Air ticket price bands to go once things are back to normal

Air ticket price bands to go once things are back to normal

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:11.02.2021 

Stating that domestic passenger traffic is gradually picking up, Union minister for civil aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday informed Parliament that the ticket price bands are expected to be done away with once flight services reach pre-Covid levels.

Hopeful that normalcy would return in the summer schedule, Puri shared data on the phased reopening of air traffic to point out that when flights were opened up in May last year, there were only 30,000 passengers. However, on Monday there were about 2,87,000 passengers.

The civil aviation sector was completely closed down on March 23, 2020, and was reopened in a phased manner starting from May 25 last year in what the minister described to be “a slow and calibrated manner” by putting in place SOPs and provisions for seamless contactless travel among other measures.

On the way forward, the minister said that a decision to open beyond the 80% capacity will depend on the behaviour of the virus and an assessment that that all SOPs are in place.

Employee cannot dictate terms of place of posting: HC

Employee cannot dictate terms of place of posting: HC

Ajay.Sura@timesgroup.com

Chandigarh:11.02.2021 

Dismissing the plea filed by Ravi Prakash Gupta, a visually impaired IAS officer, alleging that he has been deliberately denied fieldwork by the Haryana government, the Punjab and Haryana high court has held that no statutory rule or the order of any court has been violated by the state regarding his transfers.

Observing that an employee cannot dictate terms with regard to his place of posting, the HC held, “The said power is vested in the employer, who is to exercise the said powers as per the administrative exigencies keeping in view the public interest unless it involves any adverse impact on the career or further prospects.”

“The exercise of the power of transfer in the present case cannot be said to be not in accordance with law, which would call for any interference by this court in exercise of its powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, especially under the power of judicial review,” observed the court.

A division bench comprising Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma has passed these orders while dismissing the petition filed by Gupta upholding the order dated June 3, 2020, passed by the Chandigarh bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

The CAT had dismissed his plea challenging the transfer order dated May 18, 2020, from the post of deputy commissioner (DC), Fatehabad, to the post of director, Swarna Jayanti Haryana Institute for Fiscal Management.

The HC has also held that it could not find any violation of the statutory rule, any order of any court, including the SC, and has also not found any mala fide in the transfer orders of Gupta passed by then chief secretary Keshni Anand Arora.

Full report on www.timesofindia.com

The said power is vested in the employer, who is to exercise the said powers as per the administrative exigencies keeping in view the public interest, the Punjab & Haryana HC observed

Fearing arrest, man agrees to marry dalit woman

Fearing arrest, man agrees to marry dalit woman

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:11.02.2021 

Marriages may be made in heaven but it was the fear of arrest under rape charges that made a Jat Sikh man keep his promise to marry a scheduled caste woman after trying to wriggle out citing the woman’s caste.

Kanwarbir Singh fell in love with a dalit woman and took her to a gurdwara where he promised to marry her. After the promise, they stayed in hotels and had a sexual relationship. Later, the man spurned the woman and said his parents were objecting to the marriage as she belonged to the Scheduled Caste community.

Crestfallen, the woman, who worked in Australia, filed an FIR at NRI police station in Amritsar, accusing Singh of raping her on the promise of marriage. Fearing arrest, the man moved the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking anticipatory bail. The HC refused to grant relief.

Singh moved the SC seeking anticipatory bail. Finding the chances of getting relief bleak, the man entered into a compromise with the woman, agreed to marry her within six months and filed the agreement before an SC bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

When Singh’s counsel Shakti Paul Sharma informed the bench about the compromise and the man’s willingness to marry the woman he spurned, the bench asked, “How come, suddenly the caste problem has disappeared? Is the settlement a sham and to stall prosecution? Will the issue crop up again once the prosecution is stayed?”

Sharma said Singh’s parents too had filed an affidavit stating the marriage would definitely take place within six months and after marriage, their son would migrate to Australia to be with his wife. The bench agreed to entertain Singh’s anticipatory bail plea and said, “We will issue notice on the petition but will grant relief only after you get married.”

When the advocate sought a stay on arrest, the bench said it would consider the same after Singh got married to the woman. Sharma then said the woman’s arrival from Australia for the marriage was getting delayed because of the strict Covid-19 protocol in that country. This persuaded the bench to stay Singh’s arrest. “Since you have agreed to marry, we will stay your arrest. If you don’t marry her, we will send you back to jail,” it said.

Four of family take poison, parents die

Four of family take poison, parents die

Salem:11.02.2021 

In a suicide pact, four members of a family took poison near Attur in the district on Tuesday night. While the parents died, the children are battling for lives in hospital.

Police identified the deceased as P Velmurugan, 37, of Pungavadi village, and his wife Sathya, 33. Their children – 13-year-old Abinaya and 11-yearold Sanjay – are hospitalised.

A police source said Velmurugan, a driver did not have a job. “His mother Dhanalakshmi used to scold his wife. When he intervened in their fight on Tuesday night, his mother scolded him too.” Upset, the couple, along with their children decided to end their lives. He poured poison into their ears and fed it to the children forcibly, but they managed to escape and alert the villagers,” the officer said.

According the officer, Velmurugan and Sathya had died by the time the villagers reached the spot. When alerted, the Attur police sent the bodies to the nearby government for postmortem. “The boy’s condition is critical at a private hospital, while the girl is undergoing treatment in the government hospital in Attur,” the officer said. A case has registered. TNN

Sasi isolates herself, no visitors for a week

Sasi isolates herself, no visitors for a week

Ilavarasi To Stay With Her At T Nagar

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:11.02.2021 

After a 24-hour trip from Bengaluru, and a grand reception en route, former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s confidante V K Sasikala, who has recovered from Covid-19 recently, has sought to isolate herself for another week. Her co-convict in the disproportionate assets case and sister-in-law, J Ilavarasi would give her company in a house on Habibullah Road in T Nagar in Chennai, sources said.

Her supporters have been gathering near the residence ever since she arrived in the city at 6.30am on Tuesday. Save for a few AMMK officebearers, who met her upon her arrival, no party cadre or functionary had been given audience until Wednesday. Sasikala had a word of praise for AMMK functionaries, when Dhinakaran introduced his loyalists to her for arranging a grand reception. “She has been advised rest for now. She may meet visitors from next week,” said a source. Her legal team is eagerly awaiting a call from her in case she wanted to discuss the next course of action regarding matters relating to the AIADMK.

On Wednesday, Nagercoil former AIADMK MLA A Nanjil Murugesan, who claimed to be a Sasikala supporter, met her aides. “It was she who recommended my name twice to Amma (Jayalalithaa) to contest from Nagercoil. Only she can lead the AIADMK. All those who speak against her are ungrateful and will fall at her feet soon,” Murugesan told TOI. The AIADMK had expelled Murugesan from the primary membership of the party, after he was booked under POCSO.

Ilavarasi’s daughter, Krishnapriya is staying in an adjoining house. The Habibullah Road residence is a property of Anjaneya Printers Private Limited, in which Krishnapriya is one of the directors. After the Income Tax department attached Sasikala’s nine-ground property opposite to Veda Nilayam in Poes Garden, where construction was going on until a few months ago, the family chose the T Nagar house, considering her plan to return to active politics.

Jayalalithaa’s assistants, drivers and security guards in Poes Garden, K T Karthikeyan, M Iyyappan, C Kannan, Rajan Pradhan and Bhim Thapa, remain with her in T Nagar. “They continued to be her staff even after she left for Bengaluru prison,” said a source. Jayalalithaa’s cook Rajammal is being taken care of by Sasikala, sources said.

GRAND HOMECOMING: V K Sasikala at Ramavaram Gardens to garland the statue of MGR in Chennai on Tuesday

Now rent a bike taxi for multiple stops

Now rent a bike taxi for multiple stops

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

11.02.2021 

Bike taxi services have been an economical alternative to cabs, especially for the young who wanted a short trip or two, but for those who wanted to visit several places over a few hours without an own vehicle, options were limited.

Now, the only bike taxi service in the city offers rental services for multipoint trips. Rapido, which has been operating in Chennai for two years, launched the facility on Wednesday, which may spur more service providers to enter the scene. The new service will allow commuters, who have to complete multiple tasks at different locations but do not want to go through the hassle of multiple bookings and waiting for the ride to arrive every time.

Rapido said this would will bring down transportation cost further. In case someone travels around 40km in the city within four hours using the bike rental option, it would cost him/ her ₹399. Renting a cab for a similar duration or distance would cost around ₹650, which is almost 60% more. Ola and Uber offer bike taxi services in the city, but their expansion plans have been put on hold due to the pandemic. Two years ago, the authorities seized 175 bike taxis calling them illegal. But the Madras high court allowed bike taxi services and told the government to frame necessary guidelines. The government, however, is yet to frame the rules.

Rapido co-founder Aravind Sanka said that in the last months the company noticed a rising need for multistop, affordable and easily accessible ride among customers. “With Rapido Rental, we aim to address the need of such users. This can be a short stopover to pick a few things from a local shop to longer/ multiple stops related to work or personal use such as for comprehensive shopping or house hunting.” he said.

An official statement from the company said that the concept was conceived as a result of customer usage data analysis. The Company launched an MVP (minimal viable product) to validate the data and hypothesis. Rapido Rental operates in six tier-I Indian cities including Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad in the south. Rapido, which launched its operation in Chennai with 500 bikes in 2019, has around 90,000 ‘captains’ (riders) who share the earnings with the company.

Transportation activist R Rengachari said, “Given the significant reduction in MTC’s small buses and share autorickshaws hiking fare, bike taxis would attract more passengers.” he said.

25,000 vax doses wasted in TN; give them to elderly, say doctors

25,000 vax doses wasted in TN; give them to elderly, say doctors

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:11.02.2021 

More than 25,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have gone waste following low turnout at vaccination centres across Tamil Nadu since the launch of the nationwide drive on January 16. The directorate of public health, which is responsible for the drive in the state, said nearly 15% of the shots have gone waste after vaccinating 1,97,114 people until Wednesday.

With several elderly and vulnerable people waiting for their shots across Tamil Nadu, senior epidemiologists, virologists and infectious diseases experts are now demanding that the vaccination drive be opened to general public, with priority to elderly and those with comorbid conditions. “This will reduce wastage. Some people may jump the queue, but even that may still be better than wasting precious doses. At least 100 countries across the globe are still waiting for their first dose,” said infectious diseases expert Dr Subramaniam Swaminathan, who has been treating Covid-19 patients.

‘WON’T LET SELECT STATES SHIFT COURSE’

Ready to give shot to elderly, waiting for Centre nod: TN

Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had recently tweeted that the government is ensuring that no vial or session is wasted and in case of absenteeism, vaccines are being allotted to other beneficiaries.

The Covid vaccines Covishield or Covaxin come in 10 or 20 dose vials and have to be used within four hours after being opened. But with poor turnout, several vials containing unused doses are moved into special boxes labelled as “unusable vials”. Public health officials said vaccinators cannot offer the vaccine to willing elderly or those with comorbid conditions because the national programme does not allow vaccination of people who are not registered on the centralized Cowin portal. “We are told that it cannot be given to anyone other than registered healthcare providers or frontline workers,” said joint director immunization Dr K Vinay Kumar.

Senior virologist Dr T Jacob John says when Covid-19 cases are coming down, the goal should be prevention of severe disease and death along with strategies for safe reopening. “We should give the first dose of the vaccine to the targeted groups as early as possible even if that delays the second dose to health workers,” he said. Studies also show that the efficacy goes from 54% to 82% when the vaccine’s second dose of Covishield is delayed from 28 days to 12 weeks, he added.

State health minister C Vijayabaskar said the state has written to the Centre seeking permission to offer the vaccine to vulnerable groups. “If they permit us we will be able to start vaccinations. This can reduce wastage too,” he said.

The Union health ministry, however, said it will not be able to “permit select states change the course” of the national programme. During their interaction with state officials over videoconference on Tuesday, central government officials have asked the state to wrap up the first dose of vaccinations for healthcare providers in another 10 days, but did not allow the state to expand coverage to elderly group. Director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam said the state has told healthcare workers it would cancel their “priority” if they do not get vaccinated.