Ex-speaker Pandian dead

05/01/2020

Mr. Pandian shot into the limelight when he became the 11th Assembly Speaker in February 1985, a post he held for four years. In November 1986, when the Opposition had confronted him, Mr. Pandian told the Assembly: “Sky is the limit [for me].”

Five months later, the Assembly awarded S. Balasubramanian, then editor of the Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan, three months’ rigorous imprisonment for publishing a cartoon. For the next couple of days, it was left to Mr. Pandian to defend the House’s decision.

The row was resolved a few days later with the Speaker ordering the release of the journalist in deference to the Chief Minister’s wishes.

There were other controversies associated with Mr. Pandian’s innings. In a first, he, in December 1986, disqualified 10 MLAs of the DMK for taking part in an agitation to burn copies of the Constitution. In January 1988, when the Janaki Ramachandran ministry sought a vote of confidence in the House, Mr. Pandian, in a single day, disqualified 33 MLAs belonging to the rival faction of the AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa.

C. Ponnaiyan, who was Law and Education Minister in the 1980s, said Mr. Pandian’s actions were based on his interpretation of the Constitution to the effect that “the Assembly and the office of Speaker are independent authorities which cannot be controlled by judiciary or executive.”

When the AIADMK factions led by Janaki Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa merged in February 1989, Mr. Pandian opted out. In 1991, he contested unsuccessfully in his native place as an Independent with the DMK’s support. In August 1993, he returned to the AIADMK, after associating himself briefly with the Tamil Nadu Movement for Good Governance led by Subramanian Swamy. In 1999, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Tirunelveli and headed the AIADMK’s parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha.

After Jayalalithaa’s death, Mr. Pandian refused to accept the leadership of V. K. Sasikala and publicly raised suspicions about the circumstances leading to the former Chief Minister’s death. He aligned with O. Panneerselvam who led the AIADMK’s revolt against Sasikala in February 2017.

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam visited the residence of the former Speaker to pay homage.

Stalin goes back to school for reunion

DMK leader takes a trip down memory lane with teachers and batchmates

05/01/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

DMK president M.K. Stalin with his teachers at the Madras Christian College School in Chennai.

Friday and Saturday proved memorable for DMK president M.K. Stalin who, despite his busy schedule, visited his alma mater, the Madras Christian College School at Chetpet, to take part in a reunion.

“It is an unforgettable day. We reminisced about the classes in which we studied, the teachers who whacked us, the days when we cut classes, the stationery shops from where we bought pencils and the places where we played,” Mr. Stalin said after spending time with batchmates who had come together after 50 years.

Mr. Stalin had joined the school, where his brother M.K. Alagiri and half-brother M.K. Muthu also studied, in Class VI. Trade unionist and former Chennai Mayor R. Kuchelar had secured admission for him.

“I had visited this place even when I was the Mayor of Chennai. Now, I am the leader of the Opposition. I will tell you later about my future visits,” Mr. Stalin said.

On Friday, Mr. Stalin sat in the classrooms where he used to study. He spent time with his teachers and classmates. “The room now hosts kindergarten classes. The headmaster showed as around. Other places remain the same,” he said.

Social studies teacher

Mr. Stalin’s social studies teacher Lakshmi Narayanan, a nonagenarian who had come all the way from Salem, was seen fondly patting Mr. Stalin.

“Everyone greeted me for the DMK’s victory in the rural local body elections,” Mr. Stalin said, adding that the experience had been unforgettable.

Model Code of Conduct lifted following rural polls

No decision yet on urban elections: SEC

05/01/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission has announced that the Model Code of Conduct has been lifted following the completion of rural local body elections in 27 districts of the State.

Addressing the media on Saturday, Tamil Nadu State Election Commissioner R. Palaniswamy said, “Local body elections in rural areas were conducted in a fair and transparent manner in the 27 districts. All the elected representatives of rural local bodies will be sworn in on Monday.”

However, the TNSEC did not release a final tally of the results.

“We have taken action on the complaints [we have] received from political parties. We are analysing the video footage. We will take action against the officials responsible for procedural lapses. We have received many complaints against Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers,” Mr. Palaniswamy said.

Over 1,000 plaints

The poll watchdog had received 712 complaints in written format and 1,082 complaints over the phone between December 1, 2019 and January 4, 2020. “We have taken action on all the complaints. All the issues that were reported were addressed immediately,” Mr. Palaniswamy said.

Responding to DMK leader M.K. Stalin’s allegation that the TNSEC had acted in favour of the ruling AIADMK, Mr. Palaniswamy said the election was conducted in a fair manner.

“We have not taken any decision on conducting elections for urban local bodies in two phases,” he added.

TTDC plans tour to Alanganallur jallikattu
05/01/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

This Pongal, for those looking to catch the famous jallikattu at Alanganallur near Madurai live, Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) is organising a tour from Chennai. TTDC will take passengers by an airconditioned vehicle. It will leave on January 16 at 9 p.m. to reach Madurai at 5.30 a.m. on January 17.

After breakfast, guests will reach Alanganallur by 10 a.m. and return to Madurai on the same day by 10 p.m. The next day would be spent in Madurai visiting the Meenakshiamman temple, Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal, Gandhi Museum and Alagarkoil. The vehicles would leave Madurai at 10 p.m. on January 18. For bookings call 044-25333333/044- 25333444/044- 25333857/044- 25333850-54, 180042531111. Online booking is available at www.ttdconline.com, www.mttdonline.com.

Can govt take away right of minority institutions to appoint teachers? SC to deliver verdict tomorrow
AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:05.01.2020

The Supreme Court will on Monday pass an important verdict on whether the right of minority institutions including madrasas to appoint teachers could be taken away by the government by by adopting a legislative procedure that aims to uplift the status of the community.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit will deliver its verdict on the issue while deciding constitutional validity of West Bengal Madrasah Service Commission Act, 2008, under which the appointment of teachers in madrasas was to be decided by a Commission.

As per the Act, a Commission was constituted and section 8 of it says that notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any contract, custom or usage to the contrary, it shall be the duty of the commission to select and recommend persons to be appointed to the vacant posts of teachers. This will be in accordance with the provisions of the Act and the Rules made thereunder.

The case and the ruling can help settle an ambiguity in the law as while governments that fund or aid minority institutions can recommend guidelines for appointments, but till now, they have not been able to make the placements themselves.

The managing committee of various madrasas moved the Calcutta high court which declared the Act unconstitutional saying it is violative of Article 30 which says all minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

Delivering the judgment in 2017, the HC had held that the law took away the right conferred by the Constitution that minorities will administer institutions according to their choice.

Full report on www.toi.in

The case and the ruling can help settle an ambiguity in the law as while governments that fund or aid minority institutions can recommend guidelines for appointments, but till now, they have not been able to make the placements themselves

107 kids dead at hospital where pigs roam, gadgets don’t work

Syed Intishab Ali & Rajiv Saxena TNN

Kota  5.01.2020

: It struck Shubham Hada almost immediately that the ICU to which he had brought his infant of two days with a respiratory disorder had no window panes. The temperature would plummet to about 3 degrees Celsius at night and bring with it gusts of wind that cut through a flimsy blanket to gnaw at the bone. His baby may just have shivered to death at Kota’s JK Lon Hospital, one among the 107 children to have perished till now since the start of December 2019. The new year brought no cheer. Seven kids died within the first four days of January.

“My child was exposed to biting chill,” Hada said as he mourned with family at his Vigyan Nagar house on Saturday. A state government report has now confirmed that many of the infants died from hypothermia, an emergency condition where the body temperature falls below 95°F. The normal is 98.6°F.

On the night of January 3, it was Mohammad Vakil’s heart that turned cold. Waiting on his baby, he watched another slip on the hospital bed nearby. “The attendant realised that the oxygen cylinder was empty. He immediately alerted the nursing staff, but it was too late. The infant couldn’t survive.”

The country has now suddenly woken up to the horrors of the Rajasthan hospital, but thousands of parents have seen their children die because even basic amenities and gadgets weren’t provided to doctors and nursing staff. Alarm bells rang in 2018, too, when a social audit of the hospital revealed that 22 out of 28 nebulisers were not working. Of 111 infusion pumps, used to administer medicines to infants, 81were non-functional. Only 6 of 20 life-support machines could be used. In short, the bulk of equipment was worthless.

In 2019, 963 infants had died in the hospital out of 16,915 admissions. In 2018, it was 1,005 from 16,436. On average, the figure has been 1,100 each year since 2014.

Doctors and nurses — angry, helpless and often at the receiving end of attendants’ ire and frustration — take pains to explain their struggle to bring down the mortality rate. But not only are they severely understaffed, they have appalling gadgets, much of it in disuse, to go to in times of an emergency. The infrastructure is crippling. It’s routine to tie up three babies to a bed, windows are gaping holes without glass, ventilators are dead and pigs roam around merrily. Sometimes patients are in danger of being bitten by rodents. Hygiene is as bad as it can get.

“They have now closed the holes the rats made to enter the NICU,” said Manish Kumar of Sultanpur in UP, whose baby is admitted here. He said it with great relief and obligation.

Padma, 25, lost her sixmonth-old son Tejas on December 23. She said she was setting aside her grief to take on the hospital for its negligence so that “no other mother should have to face” what she did. She has gone to the government demanding that she be compensated for the money she had to borrow for her baby’s treatment.

Enraged at the staff, she told TOI that their behaviour with attendants was “merciless and rude”. She recounted how guards at the NICU ward would often remark that no child would come out alive. “I had already spent close to ₹80,000 in private hospitals before I took Tejas to JK Lon on December 22. Suffering from pneumonia, he died the next day,” she said.

Full report on www.toi.in

KOTA HORROR: In 2019, 963 infants had died in the hospital out of 16,915 admissions. In 2018, it was 1,005 from 16,436. On average, the figure has been 1,100 each year since 2014

1945-2020

Speaker with ‘sky-high powers’ passes away
Politicos Pay Homage To P H Pandian

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:5.1.2020

Former speaker of Tamil Nadu assembly and senior AIADMK leader P H Pandian died here on Saturday after a prolonged illness. He was  74.

An acolyte of former chief minister M G Ramachandran, Pandian is known for exercising “sky-high powers” during his tenure as speaker. He represented erstwhile Cheranmahadevi assembly segment for four consecutive terms, beginning 1977. He was deputy speaker from 1980 to 1984. “His death is a big loss to the party,” said chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, showering encomiums on the leader’s contributions in his five decades of public service. Pandian was a legal advisor of the AIADMK led by O Panneerselvam and Palaniswami after the merger of the erstwhile factions.

Pandian made headlines as speaker of the assembly between 1985 and 1989 when 10 DMK MLAs, including party general secretary K Anbazhagan were disqualified for burning copies of the Constitution during an agitation by the party against the imposition of Hindi as official language by the Union government. During this term as speaker, Balasubramanian, editor of Tamil weekly Ananda Vikadan, was sent to jail for alleged breach of privilege and contempt of the House. “Pandian excelled extremely well as speaker. He refused to accept the orders of even the Supreme Court. For him, speaker and assembly are independent constitutional authorities, which was applauded in the all India speakers’ conference,” former law minister C Ponnaiyan said.

A founding member of MGR’s AIADMK, Pandian stood by MGR’s wife Janaki Ramachandran when the party suffered its first split after the founder’s death. The disqualification saga continued when Janaki sought vote of confidence on January 28, 1988. “The

House witnessed pandemonium when Pandian began declaring disqualification of 33 AIADMK MLAs (of the Jayalalithaa faction) one after another… He was an authority of his own and stood loyal to the party till his death,” said former Kangeyam MLA K C Palanisamy, who was a first-time MLA then. Interestingly, Pandian was one of the two MLAs who emerged victorious in the Janaki faction in the subsequent elections.

During the fag end of Jayalalitha’s first term from 1991 to 1996, Pandian joined hands with Subramanian Swamy to launch Nallaatchi Iyakkam (Good Governance Movement). AIADMK stalwarts like Rajaram and Thirunavukkarasu stood with him.

Ending his strained relationship with Jayalalithaa, Pandian represented the leader when she was arrested by the DMK government in 1996 and moved bail at the time of remand at justice A Ramamurthy’s residence. He went on to become Tirunelveli MP in 1999 and also became the parliamentary party leader of the party. AIADMK leaders recalled that the first voice of dissent came from Pandian against elevation of Jayalalithaa’s close-aide V K Sasikalaa as general secretary of the party after Jayalalithaa’s demise. In a fully-packed hall at his Anna Nagar residence in February 2017, Pandian dropped a bombshell by raising suspicion over the death of Jayalalithaa. “There is no need for post-mortem, even circumstantial evidence is enough,” he said, demanding a probe into the events that took place ahead of Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation. He was one of the MGR loyalists who stood by O Panneerselvam when he launched a ‘dharmayudham’ against the Sasikalaa family.

BIDDING ADIEU: DMK president M K Stalin pays tribute to P H Pandian in Chennai on Saturday