Parents find toddler dead after arriving at Chennai airport from Australia
It was Hrithik’s maiden trip to Chennai. Police said after their flight landed at Kuala Lumpur, the baby was fed and the couple boarded the flight.

Published: 22nd November 2019 06:41 AM |

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: It was sheer shock and tragedy for a young couple, when they realised that their six-month-old baby had died, at Chennai Airport, after their flight from Victoria in Australia to Chennai on Wednesday night. Sakthi Murugan and his wife Geetha, both techies, were returning from Australia to Chennai with their 6-month-old son, Hrithik.

It was Hrithik’s maiden trip to Chennai. Police said after their flight landed at Kuala Lumpur, the baby was fed and the couple boarded the flight.

However, it was in Chennai airport after clearing immigration that the parents noticed no movement from the baby and his feet had turned blue, police said. He was rushed to Apollo Hospital where he was pronounced dead. A case has been registered. Sakthi hails from Vengaivasal near Tambaram.

‘Nothing wrong in deducting wages of prisoners for victim welfare fund’

Plea seeks quashing of amendment in rules mandating deduction

22/11/2019, STAFF REPORTER,NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said there is nothing wrong in deducting wages of prisoners for victim welfare fund, provided it is permitted under the statute, adding that it, however, cannot be done through executive action.

The court said that in Delhi, it was being done under the statute — the Delhi Prison Rules of 2018 — which was permissible. It asked the Delhi government, represented by its Standing Counsel (Criminal) Rahul Mehra, as to why the prison authorities here had stopped making the deductions.

Mr. Mehra replied that the practice was stopped in December last year after the High Court had directed that the same be put on hold. He also said the Delhi Prison Rules of 2018, Rule 96(8), provided for such deductions.

Advocate Ajay Verma, appearing for petitioner Katyayini, opposed the deduction saying various High Courts in India have done away with the practice. He said that of the ₹15 crore collected in this manner since 2006, more than ₹14 crore lay unutilised.

The Bench said it will continue hearing arguments in the matter on November 26.

Ms. Katyayini, a lawyer, has in her plea sought quashing of an amendment made in the Delhi Prison Rules of 1988 — adding Rule 39A — which mandated the deduction. Subsequently, the 1988 rules were replaced by the 2018 rules which also has a similar provision.

UGC-AICTE merger not decided yet

First Draft Bill had drawn flak

22/11/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Ramesh Pokhriyal

The Centre has not taken any final decision on the merger of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to create a single regulator for higher education, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

He was responding to a written question from YSR Congress Party MP Prabhakar Reddy Vemireddy regarding the proposal to create a Higher Education Commission of India to oversee all non-medical college-level education in the country.

Objection from States

A June 2018 version of the draft HECI Bill had faced objections from States worried they would lose autonomy under the new regime as well as concerns that grant disbursal powers were being moved from autonomous bodies to the direct control of the HRD Minister.

By September 2019, a revised draft which reportedly made changes to address such concerns was ready for approval. Senior HRD Ministry officials indicated that it would be introduced in the winter session of Parliament.

Hema Malini flags monkey menace

It’s a serious problem, say MPs in LS

22/11/2019, INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE ,NEW DELHI

Hema Malini

Monkey menace in Mathura and Delhi reverberated in the Lok Sabha on Thursday with BJP MP and Bollywood actor Hema Malini raising the issue as a notable problem, which, she claimed, has caused deaths of various people in her constituency, seeking government attention towards the matter.

Members across party lines were on the same page over the issue when the matter was raised in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour. They noted the problem as an alarming and serious one seeking government’s action.

Raising the issue, Ms. Hema Malini said that many people were killed in her constituency in Mathura and its nearby areas like Vrindavan due to attacks by the simians.

“The natural habitat of monkeys has shrunk and people in Vrindavan are forced to deal with them strictly when they visit residential areas for food. Pilgrims offer ‘kachori’ and ‘samosa’ to monkeys due to which they are falling sick and in turn affecting health of people,” she said.

Kerala girl dies after snake bites her in class

Teacher, doctor suspended after incident sparks outrage

22/11/2019, E.M. MANOJ,KALPETTA

Fatal hole: Shehala Sherin, inset, was bitten by a snake after her leg was caught in a crack in the classroom floor.

The death of a 10-year-old girl after she was reportedly bitten by a snake in her classroom on Wednesday, sparked a wave of outrage and protests across Kerala on Thursday following allegations of negligence against the school authorities and the doctors who treated the child at four different hospitals. A teacher at the Government Sarvajana High School, Sulthan Bathery, and a doctor at the Bathery taluk hospital were suspended after a preliminary inquiry ordered by the government found them guilty of delaying treatment to the child, Shehala Sherin.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also condoled the death of Sherin. Mr. Vijayan said in his Facebook post that the government had taken the tragic incident very seriously and stringent action would be taken against those responsible for it.

Sherin was injured after her leg was caught in a crack in the classroom floor around 3.15 p.m. on Wednesday. According to the child’s parents and classmates, the teachers at the school refused to take her to the hospital immediately after red spots were noticed.

Some students suspected the possibility of a snakebite but a teacher insisted that the red spots may be due to a nail or the sharp edges of the hole on the floor.

“The teacher refused to take her to a doctor,” one of the students said. Moreover, he discouraged another teacher who was ready to take the girl to hospital.

“If she had been taken to a hospital at the right time the life of my friend could have been saved,” the student said.

The students also complained that the school authorities did not allow them to use sandals or shoes inside classrooms.

There were many cracks on the floor of the old school building and snakes were a common sight on the premises, she added.

However, the school authorities said they had administered first aid to the child after the incident and informed her father. Abdul Azeez, an advocate, said he would come to the school and take the child to the hospital. He reached the school around 3.45 p.m. and took her to a private hospital and later to the taluk hospital at Sulthan Bathery.

After the child was under medical supervision for around an hour at the taluk hospital, she was referred to the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode. Her condition worsened on the way and she was admitted to the government hospital at Vythiri. Later she was shifted to a private hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival. Though the girl was taken to four different hospitals, none of them administered anti-venom, her parents alleged.

Wayanad Collector Adeela Abdulla said legal action would be taken against the culprits.

Judicial custody of NEET case accused extended

22/11/2019, STAFF REPORTER,THENI

The parents of four students accused in the NEET impersonation case were produced before the Judicial Magistrate here on Thursday. The Magistrate ordered extension of their judicial custody for the fifth time.

Ten persons – five students of different medical colleges in the State and their parents – were arrested by the CB-CID police for allegedly using impersonators to clear NEET and secure MBBS seats in the 2019 medical admissions.

A student of Government Theni Medical College, who was the first one to be arrested in the case, and his father were lodged in the Madurai Central Prison while all the others were lodged in Theni district jail.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court granted bail to all the five students held in the case, but rejected the bail petitions filed by the parents.

New medical college: activists raise concern

Axing of over 2,000 trees will ruin one of the last green spaces in town, they say

22/11/2019, ROHAN PREMKUMAR ,UDHAGAMANDALAM

The site has been chosen for the hospital, on the ground that that it houses only exotic, non-native flora. M. Sathyamoorthy

Activists are split over plans to build a medical college and hospital on a 25-acre site in Udhagamandalam town.

Some activists have voiced their concerns that axing of more than 2,000 exotic eucalyptus, wattle and pine trees will not only ruin the aesthetic beauty associated with one of the last remaining green spaces within the town, but also affect a wide variety of wildlife, such as leopards, sloth bear, Indian gaur and barking deer, that have adapted to survive in the area and its surrounding forests.

The proposed site, located near the Ooty Gymkhana Club, has been earmarked as the future site for the setting up of the government medical college and hospital, on the ground that the site would be ideal, as it is only populated with exotic, non-native flora.

Impact on wildlife

However, rather than being a proverbial ‘dead zone’, devoid of biodiversity, activists and local residents argue that a huge array of wildlife use the 25-acre site as part of a contiguous habitat which connects surrounding forest patches. They voiced their concern that cutting down the trees and building a hospital could impact wildlife in the area and exacerbate human-animal conflicts in the region.

Shobana Chandrasekar, from the ‘Make Ooty Beautiful’ campaign, said forests surrounding the defunct Hindustan Photo Films (HPF) Manufacturing Company in Udhagamandalam were some of the last remaining ‘green spaces’ in Udhagamandalam town. “While there is no question that the trees are exotic to the landscape, the area itself is extremely beautiful and is one of the last remaining green expanses within the town itself,” said Ms. Chandrasekar, who said residents and activists were fully in support of converting the existing infrastructure of the HPF factory into a hospital.

R. Saraswathi, a local resident, who lives near the proposed site, said it was not just the hospital that the locals were worried about. “This area (surrounding HPF) is very peaceful, and many retirees stay here. If a hospital and medical college comes up, it will mean more shops, traffic and more people and litter too. There will also be obvious concerns about medical waste contaminating nearby reservoirs,” she said.

‘People stand to benefit’

However, others like Nilgiris-based conservationist N. Mohanraj are of the opinion that benefits of having a medical college and hospital in the Nilgiris far outweigh any environmental concern.

“While the first priority should be to convert the existing HPF factory infrastructure into a hospital, we cannot also dismiss the alternative site due to environmental concerns. The site itself only contains exotic trees, and there are established protocols to deal with hazardous medical waste. In the long-run, people in the Nilgiris will stand to benefit from having a medical college and hospital, as currently, many lives are lost due to people having to be rushed to Coimbatore for treatment in case of emergencies,” said Mr. Mohanraj.

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