Power shutdown in parts of Chennai on September 20, here's the list

Power supply will be cut from 9 to 5 in areas like RA Puram to Madhavaram.

Published: 19th September 2019 01:05 AM

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: For carrying out maintenance work, power supply will be suspended by Tangedco on Friday (September 20) from 9 am to 5 pm in the following areas. Power supply will be resumed before 5 pm if work is completed. Here is the list:

RA PURAM: RA Puram 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Main Road, RA Puram 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Cross Street, RK Nagar 1st, 2nd Street, RK Nagar 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Cross Street, Greenways Road, Bishop Garden, Bishop Garden Extn, Bagyarathi Street, Vishwanathan Street, Kamarajar Salai, Chamiers Road, Co-operative Colony, Sri Ram Nagar North, South and West, Boat Club House Road, Sathya Narayana Avenue, Crescent Avenue, ABM Avenue, St Marys Road, Padavettamman Street, Turn Bulls Road, Prithivi Avenue, Thiruvenkadam Street, Auscin Nagar, Ganapathy Colony, Chamiers 1st Lane, Adyar club gate Road, Bughs Road, RK Puram, Shunmugapuram, Venkat Raman Street, Kesavaperumal Puram (North, Central, East), Annai Sathya Nagar 1st to 5th Street, Annai Teresa Nagar, Govinda Samy Nagar, Kattapomman Street, Elango Street, Sringeri Mutt Road and Vanniampathy Street.

CMBT AREA: Athinath Godown, V S Mani Nagar part, MRH Road, 200ft road, Natraj nagar, Guru Ragaventhira nagar, Srinivasa nagar, Ring road housing sector, Santhi colony, Mettuma nagar.

MADHAVARAM: Leather Estate, Jumbuli colony, KKR Town, KKR Garden, Ravi Garden, Alex Nagar, ABCD Colony, Metha Nagar, Padmavathy nagar, Logambal nagar, Chittinest Bhasahyam nagar, Subramani nagar, Telephone colony south, S RC Metha, Little Wings.

VELACHERY: Old Taramani, Mahatma Gandhi nagar, Anbazhagan nagar, Thiruvallur salai, Natarajan street, Seethapathy nagar, Jayanthi street, Gandhi salai, Thiruveethi amman koil st, Vellalar street.

PUZHAL: Nagappa Estate, MGR nagar, Puzhal, Cycle shop, Anna Ninaivu nagar.

Chennai electrocutions: Chitlapakkam has many electric poles waiting to collapse

Chitlapakkam, where the collpase of an electric pole recently killed a man, has too many poles that are rusted and dilapidated cables.

Published: 20th September 2019 06:22 AM |

Near MIT flyover towards Chitalapakkam, a electric pole is seen to be bent, almost on the verge of collapsing.

By Madhumitha Viswanath

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The recent death of Sethuraj who was electrocuted after a damaged electric pole fell on him, has shocked the suburban locality of Chitalapakkam in Chennai. A visit to the locality by Express revealed that this was an accident waiting to happen. Contrary to the electricity minister's statement, Chitlapakkam is filled with old, rusted, ill-maintained poles weighed down by a maze of cables.

Near Tambaram Sanatorium after crossing the MIT flyover, Express spotted an electric pole which was bent in the middle with the cables almost touching the ground. Near NSN school in Chitalapakkam, a
transformer and an electric pole next to it were both rusted. The cement coating on most of the poles had chipped off and the rusted rod was seen inside. Also each pole had many strings of heavy cables
hanging and clustered.

A few more areas in Chitalapakkam which have damaged electric poles are Ramanar Street, MMDA Nagar, Kalaivanar Street, Ragavendra Salai, Babu Street, Kalyanasundram Street, Nehru Street, Gandhi Street, Shankaranarayana Street, Kaveri Street, Gomathi Street and Pradeep Avenue.

Severe shortage of manpower

Cap Overhead electric cables lying dangerously low on Pamban Swamigal Street in Chitalapakkam as road was not milled.

Locals alleged that the main problem behind this issue was inadequate manpower with the Panchayat that has resulted in the shoddy maintenance of poles. They said that Sethu Raj's death could have been
prevented if Tangedco and Chitalapakkam Panchayat officials had carried out routine maintenance of poles, cables and transformers in the area.

"There are around 60,000 people living in Chitalapakkam alone which is divided into 18 wards. But there are only two workers employed by the Panchayat to maintain and repair electric poles. There are close to 100 poles which need to replaced immediately and this can only be done with more workers ," said Pallavi Kannadasan, a resident of Chitalapakkam.

P Viswanathan, a local activist, through an RTI reply found that there are just 11 officials taking care of electricity issues pertaining to Nehru Nagar in Chitalapakkam. "Nehru Nagar alone has 133 transformers, 54 poles and as many as 19,627 services connections. How can just 11 officials from Tangedco manage day to day maintenance? Also, there is a serious coordination problem between Tangedco and Panchayat officials," he said.

Dangers of low lying cables

Moreover, lack of milled roads has caused the cables to hang dangerously low. Six month ago, in Pamban Swamigal Street where almost all overhead cables lie very low, roof of a school bus touched the cables. After repeated complaints by residents it was raised higher after a month. But now they have come back to its previous state.

Poles erected by the Panchayat are 18 ft (low tension cables) and 24 ft tall (high tension cables). And for stability four to six ft of the pole is buried underground. But as roads are not milled in
Chitalapakkam before a new layer of tar is laid, height of the road keeps increasing. This inturn makes the gap between the cable and the road lesser and lesser.

Residents said that officials had temporarily fixed cement bases to some poles and the ones without the base sway dangerously even during light rains. Though the cement layer outside the entire length of the
pole is intact, the parts inside are rusted which makes the pole snap easily.

"For single poles that are located in dead ends, stay wires must be fixed on either side. These wires will give support and hold them in place. The pole which fell on Sethu Raj was a single one. If it was
stabilized with a stay wire it wouldn't have fallen on him," said Lakshmi Krishnakumar, a resident and a close friend to Sethu Raj's family.

As a permanent solution, residents demanded that all rusted electric poles be replaces with new ones before monsoons set in by October. "It is sad that only after a person's death officials take our complaints seriously. Another rusted pole on the street where Sethu Raj lived was hurriedly replaced on Thursday morning," said Lakshmi.

A Tangedco official said that a new batch of electric poles have been sent on Thursday to be replaced in the Tambaram division under which Chitalapakkam comes. " Assistant and additional engineers of each ward are inspecting the entire locality to spot out old poles and will replace them with the new ones. Minister also asked the public to inform their local Tangedco office if they spot poles in a bad  condition," he added.

DDU College hostellers stage protest
20/09/2019, STAFF REPORTER,NEW DELHI

Hostellers at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College in Dwarka staged a protest on Wednesday night that continued till Thursday afternoon over poor living conditions. The protest was dispersed, without getting any assurance, after alleged threats from the administration.

Students who wished to remain anonymous said that the outburst was a consequence of months of complaints that had gone unheeded. Their major issues include, problems with the quality of food and water, strict curfew timings and unavailability of Wi-Fi. Students were not given basic facilities. These problems allegedly led to health problems among students, they alleged.

Transport strike leaves commuters stranded

20/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Commuters were left stranded on Thursday as several transport unions organised a day-long strike in the Capital. Several schools remained shut and transportation hubs like the New Delhi railway station and ISBT at Kashmere Gate bore a deserted look as autorickshaws, private buses, app-based cabs and other taxis stayed off the roads.

The strike was called to protest the “hefty” fines being levied under the amended Motor Vehicles Act.

Need to raise awareness about silent aortic diseases: expert
Exclusive centre inaugurated at SIMS Hospital

20/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Dr. V.V. Bashi, director, ICAD, with N. Ram, chairman, THG Publishing Private Ltd, at the event. S.R. Raghunathan

A year ago, B. Elankumaran, now 31, experienced severe chest pain. Earlier, he had shortness of breath and mild pain, but had not given it a second thought. This time, he was hospitalised. Doctors told him his condition was serious — he had an aortic dissection and a genetic condition, Marfan syndrome. Referred to Chennai, he was told that he would require surgery within 24 hours. The surgery was done, and now, he says he is fine.

Mr. Elankumaran was one of the few patients who spoke at the inauguration of an exclusive centre for aortic diseases, set up by the Institute of Cardiac & Aortic Disorders (ICAD), SIMS Hospital, on Thursday.

V.V. Bashi, director, ICAD, said September 19 is observed as World Aortic Disease Awareness Day and stressed the need for more awareness about aortic conditions. Since these were generally silent diseases, they came without warning, and could be fatal if untreated, he said. He also spoke of challenges in the Indian sector, such as transportation to centres of treatment, expense and availability of care. N. Ram, chairman, THG Publishing Private Ltd, who inaugurated the Centre, highlighted the need for awareness, and the media’s role in this. “Media has a credible information function,” he said.

The centre will treat a range of aortic diseases and also create awareness. A website on the diseases was also launched. Vice-president of the hospital Raju Sivasamy, and interventional radiologist K. Murali participated.

Class 11 students can opt for five or six subjects

Children allowed to leave out math or biology

20/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Higher secondary course programmes will offer students a choice of taking either five subjects or six subjects.

Students who join Class 11 will be allowed to choose a cluster of core subjects from the 2020-2021 academic year.

In an order, the School Education Department said that students could either choose to study only five subjects from the next academic year in class 11 and 12 or opt for six subjects, if they wish to study an extra subject.

The subjects are divided into three parts — Part I - language; Part II - English; are mandatory. In Part III - students must select three core subjects, in tune with the combinations that the department has listed.

The students who wish to study medicine or allied health courses if they wish, can leave out mathematics and study only five subjects. Students aspiring for engineering can omit biology. Those who opt for five subjects will take exams for 500 marks and those taking four core subjects will appear for six exams each for 100 marks. Similar combinations have been specified for arts and vocational streams.

If students want to keep their engineering and medicine options open, they can chose six subjects. The department has given a list of groups — comprising three core subjects and four core subjects in different combinations — the students can choose from.

A senior official from the department said that the decision to offer students the option of taking up five subjects was taken to reduce their stress and enable them to concentrate better on subjects of their choices. There has been speculation since early this year that the department was planning to introduce this option.

Teachers welcome move

The Tamil Nadu Teachers Association welcomed this move. “While the move is a well thought out, there also needs to be focus on teacher training and the content that students will be studying. The syllabus was revamped for a majority of the classes this year and more attention needs to be given to implementing teacher training programmes before changes are brought in for assessment and examination methods,” said K.R. Nandhakumar, State general secretary, T.N. Nursery Primary Higher Secondary Matriculation and CBSE Schools Association.

Learn entrepreneurial skills while studying, says expert

20/09/2019, STAFF REPORTER, MADURAI

Business sense: M. Krishnan, Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University, speaking at the launch of EDII Hub in Madurai on Thursday. S. James

During the course of study, one must learn skills to become entrepreneurs as the service sector alone could not provide jobs to the 7.5 lakh students who pass out of colleges in the State every year, said S. Nagarajan, Director, Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute (EDII) of the State government here on Thursday.

Speaking at the inauguration of EDII Hub at Madurai Kamaraj University, the first non-engineering university in the State to have such a project, he said, “The purpose of the programme will not be fulfilled unless the students run their own enterprises during the course of the project. The students can explore possibilities, set up businesses on the college campus and get trained to understand the market,” said Mr. Nagarajan.

Professors and heads of more than 70 autonomous and affiliated institutions of the university participated in the event. Through this programme, colleges affiliated to MKU will have to form an entrepreneurship development cell (e-cell), upload their activities on a common portal and the best performing colleges will be rewarded. The programme also offers faculty development workshops and intense training classes for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Many colleges have e-cells and incubators, but they are not utilised optimally,” said R.V. Shajeevana, Additional Director, EDII. “Tamil Nadu has 60 incubation centres, but most of them are not functional. They undertake awareness campaigns once a year, but there is no follow-up,” she said. Calling for optimal utilisation of the project, Ms. Shajeevana said the programme would enhance the brand name of the institution and help in better placements.

In addition to the programme, the college would also support the research scholars through funds sanctioned under Phase II of the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme, said M. Krishnan, Vice-Chancellor. “The initiative will be successful if at least 50% of institutions affiliated to MKU operate their own e-cells,” he said. V. Vidya Chellam, Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, MKU, was present.