Zoo, children’s park to open today, only 10 visit museums on Day 1 after Covid

Zoo, children’s park to open today, only 10 visit museums on Day 1 after Covid

Arrangements Made To Follow Pandemic Protocol At Zoo, Parks; Museums Expect More Visitors

Oppili P & Yogesh Kabirdoss TNN

11.11.2020

The zoo at Vandalur, children’s park and snake park in Guindy will begin receiving visitors from Wednesday, more than seven months after they were shut due to Covid-19. But, the monuments at Mamallapuram will remain closed as they come under the category of tourist attractions that cannot reopen. Two museums thrown open on Tuesday met with lukewarm response with only 10 visitors.

Elaborate arrangements have been made at the zoo, with the children’s park, aquarium, reptile house, butterfly house, walkthrough aviary, nocturnal animal house, interpretation centre and narrow paths off limits for visitors. A maximum of 7,000 visitors will be allowed daily.

Golf carts with a capacity to transport 14 visitors will carry only seven each, the lion safari vehicle that can transport 25 people per trip will have only 13 visitors per trip, said a zoo official. Chairs meant for visitors, golf carts and batteryoperated vehicles have been disinfected.

Asked if the animals that had spent the last seven months in a quiet atmosphere be affected with the reopening of the zoo to the visitors, the official said that even during the peak of the lockdown, at least 400 people including zoo keepers and official of various ranks had been coming into the zoo. The animals would come out of their enclosures by 9am and return around 4.30 in the evening.

“This routine was meticulously followed during the lockdown period. Moreover, every animal enclosure has a CCTV camera, which is exclusively monitored by a team of zoo staff. When an animal is found to be sick or behaving unusually, its health condition is checked and treatment provided accordingly.”

With restrictions in place, the number visitors to the zoo or the children’s park will be minimal. Citing the example of theatres in the city, the official said that on Tuesday, theatres recorded very poor patronage. “We expect a similar situation in the zoo and the park,” the official added.

Only a handful visited the Government Museum at Egmore and ASI museum in Fort St George till 3pm on Tuesday. Irshad Pathan of Greater Noida near Delhi, who was in Chennai for an official work, visited the museum. “It was our weekly off and we just wanted to move around the city and that brought us to the Government Museum in Egmore,” he said. The museum has introduced touch-free toilets and added more wash basins before galleries. “We are expecting footfalls to increase in weeks to follow,” Commissioner of Museums M S Shanmugam said.

Medical counselling likely from Nov 17: Health minister

Medical counselling likely from Nov 17: Health minister

Trichy: 11.11.2020

Counselling for MBBS, BDS admissions in the state could begin tentatively by November 17, state health minister Dr C Vijayabaskar has said.

Speaking to reporters at the Trichy International Airport on Tuesday, Vijayabaskar said that online applications from candidates will be accepted till November 12. “The rank list will be released on November 16 after which the counselling will commence between November 17 and 19, according to the decision of the chief minister,” he said.

Terming the 7.5% reservation for students of government schools in medical admissions as an historical achievement of the AIADMK government, the health minister said that students of rural schools would secure a minimum of 303 seats in the counselling.

He also ridiculed DMK president and opposition leader M K Stalin for taking credit for the 7.5% reservation.

On the status of Covid-19 vaccine Covishield, the health minister said that the Tamil Nadu government has successfully completed the first round of trial by administering the vaccine to 75 volunteers who developed no side effects. He said that the next phase of the trial will start soon.

Vijayabaskar also appealed to the people to wear face masks and follow social distancing during the festival to avoid the second wave. TNN

Dental council prez sacked over illegalities

11.10.2020 

The health ministry has declared that Dr Dibyendu Mazumdar ceases to be president of Dental Council of India (DCI) with immediate effect as his election to the post, held on December 15 last year, was “illegal and invalid”.

The ministry has sought a fresh election. After receiving a complaint regarding the December poll, the ministry had constituted a two-member panel on January 6 and reconstituted it in February to enquire into the complaints and file a report. According to the panel’s report, the very membership of Dr Mazumdar is illegal as he had “attained the age of 65 years on July 9, 2019”, well before the election. It also said there were illegalities in the electoral roll used for the election. TNN

Full report on www.toi.in

Govt staff, kin can get treatment at 93 pvt hosps

Govt staff, kin can get treatment at 93 pvt hosps

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal:10.11.2020 

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has in an important decision taken in the interest of government servants and dependent members of their families on Monday allowed them to undergo treatment as 93 recognised private hospitals in the state.

Chouhan said that the government servants could not get medical reimbursement for their treatment in private hospitals earlier. However, government officials and employees can now avail treatment of various diseases in private hospitals identified by the government and also claim medical reimbursement.

Chief minister said that government employees and their dependents can avail treatment of serious ailments like kidney transplant, homo dialysis, cancer disease, hip, knee-elbow shoulder partial replacement, mammography, MRI CT scan, Cochlear implant, heart disease, head injury, neuro surgery and spinal surgery besides tests and treatment of other diseases. After test and treatment, the government employee will also be able to get medical reimbursement from his department.

Colleges To Restart On November 17

SOP SPELT OUT

Covid test must for staff, students; libraries, canteens won’t open

Colleges To Restart On November 17

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:10.11.2020

As colleges and universities in Karnataka prepare to open gates for physical classes from November 17, the state government has made it mandatory for all teaching and non-teaching staff and students to undergo RTPCR test for Covid -19 three days before reopening.

As per the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the state government on Monday, only after their tests results are negative can they attend physical classes. However, canteens and libraries will remain closed for now.

On November 5, UGC had written to all states with guidelines to reopen colleges and hold classes and exams. Following this, the Karnataka State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) too submitted draft guidelines to the government. The UGC and KSHEC guidelines were taken into consideration to draft the detailed SOP for government and private educational institutions.

As per the SOP, students are required to present a proforma or a letter, signed by them or by their parents, stating that they are ready to attend classes in person.

Institutions have been directed to consult the health department and based on their student strength and number of classrooms, chalk out a plan to hold classes while keeping social distance.

According to the SOP, institutions can extend their teaching hours and depending on availability of classrooms, students can be accommodated on a rotational basis.

In physical classes, projects and laboratory sessions are to be held in batches to avoid crowding.

Option of online classes

Students have the option to attend online classes. Colleges must arrange for contact classes for such students, where they can visit physically to clear their doubts. At such times, social distancing is a must. Teachers are required to prepare study materials and send them to students via Telegram, WhatsApp or email. Study lectures, enotes, audio books and practice questions, among other materials, must be available for students on the institution’s website.

Those opting for online classes could be allowed to occupy in-campus and off-campus hostels.

Part of new normal

Other guidelines include thorough sanitisation of campus, including furniture, study materials and washrooms.

Entries and exits must be manned well and the institutions must have a designated person, who will ensure staff and students entering campus sanitise, wear mask, shield and do not have any Covid symptoms. All students and teachers should always display ID cards. Entry of visitors is to be closely monitored. Teachers and lecturers must wear mask at all times.

If a family member of a student is suffering from Covid symptoms, s/he must be asked to avoid coming to college. Used masks must be discarded in the right manner.

Colleges must seek continuous feedback from students and parents about the situation. They must also encourage students to take up immunity-boosting exercises like yoga.

6-yr-old sets Guinness record

6-yr-old sets Guinness record

Ahmedabad:  10.11.2020 

A Class II student, Arham Talsania, of Ahmedabad-based Udgam School For Children, has set the Guinness World Record by clearing the powerful Python programming language exam at the age of six. The exam was conducted at Pearson VueTest Center authorized by Microsoft on January 23, according to a press statement by the school. The test, which is difficult to crack by many buddy engineers, has been passed by this incredible boy, thus becoming the world’s youngest computer programmer, it said.

Arham has broken an earlier Guinness record of seven-year-old Muhammad Hamza Shahzad, a British boy of Pakistani origin. In an exam where a candidate needed 700 out of 1000 marks to get the prestigious certificate, ArhamTalsania, now turned 7, had scored 900 and got recognized as ‘Microsoft Technology Associate’, it said. TNN

HC Issues Notice To NTA

NEET 2020

Student says OMR sheet tampered with

HC Issues Notice To NTA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:10.11.2020

The Gujarat high court on Monday issued a notice to the National Testing Agency after an MBBS aspirant complained that his OMR (optical mark recognition) marksheet in NEET was tampered with.

Palitana town’s Jayveersinh Gohil has claimed that he was expected to get 692 marks out of 720 in NEET with only two questions left unattempted and four questions wrongly answered. He expected this result after tallying his answers with the answer key published by the National Testing Agency, which conducts NEET. But he got only 354 marks.

The student claimed that the answersheet shown to him reflected that the two questions which were left out were shown as attempted and there were eight other questions which were not attempted. He alleged a scam and claimed that his answersheet was tampered with because his signature and handwriting do not tally with the ones found in the answersheet.

Gohil also submitted that in 2019 NEET, the original answersheet used to go to NTA, the second copy to the main centre and the third copy was given to the student. This year, the changed system has left him with no evidence. Hence, his advocate Hitesh Acharya requested the high court to direct the authorities to provide the original answer sheet.

The HC has posted further hearing on November  27.

Deadline to get PINs for medical, dental courses extended

Ahmedabad:

The admission committee has pushed back the deadline to buy PINs and register for medical and dental undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The committee had earlier set the deadline at November 9 but following a Gujarat high court, regarding students who passed their Class X exams from states other than Gujarat, before 2017, the committee extend the deadline to December 10 in lines with the court’s directive, a sources in the committee said.

Govt sets up panel for medical college reforms

Ahmedabad:

The state government has constituted a committee to look into issues at state government-run medical colleges such as the filling of vacant positions, use of equipment and research carried out by these colleges. The committee will submit its report to the government in the next seven days, based on which medical colleges will be upgraded soon, a source said.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has now been constituted to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI). The NMC has also released details of the kind of requirements that will arise in medical colleges in the coming days and the reforms needed. “Based on the NMC’s directive, a 10-member committee has been constituted by the Gujarat government,” a source said.