Restrictions brought in at CMCH, court complex

24/03/2020, STAFF REPORTER,COIMBATORE

One of the gates of the Combined Court Complex seen closed on Monday. S. Siva Saravanan S_SIVA SARAVANAN

Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) brought in regulations in the entry of patients and visitors from Monday.

Those coming to the hospital were checked at the gate. Emergency cases like accident victims, those requiring immediate medical attention and one attender per patient were permitted after checked by the staff.

“The Prime Minister and the Government already appealed that people should avoid unnecessary visit to hospitals to prevent the spread of COVID-19. People with symptoms of the viral infection are coming to the hospital seeking medical advice and testing. Hence, the administration decided to regulate entry of people after consulting with the District Collector,” said an official. Similar restrictions were also introduced on the combined court complex. Except the main gate, other gates were closed on Monday. This was to avoid unwanted entry of people. Judicial officers, court staff, advocates and litigants were permitted after screened by medical team at the main gate, said sources at the court administration.

Supermarkets witness rush

24/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,COIMBATORE

Thyagi Kumaran vegetable market in the city saw a huge rush on Monday. S. Siva Saravanan S_SIVA SARAVANAN

Indumathi, a regular customer at Thyagi Kumaran Market in the city, had to struggle to come out of the market on Monday evening after her purchases.

“Prices have doubled for all the vegetables,” she said. As the State government announced complete lockdown from 6 p.m., March 24, people rushed to super markets and vegetable markets in the city to buy their requirements.

Surya and his friends were also at the market. They are from West Bengal and working at a gold smithy in the city.

“We cannot go back home as there are no trains or buses. We usually buy vegetables at a shop nearby. Since we need to buy more vegetables, we came to the market,” he said.

“They have told us that we can keep the shops open till tomorrow evening. We do not know what will happen after that,” said an onion vendor at the market.

At the Pazhamudir Nilayam supermarket on Avinashi Road, customers waited in queues as only 50 people can be inside the market at any given time. There were repeated announcements asking customers to finish buying their needs soon so that others can come in. “We cannot run the air conditioner and cannot have a crowd inside. So we are allowing customers only in batches,” said the manager of the market.

“People are scared. We plan to keep all shops in the wholesale markets open till specific orders from the Government as vegetables are essential commodities. We will continue to receive vegetables from other States,” said M. Rajendran, president of the Thyagi Kumaran Market Vegetable Merchants Association.

Meanwhile, officials of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India inspected vegetable and fruit stalls to regulate the crowd as people rushed to them in large numbers for shopping ahead of the curfew. Food safety officials inspected stalls at Peelamedu and Arts College Road and advised management to avoid gathering of people as a precaution against possible spread of COVID-19.

While one shop was closed, people voluntarily stood in queue in another one. Food safety officials regulated the crowd pull at another shop at Ramanathapuram.

Efforts on to trace co-passengers of Coimbatore woman tested positive

24/03/2020, WILSON THOMAS ,COIMBATORE

A day after a 25-year-old woman, who returned from Spain, tested positive for COVID-19 in Coimbatore, Health Department was in the efforts to gather details of persons who travelled with here on flight and train.

Though a Health Department official claimed that they traced the train and flight on which she travelled, details were not shared. Health Department sought the help of Southern Railway to track the co-passengers in train on which she travelled from Bengaluru to Coimbatore.

“It is very important to trace the entire travel history of a person tested positive for COVID-19. Co-passengers in flight and train should be identified and they need to be kept under observation. If required, tests should be done.

These co-passengers will interact with several other people including family members and friends without knowing the fact that they travelled in close proximity with a person who contracted the virus,” said a public health expert who did not want to be named.

While her father and sister were in quarantine at hospital from Sunday, driver of a taxi in which she travelled from Coimbatore railway station to her house near Saibaba Colony, two of her friends, doctors and medical team, who attended to her while collecting swab sample and in quarantine, were under observation.

Woman refused to listen

Meanwhile, an official at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital claimed that the woman refused to listen to the advise of medical team when she came to the hospital with certain symptoms of the viral infection on March 19.

“The woman refused to remain in hospital quarantine and left for home despite knowing the fact that her friend in Spain contracted COVID-19. Then we contacted her father and advised the risks involved in staying at house or roaming freely. She later came to the hospital and medical team kept her in quarantine after lifting sample,” said the official.

Residents of the locality where the woman’s house is situated were in panic since Sunday evening after hearing about the confirmation of test result.

JIPMER shut down

24/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, PUDUCHERRY

Outpatient services at government general hospitals in Puducherry and JIPMER were shut down on Monday in the wake of increase in number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Commuters run to Koyambedu bus terminus to escape lockdown

Minister assures that more buses would be operated on Tuesday till 6 p.m.

24/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,CHENNAI

Passengers struggling to board a State-owned bus at Koyambedu in Chennai on Monday, to reach their destinations following the lockdown announcement for a week. PTIR Senthil Kumar

As the State government prepares for a lockdown from Tuesday evening, thousands of people are rushing to the Dr. MGR bus terminus in Koyambedu to return to their native places. With the train services fully cancelled from Sunday and not to resume till March 31, the only silver lining for the commuters was the bus transport which would also be stopped from Tuesday evening.

As a result the Koyambedu bus terminus is crowded with anxious commuters wanting to reach their hometown within the State. The sudden surge in commuter population is causing difficulties for the transport department authorities to operate long distance buses in a short span of time.

S. Janani, who stays in a women’s hostel, found it difficult to catch a direct bus to reach her native place in Pudukottai. She said it took more than an hour for her to board a bus at the Koyambedu bus terminus. She also rued that the private buses were charging exorbitant fares.

However, Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar, in a recorded message, said that adequate arrangements are being made to operate long distance buses to various parts of the State. To compensate for shortage of long distance buses, which were operated minimally on Monday, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses were operated to several destinations including Villupuram, Tindivanam and Tiruchi. More than 100 buses have already been operated for transporting the commuters, he said.

Requesting the commuters not to panic by rushing to the Koyambedu bus terminus, the Transport Minister assured the public that more buses would be operated on Tuesday till 6

All T.N. courts to function notwithstanding Section 144

Judicial work to be restricted to extremely urgent cases

24/03/2020, MOHAMED IMRANULLAH S.,CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Monday decided that its principal seat in Chennai, a Bench in Madurai as well as all trial courts across the State will continue to function despite the proposed imposition of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure from 6 p.m. on Tuesday to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The decision was taken by the Administrative Committee, comprising Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justices Vineet Kothari, R. Subbiah, M. Sathyanarayanan, N. Kirubakaran, M.M. Sundresh and T.S. Sivagnanam.

It was, however, made clear that the proceedings shall be restricted to extremely urgent cases for the next three weeks.

According to a circular issued by Registrar General (R-G) C. Kumarappan, the High Court shall function with two Division Benches (one for hearing civil cases and the other for criminal cases) and five Single Benches (three on the criminal side and two on the civil side) from Tuesday, and they would take up cases that require immediate attention.

A request was made to the lawyers to exercise their discretion and restrict filing of cases as far as possible. They were also asked not to operate from the chambers allotted to them inside the High Court campus and desist from inviting their clients to the court campus unless and otherwise the court concerned had ordered for their appearance in connection with a case.

Impressing upon the need for curtailing the presence of the court staff too, the Administrative Committee directed the R-G to take a call on rotating the employees on need basis. “There shall be an exception with regard to the protocol and maintenance staff who are required to be present on account of the nature of the duties that they have to essentially perform,” it added.

Further, it was ordered that personal secretaries, drivers, residential assistants, office assistants and other personal staff attached to individual judges should make themselves available. A similar arrangement was ordered to be put in place in the Madurai Bench too.

As far as the functioning of subordinate courts in the State was concerned, the R-G issued a separate circular stating that they should also confine their functioning to extremely urgent cases and restrict the number of lawyers and litigants in the courts. The Principal District Judges across Tamil Nadu and the Chief Judge of Puducherry were instructed to ensure strict compliance.

“Courts may endeavour to grant general adjournments for a period of three weeks unless there is an extremely urgent matter to be taken up on the request of the counsel subject to the discretion of the court,” the circular read.

The Principal District Judges were also asked to ensure minimum presence of court staff. “All subordinate courts are put on guard that their activities are likely to be viewed and monitored through video conferencing by the High Court,” the circular concluded.

Staff disappointed

Several employees of the Madras High Court expressed disappointment over its decision to continue the functioning of all courts across the State despite a representation made by Tamil Nadu Advocate Association (TNAA), led by senior counsel S. Prabakaran, to suspend the court proceedings until the threat of COVID-19 abates.

Anxious, people swarm supermarkets and empty shelves

They are in no mood to a rely on assurance from authorities that shops selling milk, vegetables and groceries will be open

24/03/2020, STAFF REPORTER,MADURAI

Till stocks last: People thronged supermarkets across Madurai on Monday to stock up on groceries, vegetables and snacks to last the curfew week. G. Moorthy

Following the announcement of Chief Minister on the state-wide promulgation of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure till March 31, people thronged supermarkets across the city for stocking groceries and other essential commodities.

However, there is no need to indulge in panic buying urged the officials from the district administration. They said that all essential commodities will be available and shops selling milk, vegetables, provisions, meat and fish will remain open. The Corporation officials even made public announcements to this effect on Monday evening.

But within two hours of the announcement, long, serpentine queues had formed in front of a few supermarkets in the city. Triggered by COVID-19 fear, people hurried through department stores, carrying large trolleys and baskets.

Aruna, a resident of Narayanapuram, said she saw the announcement on television and immediately rushed to the nearest supermarket. “Though it is said grocery shops will be open, there is no clarity. Also, we don’t know how we can leave home during curfew,” she said. By evening, many people also rushed to stores to buy vegetables, especially those which had longer shelf life. “Following the observance of Janata curfew on Sunday, there was two-fold increase in prices of vegetables on Monday. Despite the high prices, people rushed after them. By, evening the entire stock was over and many returned home dejected,” said S. Selvaraj, owner of a vegetable shop, said.

P. Selvin, branch manager of Shri Kannan Departmental Store at Teppakulam, said that for the past few days there had been a rush at the shop. “But, within an hour of the announcement, around 150 people rushed in. And they were engaged in panicky large-scale shopping,” he said.

R.U. Sreekuttan filled his entire trolley with huge quantities of different types of pulses. “There is a fear that the prohibitory order can be extended. So we thought that we will hurry and buy as much as we can,” he said.

A branch manager of a leading supermarket chain in K.K. Nagar said that their sales on a day would usually hover around ₹2 lakh. “But, since Monday afternoon sales of around ₹2.5 lakh has been recorded. By evening, almost the entire stock of groceries, processed food products and snacks were gone,” he said.