Delhi's AIIMS suspends all routine admissions for two weeks

Delhi's AIIMS suspends all routine admissions for two weeks

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.08 AM IST

NEW DELHI: All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Wednesday suspended routine admissions in its general and private wards for two weeks.

Only emergency and semi-emergency cases will be accepted at the capital’s premier hospital for the time being, apart from OPD consultation. Sources said the decision was taken in view of the increasing number of non-Covid patients being admitted in the emergency department of AIIMS. “This is happening due to neglect of non-Covid illnesses, for example a heart ailment or neurological condition, during the lockdown,” said a doctor.

In April, when the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown was in place, 1,288 patients were treated at the emergency ward at AIIMS. The number shot up to 2,726, 3,613 and 4,400 in May, June and July, respectively. In August, the number of patients crossed 4,500, sources claimed.

Dr D K Sharma, medical superintendent at AIIMS, said in view of the need to optimise usage of available inpatient beds for hospitalisation of seriously ill emergency/semi-emergency patients, it has been decided to temporarily stop routine OPD admissions to general wards as well as private wards in the hospital and all centres with immediate effect for a period of two weeks.

“Emergency patients, who require inpatient hospitalisation in general wards or such patients who are advised private wards hospitalisation owing to emergency and semi-emergency conditions will continue to be admitted,” Dr Sharma stated in a circular issued on Tuesday. “Notwithstanding above, EHS (employee’s health scheme) patients will continue to be hospitalised as clinically warranted,” it added.

The AIIMS medical superintendent claimed that there has been an almost two-fold increase in emergency admissions in the past few months. “AIIMS Trauma Centre has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 facility. So, all emergency cases are being admitted at the main building,” said another senior doctor.

Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, meanwhile, has decided to start routine surgeries for non-Covid patients, in addition to emergency and semi-emergency surgeries, which were on hold since the lockdown was enforced. “All surgical departments will operate on 50% of their allocated operating time initially for routine surgeries,” an order issued by RML on Tuesday stated.

Centre-run Safdarjung Hospital has also decided to restore its OPD services to normal timings. Earlier, the OPD wing was being run for limited duration, while elective surgeries were suspended in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

City bus service resumes today: BCLL to roll out fleet of 9 buses

City bus service resumes today: BCLL to roll out fleet of 9 buses

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.22 AM IST

Bhopal: Nine public transport buses will ply on city roads from Thursday. The move is seen as a measure by the administration to normalise public transport services in the state capital. There are 220-odd red buses operated by Bhopal City Link Limited (BCLL), which have been off roads as a result of the pandemic.

“Increase in BCLL bus operation would be in a sequential manner. For now, new measures are being introduced to make travel safe and secure during the pandemic,” said BCLL CEO Aditya Singh.

The new measures include cashless payment on city buses. Besides, BCLL, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC), has come up with vouchers for passengers that have a number of incentives on long-term recharge.

BCLL will operate six buses on route SR-1 (Bairagarh Chichli via New Market to Chirayu Naka) and three buses will operate from Route SR-1A (Bairagarh Chichli via Vallabh Bhawan to Chirayu Naka).

Through the BCLL app, a contract-equipped ticketing scheme to promote cashless transaction has been introduced. Accordingly, various cards and schemes are being implemented through which passengers will be able to get tickets through their mobilephones.

Various offers will also be given to passengers on purchasing a BCLL card. Also, a free offer card with a full balance amount of Rs 100 will be provided on the recharge of Rs 100. Flexible Recharge offers, full recharge offer and super saver plans have also been floated.

Kerala entrance results likely in a fortnight

Kerala entrance results likely in a fortnight

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.25 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala engineering and pharmacy entrance examination results are likely to be announced by September 15. The state entrance examinations were held on July 16, braving the pandemic.

Sources said that the office of the commissioner for entrance examination (CEE) may unlock the online student portal in a day or two for the candidates to cross-check and confirm the marks they scored in Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics in their qualifying Plus Two examinations conducted by different boards. “Unlike in the past, the CEE may not first release the score obtained by candidates in the entrance examinations. Instead, the CEE website would first capture the Plus two results of candidates and make it available for the confirmation of the students. Once the anomalies, if any, in the qualifying examination result is rectified, the final result would be ready for announcement by September 15,” sources said.

The state government has obtained permission from AICTE for the extension of procedure for admission to BTech courses this year. As per the current plans, the allotment of seats would start only after the first allotment of JEE is over, sources said.

Following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions that followed, the state government had to postpone the entrance examinations for selection of candidates eligible for admission to engineering and pharmacy courses, originally scheduled for April 20 and 21. The test was later held in two schedules on a single day on July 16. Around 85 lakh students had attended the state entrance examination.

Sources say that there was some delay in obtaining the mark list of candidates who had cleared Plus two examinations by some national education board. This delay was one of the many practical reasons that slowed down the evaluation and allied process. The restrictions demanded by the state health department on New Delhi-based technicians, entrusted with the maintenance and repair task of advanced scanning machines used for reading the OMR sheet of candidates, was another major reason that delayed the entire process.

Outstation candidates stay back in city to self-isolate

Outstation candidates stay back in city to self-isolate

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.11 AM IST

Lucknow: Outstation candidates who appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination (Mains) in the city on Wednesday have opted for self-isolation as a precautionary measure to avoid carrying the virus back home to their families if they are infected.

One such candidate, Advik Pandey, said, “I have a two month-old niece and a joint family. Since I used public conveyance, I was exposed to the crowd and I don’t want to take any risk. I will self-isolate before returning home.”

He added, “I have stayed in Lucknow earlier to prepare for the exam and had requested the landlord for a room on rent with food for 10 days for which I have paid Rs 3,000.”

Like him, a number of candidates who had attended city-based coaching centres or those who had acquaintances here have arranged for rooms or booked a hotel.

“My senior in an engineering college here arranged a room with tiffin service for me. I could have returned the same day but one of my relatives will be arriving with his own vehicle to take NEET,” said Akhil Singh, who came from Ambedkarnagar. He said “I will return with him instead of using public transport again.”

Bahraich engineering aspirant Arpita Sengar is living at her family friend’s place in Aliganj as a paying guest and will leave after a week. “My aunt lives on the ground floor and was kind enough to give me a room on the first floor. I arrived two weeks before the examination. Now when I am done with the examination I will stay a week more.” She said it will not only help in self-isolation but would be a better option in case she gets infected as health facilities were better here.

“I have come from Siddharthnagar and am planning to stay in a hotel for a week in self-isolation. I don’t want my family to land in trouble,” said Ankur.

83% JEE aspirants turn up on Day 2, but tricky questions leave examinees puzzled

83% JEE aspirants turn up on Day 2, but tricky questions leave examinees puzzled

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.12 AM IST

Lucknow: The second day of the Joint Entrance Examination (Mains) for admission to the engineering course in IITs and NITs witnessed a better attendance of 83.5% aspirants in comparison to the first day when 44% had skipped the Bachelor of Architecture examination.

According to district administration officials, 2,917 candidates from various districts of UP had enrolled for the test and chosen Lucknow centre, of which 2,439 appeared for the test at the nine centres in the city on Wednesday.

Most aspirants said the JEE (Main) examination was tougher than the first one held in January. The candidates also shared that the weightage of questions from the class 11 syllabus was more than that of class 12 in all the three sections of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Even at the time of the pandemic, the number of candidates skipping the engineering examination this year was almost like in previous years.

In the first shift of 1,457 candidates, 1,243 (85%) were present, while in the second shift of 1,455 candidates 1,196 (82%) were present. However, on the first day of the architecture examination, the attendance was less than 60% in both the shifts.

On Tuesday, of the 1,065 candidates at the three centres, only 597 appeared for the test, while 469 preferred to drop out. In the first shift, 224 (42.4%) out of 528 candidates skipped the exam, while the second shift saw 245 (45.6%) absentees though 537 candidates were supposed to appear. In previous years, the absentee rate used to be just 15-20%.

“The first JEE (Main) examination held in January was comparatively easier, this one was lengthy and unlike the set format, questions from class 11 syllabus were more as compared to from intermediate. The chemistry part was too tricky with an indirect question, while the other two papers were tough too,” said Samridhi Agarwal.

Another candidate, Shrestha Singh said, “It was not an easy paper, mathematics was tough and lengthy while physics and chemistry also didn’t have questions that were asked often in the last five years. The model papers solved didn’t work much.” “We focused more on the class 12 syllabus, but only those who have studied class 11 will stand a good chance to make it to IITs and NITs,” said Arvind Sinha.

The examination was held smoothly following Covid-19 norms at all centres. Mask was given to the candidates who didn’t wear one at the centre itself, while thermal scanning and sanitization were also taken care of.

ACB searches on SRO, tahsildar, town planning offices

ACB searches on SRO, tahsildar, town planning offices

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.30 AM IST

Vijayawada: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) conducted state-wide searches on tahsildar, sub-registrar and town planning offices and noticed several irregularities on Wednesday. According to officials, the ACB recovered unaccounted money in all the offices they raided and found that employees were not maintaining personal cash register properly.

In Srikakulam, officials raided Santhakaviti tahsildar office and found 30 pattadar pass books that were not distributed for the last three months. Other irregularities include 15 pending Spandana petitions, 242 Meeseva petitions and staff having Rs 22,810 unauthorised cash.

In Krishna district, officials raided Ibrahimpatnam tahsildar office and found unaccounted money of Rs 2.28 lakh from 10 employees. They found 12,687 applications received in Meeseva, out of which, 9,900 applications were approved and 885 of them were rejected without assigning reason.

Around 1,669 applications are within SLA (service level agreement) and 40 of them set to lapse in 24 hours. “On verification of the attendance register for the year 2020, it was found that the names of only 11 staff were entered. Some members had signed and some did not sign up to August 2020 and the register for the month of September not yet opened,” ACB official said.

Officials also raided the sub-registrar office in Jaggaiahpet in Krishna district and found Rs 11,180 cash from M Lakshmana Rao, a private person. The officials stated that Rao is engaged by the sub-registrar to collect bribes. Similar offences were noticed at sub-registrar offices in Kadapa and Chittoor. The officials also raided the town planning office at Gudur municipality in Nellore district and found eight petitions regarding layout regularisation scheme and 140 petitions regarding public grievances were pending. They also found lapses in collecting tax dues of advertisement hoardings till date.

Spouses cite Covid-19 hardship to bypass maintenance payments

Spouses cite Covid-19 hardship to bypass maintenance payments

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.37 AM IST

Vijayawada: Women dependent on maintenance from their husbands are among the worst-hit by Covid-19, a study by a city-based NGO has shown. The number of divorced women seeking redressal through grievance portals has increased after their former spouses stopped paying maintenance citing financial constraints due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 and Section 23(1) of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, women can claim maintenance from their spouse.

Allegations of spouses defaulting on maintenance payments have grown recently. “The domestic violence (DV) court in March 2019 ruled in my favour and directed my husband to pay me a monthly maintenance of Rs 6,800. He paid it for two to three months and then stopped. I used to work in an Auto Nagar industry as a daily labourer and earn some money but the lockdown changed that and I lost my job. Maintenance is the only source of income for me and my children,” said K Sandhya Rani (name changed), a resident of Prasadampadu.

In its study, Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM), the NGO that conducted research on 151 women who are supposed to receive maintenance, showed that none of 151 women have been receiving regular payments. The court had ruled in favour of all the women. Polisetty Subhashini, legal counsellor at VMM said, “Not even five per cent of women are getting paid maintenance regularly. Husbands are utilising legal privileges to avoid payment of maintenance. The situation of these women has become pathetic after the lockdown and most of them are not in a position to feed their families.”

Advocates agree that legal loopholes have worsened matters for women. “A woman can only complain in a court when she does not receive mainentanance for 12 months at a stretch. The husband can pay the dues in court or simply accept a one-month-long imprisonment to waive off dues. Many husbands are doing this. We have started a fight against this and are circulating petitions. We will soon move the Supreme Court, challenging Acts that worsen the plight of women,” said senior advocate Neeru Mishra.