2015.

"The first batch of students studying under the CBCS system now graduated to the fourth year. As per the existing rules, if they fail to clear any subject in seventh or eighth semesters, they have to study an extra year to clear the arrears," sources from the university said.

So, the university plans to introduce supplementary exams for the courses they register in seventh or eighth semesters.

"We will introduce open day revaluation for November/December 2018 exams. If any students fail to clear after the revaluation, we want to give them an opportunity to finish their course in the current year itself," officials from the university said.

Under the open day revaluation, the university plans to conduct the revaluation in front of the students. "Conducting open day revaluation will be a challenging task. We will try that out for odd semester exams (November/December) after getting approval from the Syndicate," they said.

Generally, the students were given offer letters in the campus placements when they study in the seventh or eighth semester.

"This move would help them to finish the courses and retain their employment," professors said. The internal exam marks also will carry over to the supplementary exams.