Rajiv case convicts: Why oppose parole if cabinet backs release, HC asks govt

Rajiv case convicts: Why oppose parole if cabinet backs release, HC asks govt

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 04.08.2020

While the state cabinet has recommended the release of all seven life convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination case, why does the state vehemently oppose the parole plea of A G Perarivalan, one of the convicts, asked the Madras high court on Monday.

“Your cabinet has recommended his release in toto, then why are you opposing his application for parole for one month? Do not oppose for the sake of opposing it,” a division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice V M Velumani told state public prosecutor A Natarajan.

To this, Natarajan explained that he is not opposing for the sake of opposing but the applicant must have valid reasons to seek parole.

“Only last year he was out on leave. As per prison rules, a prisoner becomes eligible for next parole only after three years. Moreover, the prison doctor has made it very clear in his report that though the prisoner suffered a series of illnesses, he is currently under medication for the same and he is stable,” Natarajan said.

However, senior counsel R Shanmugasundaram pointed out that there is a provision in the prison rules under which the state can exempt a prisoner from such conditions and grant parole. To this, the prosecutor said, “there are such exemptions, but the same cannot be granted on medical grounds.”

Refusing to accept the contention, the bench said, “If rules prohibit leave on medical grounds then such rule has become redundant. It has to be updated. Do you mean to say illnesses are not extraordinary situations?”

The court then directed the state and the petitioner to file an affidavit on the current status of the multi-disciplinary monitoring agency (MDMA) probing the larger conspiracy behind the former PM’s assassination and the interim orders of the Supreme Court, if any, in connection with the matter. The bench then adjourned the hearing to August 12.

The issue pertains to a plea moved by T Arputhammal, mother of Perarivalan. She wanted the court to grant 90 days parole to her son who needs immediate medical attention in view of various ailments.

The court posed the question when a parole application for Perarivalan, a life convict in the case, came up for hearing

Lack of flights to UAE costs flyers dearly

Lack of flights to UAE costs flyers dearly

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  4.8.2020

The UAE may have begun allowing visitors and transit travelers, but the lack of scheduled flights from Chennai forces the stranded to spend more on Vande Bharat flights.

The UAE is issuing visas for people of all nationalities for travel to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, a popular transit hub for those from Chennai, but many who could have used Dubai to fly to Europe and the US by flights of their choice are forced to depend on special flights.

Emirates and Etihad Air can fly to Chennai to pick up passengers with resident visas in the UAE but Emirates discontinued flights because aircraft had to land in Chennai empty because of restrictions. From August 6 to 15, Etihad will fly five times a week to Chennai.

Basheer Ahmed of Travel Agents Federation of India said many were waiting to come to Chennai and to travel to UAE. “Scheduled flights at least in limited frequency will help them. The rescue flights are expensive and get cancelled if the airline cannot send in the number of arriving passengers in advance.”

The UAE is opening up, but traders and business travellers are not able to benefit because of the risk of getting stranded there.

Keep vulnerability in mind, care more, docs urge elderly

DIET, EXERCISE CRUCIAL

Keep vulnerability in mind, care more, docs urge elderly

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:04.08.2020

Until recently, most public health officials warned older adults to simply stay at home to beat Covid-19. Now, with the city slowly reopening, things are getting more complicated for senior citizens. Geriatricians say while following golden pandemic rules — social distance, mask and hygiene — the elderly must maintain a healthy diet and exercise.

“This can have mental and emotional benefits. Morning walks on the terrace, yoga and breathing exercises can help,” said senior geriatrician Dr V S Natarajan.

Doctors also insist that elders keep their blood sugars and hypertension under control. “Not skipping medicines is one way. It is also important for caregivers to keep doctors informed about symptoms the elderly experience,” he said.

Amidst the ongoing pandemic, one thing that is irrefutable is that the highest rate of fatalities is among the elderly. While there is no evidence that shows increased risk of Covid-19 for people above 60 years compared to younger adults, medical records across hospitals show that when people over 60 are infected, they are more likely to have severe and life-threatening symptoms. Health department statistics show that nearly 60% of the deaths were among the elderly.

“Older people with underlying medical conditions are at particularly high risk,” said senior liver transplant surgeon Dr Mohammed Rela, who heads Dr Rela Institute of Medical Sciences. “People above the age of 60 walking in with breathlessness invariably have complications and require intensive care,” he said.

Recently, a 70-year-old man, with chest congestion, and his 45-year-old daughter, with more severe symptoms, were admitted to Stanley Medical College Hospital. In a couple of days, the oxygen requirement for the woman dropped, but the father required high pressure (non-invasive) ventilation. While the woman has been discharged, the father is still in intensive care. Intensivists say seniors fare poorly in intensive care units. “Most of the time, they don’t eat well or co-operate much when they don’t see their kin. They also give up on the fight quickly,” said a senior intensivist at the Stanley Hospital.

Anna univ to hold sem exams for final year students online

Anna univ to hold sem exams for final year students online

Proctored Test To Have 30% Weightage, IA & Projects Rest

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:4.8.2020 

With more than 20,000 engineering students with job offers anxiously waiting to start their careers, Anna University has decided to conduct end-semester exams for final year students as online proctoring tests by the end of this month. Anna University is the first state university to decide to conduct online exams amid the Covid-19 crisis. Students without digital devices and internet connectivity will be given a choice to take offline exams later. The final exams are crucial as they would help validate degrees and aid in early on-boarding of recruited students.

The one-hour proctoring test will be conducting separately for each subject, will have multiple choice questions and candidates will be monitored by artificial intelligence tools, which records physical movements of students, computer screen usage and audio to prevent malpractice. The university has floated a tender inviting bids for conducting the test, estimated to cost ₹1.9 crore, for students from affiliated colleges and university departments.

“We decided to conduct the online exam to protect the future of students. It will make their degrees credible and facilitate their early on-boarding and higher studies,” said M K Surappa, vice-chancellor of the university.

Due to the loss of working days, some portions could not be taught and the university has decided to drop one of five units in each subject for the final exams. “We will give a 30% weightage for the online test and 70% weightage for internal assessment and project work,” Surappa added.

When inquired, autonomous colleges said they are also thinking of conducting an online test for final year students. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had instructed all universities to conduct exams online or offline for final year students, a move challenged in the Supreme Court. Academicians, however, said graduates of professional courses like BE, BTech need some form of assessment before graduation.

The state government promoted all except final year students to next year without exams and wrote to the ministry of human resource development to cancel exams for final year students as well, but it is yet to get a response.

Meanwhile, K M Karthik, president of Private Educational Institutions Employees Association, said the university collected fees for the cancelled exams and insisted that it must not collect fee for next sem exams. University officials, however, said the state government approved exam fee collection.

Agents get e-passes approved through govt ‘connections’

Agents get e-passes approved through govt ‘connections’

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:4.8.2020

Common citizens struggle to get e-passes, even for genuine reasons, but some travel agencies and cab operators get them issued easily through ‘connections’ at district collectorates and Greater Chennai Corporation.

This reporter, seeking an epassfor returnof stranded relatives, marriage and a health emergency, approached three taxi operators in Chennai who promised to get the document for ₹250-₹300 per head over and above the base fare (₹10-₹20 depending on the vehicle model).

“It’s ok even if you don’t have hospital records. We can apply for a pass to Kerala and drop you at Madurai,” said Chennai-based travel agent Rajamanickam. Claiming that Tamil Nadu authorities didn’t cross-check documents much for inter-state travel, he said applying from a random address would get the job done.

Vasu, another travel agent, said he could transport even seven people in a Xylo, meant for four, and demanded ₹1,500 for an approved e-pass through an internet centre with ‘connections’ in government. All he wanted was an ID card like Aadhaar or driving licence with a Chennai address. It was not necessary for the person to travel in the car as it was only for e-pass approval. Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) mandates local address proof for such travel.

The last agency approached by this reporter, Ragavendra Travels, said it could arrange passes to and from Kanyakumari without hassle and didn’t charge extra for epass approval. Asked how it was able to do this when applications for genuine reasons were rejected, staff at the agency said what was entered in the description column mattered and that they had learned how to get it right.

J Ramanujam of TN Call Taxi Operators Association said some drivers from other districts had started taking regular trips by pooling in people. “Just like share service, people travel together by paying their share,” he said. Every day, on an average, he got 10-15 such calls but avoided many as they had invalid supporting documents.

TNeGA officials said their role ended with facilitating the application process and transferring it to respective district authorities to take the final call.

Corpn e-passes for workers entering city

Corpn e-passes for workers entering city

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

4.8.2020

Greater Chennai Corporation has come up with a new scheme for e-pass for guest workers returning to Chennai from other states and other districts of Tamil Nadu.

Corporation commissioner G Prakash said companies employing the workers have to apply for e-passes after providing their particulars. “The company has to indicate the exact number of workers who are coming and get an e-pass for each of them,” Prakash said.

Apart from this, the companies will have to create quarantine facilities for such workers in the city. “They will have to build some kind of shed where the arriving employees can be quarantined. We understand that it cannot be a very high quality facility, but it has to be suitable with proper facilities like toilets,” Prakash said. These facilities will be inspected by local corporation officials and given approval, he said. “Already we have started giving permissions to some companies who have approached us,” Prakash said.

All employees will be quarantined and they have to stay put during the 14-day period and also undergo testing, the commissioner said. “In case they have symptoms, they would have to report to us and undergo the treatment cycle,” he said. “This is one line of defence.”

Prakash said the corporation was approving 1,000 e-passes on a daily basis. He said Covid-19 prevention and detection activities would continue for at least three more months and complete relaxation of lockdown right now was difficult.

“The number of people wearing masks has improved, 90% are using it and it is a good sign. However, maintaining physical distancing is turning out to be difficult in some places. We will implement it as far as possible,” Prakash, who inaugurated a free quarantine centre at a hotel in Velachery along with health secretary J Radhakrishnan, said.

EXODUS: Thousands of guest workers left Chennai after the outbreak of Covid-19

Tedious e-pass norms, lack of public transport make it a crawl to work Curbs On Travel Among Dists Hit Staff Availability

Tedious e-pass norms, lack of public transport make it a crawl to work

Curbs On Travel Among Dists Hit Staff Availability

Sindhu Hariharan & Mamtha Asokan | TNN

4.8.2020

It’s two steps forward and one back for companies which want to bring back their employees to work. While the services sector appears to have embraced WFH, manufacturing units, particularly those on the outskirts, are facing issues with a tedious e-pass system and the lack of public transport.

Tamil Nadu scrapped the zonal system of boundary demarcation whereby the state was divided into eight zones. “When Chennai and its adjoining areas were one zone, there was no need for e-pass. But that has been scrapped and we have gone back to boundaries by district borders, making it cumbersome and tedious for e-pass procurement,” said the head of a trade body.

Consultancy firm IndiaFilings, which currently has about 100 staff working at its office in Chennai, prefers WFH. “If we apply e-pass for employees on behalf of the company, the approval rate is high. If they apply individually, it’s low,” Lionel Charles, CEO of IndiaFilings, said.

TOI spoke to several company officials and most said only employees living within the city limits and having their own vehicles are able to report to work while those who depend on public transport are not able to.

SECO Controls, an MSME based out of the Perungudi Industrial Estate, said the absence of public transport has hit movement of people. Vaishnavi Vignesh Raja, its VP, said the company is helping staff living outside Chennai limits get epasses to come in to work, but there are a few employees who have been trying to get e-passes and are not able to secure them.

A senior official at the state industries department told TOI that companies have been granted e-passes for inter-district movement of staff earlier and they can continue to apply.

However, in industrial hubs like Coimbatore, where most staff stay in districts outside the city limits, businesses continue to get affected due to curbs on inter-district movement. “Rules must be modified such that an authorization letter from respective companies along with employee identification cards support inter-district movement,” R Ramamurthy, president, The Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, (CODISSIA) said.

Meanwhile, Chennai’s tech companies have embraced the work-from-anywhere model with the product firms like Freshworks, OrangeScape, Chargebee and others also hinting that they will remain remote till the end of the year.

Cognizant has decided to keep its corporate and sales offices closed through the end of 2020. “We are deciding on the reopening of delivery centres based on the local Covid-19 situation and restrictions, client needs and center requirements,” a spokesperson for Cognizant said.

Verizon said they plan to continue the 100% WFH implementation that is currently underway. GAVS Technologies, a software product company on OMR, has made all arrangements to accommodate increased staff but said lack of public transport has led to just around 5% employees coming in. “There is a huge amount of social anxiety about the virus, and we are also not forcing people to come in as we are okay continuing operations remotely,” Balaji Uppili, chief customer success officer, GAVS, said.

A MUST: Police cracked down on those travelling without e-passes during the lockdown