TNIC asks Health dept. to provide details of doctor

Ophthalmologist did not pass PG: petitioner

03/03/2020, S. VIJAY KUMAR , CHENNAI

The Tamil Nadu Information Commission has directed the Health Department to respond to a petitioner who sought to know whether a doctor performing eye surgeries at the district headquarters hospital in Perambalur had passed a post-graduate course and registered himself with the Medical Council of India.

After the Public Information Officer and the First Appellate Authority failed to provide complete information sought under the provisions of Section 6 (1) of the Right to Information Act, S. Raja of Alandur in Perambalur district moved the Commission seeking its intervention. He sought details of patients who underwent eye surgeries in the hospital and a copy of the government proceedings permitting the surgical ophthalmologist to perform the surgeries.

He alleged that the doctor in question had not passed the postgraduate course and also not registered with the MCI (now National Medical Commission). State Information Commissioner S. Selvaraj observed that complete information was not provided to the petitioner.

After the Office Superintendent, Office of the Joint Director of Health Services, who represented the PIO, requested 15 days’ time to give the complete details, the Commission directed him to send the reply, including details of patients on whom the doctor performed eye surgeries from the date of his joining service till November 12, 2018, to the petitioner within one month.

University convocation

03/03/2020,CHENNAI

A total of 17,590 graduates will receive their degrees and diplomas at the 32nd convocation of the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University on Thursday,  said V-C Sudha Seshayyan. Former ISRO chief K. Kasturi Rangan and former chief of BARC R. Chidambaram will be guests of honour.

Doctors treat 10-year-old girl with pyomyositis

Seven surgeries later, the aspiring dancer is fine

03/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

From left, Dr. B. Vijayalakshmi, Dr. Satish Manivel, Dr. V. B. Narayanamurthy, Dr. Lakshmi Prashanth and Dr. Arul Mozhi Mangai with the 10-year-old on Monday. S. R. Raghunathan

A team of doctors of Kauvery Hospital treated a 10-year-old girl, who suffered from pyomyositis, a bacterial infection, and had complications including respiratory failure, acute kidney injury and sepsis.

Lakshmi Prashanth, consultant paediatrician, said the girl, an aspiring dancer, was treated in her native town for an ankle sprain with an above knee plaster cast. “However, five to seven days later, she had excruciating pain, swelling in the right lower limb and high grade fever. When she came to us, her presentation suggested deep vein thrombosis - a clot in the leg. She developed difficulty in breathing and normal urine output stopped. Her heart rate was high and blood pressure low,” she told reporters on Monday.

The girl’s total blood count was 49,000 to 50,000 signalling severe sepsis, she said, adding: “She needed critical care support. She had acute kidney failure. We provided respiratory support and put her on antibiotics.” The girl had certain skin changes suggesting infection in her right leg that was both limb and life threatening, the doctors said.

Plastic surgeons took her up for exploratory studies and found she suffered from severe pyomyositis. Tissues in the muscle around the bones were necrosed. For this, she underwent seven radical surgical procedures to remove the tissues. There was pus in the deep compartment of the leg, she said.

“We do see cases of pyomyositis but not as life threatening and limb threatening as this one. Usually, it occurs in immune-compromised patients such as elderly, HIV positive persons and those under chemotherapy for cancer. This was an otherwise healthy child,” she said.

V. B. Narayanamurthy, senior consultant-plastic surgeon, said that it was important to seek help early in such circumstances. “We have removed dead tissues and have preserved normal ones. She is able to walk now, and we are hoping that the muscles recover.”

Sathish Manivel, senior consultant-plastic surgeon, Vijayalakshmi B., senior consultant-infectious diseases and Sridhar N., senior consultant-intensivist, also spoke.

Coming soon: double discharge platform at Guindy rail station

Commuters will not have to climb the foot overbridge to get to Metro

03/03/2020, , R. SRIKANTH,CHENNAI

Smooth transition: A double discharge platform is being constructed on the western side of the Guindy railway station. B. Velankanni Raj

Commuters using suburban trains and disembarking at Guindy railway station will no longer have to take a circuitous route and climb the foot overbridge to reach the Metro station.

Southern Railway, to provide easy access to commuters to the Guindy Metro station located within the compound of the suburban railway station, is constructing a platform on the west side. Called a double discharge platform, the facility is already available at important stations such as Park, Tambaram, Mambalam and Egmore. It helps in providing quicker access to multi-modal transport facilities.

A senior official of Southern Railway said all these years the provision of island platforms (entry and exit through only one platform) resulted in commuters being forced to use foot overbridges at railway stations. He said that since the operation of 12-car rakes began, from the earlier nine-car rakes on the Tambaram-Beach section, the foot overbridges had seen congestion at some stations.

In order to provide better access to Metro stations and bus stops near the railway stations and to decongest the the foot overbridges, the railway department has proposed to construct double platforms. As part of this project, Mambalam and Egmore have now been provided with double discharge platforms.

More coming

The railway official said work on the new platform on the western side of Guindy railway station would be completed this month. Double discharge platforms are proposed to be constructed at Chetpet, Nungambakkam, Kodambakkam, Saidapet, St. Thomas Mount, Palavanthangal and Chromepet too. Work will soon start at these stations as well, he added.

Delhi court defers hanging of 4 Nirbhaya case convicts

One of them has moved a mercy plea before the President

03/03/2020, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Waiting for justice: Parents of Nirbhaya outside the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi on Monday. Sushil Kumar Verma

A Delhi court on Monday deferred the execution of the death sentence of the four Nirbhaya gang-rape case convicts indefinitely.

The four condemned men were supposed to be hanged to death on March 3 at 6 a.m.

Hours before what was to be their execution, additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana put on hold their execution when informed that one of the four, Pawan Gupta, had moved a clemency petition before the President on Monday.

The mercy plea was filed shortly after a five-judge Supreme Court Bench, led by Justice N.V. Ramana, dismissed Pawan’s curative petition for lack of merits.

The decision was taken by circulation by the judges in their chambers at 10.25 a.m. on Monday.

“We have gone through the curative petition and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out... The application for oral hearing is rejected. The application for stay of execution of death sentence is also rejected,” the short order on the curative petition said.

Even if the President rejects the mercy plea of Pawan before 6 a.m. on March 3, the law laid down by the Supreme Court in its Shatrughan Chauhan judgment of 2014 requires the convict to be given 14 days to set his affairs straight and “prepare” for the execution.

Recently, the Centre had blamed the Chauhan case judgment for being “convict-centric”. It urged the Supreme Court to revisit the 2014 verdict and make it victim and society-centric.

Again, Pawan can legally challenge the rejection of the mercy plea in the Supreme Court. The fate of the other three convicts would also depend on how long his challenges continue to hold up.

The government has appealed to the Supreme Court for permission to separately execute convicts who have exhausted their legal and administrative remedies without waiting for their co-convicts in the same case to finish theirs in due time. This appeal is pending in the court.

Organ donation

Separately, a Bench of Justices R. Banumathi and A.S. Bopanna dismissed a PIL petition filed by former High Court judge Michael Saldanha for directions to the government and the jail authorities to give the Nirbhaya convicts’ organs for medical research.

“To execute a person is the saddest part for the family. You [petitioner] want their body to cut into pieces... Have a humane approach to these things... Organ donation has to be voluntary,” Justice Banumathi addressed the petitioner.

Treasurer of trust jailed for diverting funds

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.03.2020

The chief judicial magistrate of Coimbatore has convicted a treasurer of a Nilgiris-based charitable trust to three years of imprisonment with ₹51,000 penalty for diverting foreign funds received by the trust for social services. Sulo C Daniel, treasurer of Reach In the Nilgiris Trust has been directed to undergo the sentencing for violation of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

According to the prosecution, Sulo has diverted over ₹50 lakh received by the trust as foreign contribution for her personal gain in collusion with the prime accused and chief functionary of the trust Paulson Yesudian. Since Yesudian had left the country and even summons could not be served to him, the prosecution split the cases into two and proceed with the case against Sulo alone.

She was charged for offences under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) r/w Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC and sections 23(1) and 25 r/w sections 4, 6 and 13 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

Concluding the trial, chief judicial magistrate A S Ravi said, “This court feels that the recipients of money are members, but the purpose for which, the funds were transferred has not been explained and no proper account has been submitted for the amounts spent and the purpose for which, those funds were diverted to them also not explained.”

This apart, it is also not explained that as to why and as to how, the funds were diverted to personal account of the members of the society and Sulo. Dishonestly converting the society funds, entrusted with the accused, into the personal account is itself an offence, which constitutes the ingredients under section 405 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC, the court added.

Noting that the offence cannot be rectified by redepositing the money into the society account, the court said, “By redepositing the said amount, Sulo forced this court to believe the prosecution that she misappropriated the society funds. Even assuming that it was spent for the welfare of the society or for the purpose of the society, they should have produced account for the money spent.”

Medavakkam residents want median removed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.03.2020

Troubled by haphazard vehicle movement, Medavakkam residents have demanded that the highways department remove portions of the median at two intersections on Mambakkam Main Road to ensure smooth flow of traffic and for the safety of schoolchildren. The stretch, off the arterial Velachery-Tambaram Main Road, is one of the busiest roads in the area, frequented especially by parents and other vehicles ferrying schoolkids.

“There are five schools in the neighbourhood and residents use Mambakkam Main Road to reach them,” said M Guru, who uses the stretch frequently.

TOI visited the stretch and noted that motorists have to traverse dangerously at the intersections from Babu Nagar 1st Main Road and 3rd Main Road. A week ago, there was an accident near a temple along the stretch due to unregulated movement of vehicles, residents said. They are of the opinion that their demand to secede a portion of the median is not an extraordinbeen affected due to delay in completion of the flyover on Velachery-Tambaram Road.

Residents are pining that a change in guard in the district administration will put an end to their woes. The village panchayat, which was with the Kancheepuram district, is now part of the newly carved Chengalpet district. “We have started petitioning the new district administration to elevate our neighbourhood into a town panchayat. Despite having a population of more than 50,000, the area is still a village panchayat,” said a resident.

NEEDING A FIX: Residents said oddly placed medians at two intersections on Mambakkam Main Road have left vehicles moving haphazardly, putting schoolgoers at risk

ary request. Residents also urged that steps must be taken soon to construct speed breakers on the stretch and relay access roads.

When asked, a state highways department official said traffic police have to assess the complaints of the residents for the centre median to be cut off.

Unchecked parking of vehicles, including water tankers, along the road has made life of motorists harder. Widening the road proved useless as carriageway space is reduced. Traffic on the stretch has also