Chennai residents can now book vaccination slots through website, WhatsApp or phone call

Chennai residents can now book vaccination slots through website, WhatsApp or phone call

Alternatively, residents may also call up 044-4612 2300 or WhatsApp 9499933644 to book a time slot.

Published: 24th June 2021 06:53 PM 

A health worker adminsters vaccine to people at the free vaccination camp conducted at Don Bosco School, Egmore, in Chennai on Saturday.

 (Photo | Debadatta Mallick, EPS)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: City residents may now register a slot at Chennai Corporation's vaccination centres through the website https://www.chennaicorporation.gov.in/gcc/covid-details/.

Through the website, the residents may choose a centre according to their zones and choose a time slot.

Alternatively, residents may also call up 044-4612 2300 or WhatsApp 9499933644 to book a time slot.

According to a city corporation statement on Thursday, only one-third of the doses allotted to a particular centre will be available for booking through the website or the above phone numbers. The remaining will be reserved for those who go to the centres in person.

The site was launched at Ripon buildings on Thursday by Municipal Administration Minister KN Nehru along with the Secretary for Municipal Administration and Water Supply department, Shiv Das Meena and Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi.

மதுரை 'எய்ம்ஸ்' அருகே ரயில்வே ஸ்டேஷன்

மதுரை 'எய்ம்ஸ்' அருகே ரயில்வே ஸ்டேஷன்

Added : ஜூன் 25, 2021 02:06

மதுரை:மதுரை தோப்பூரில், 'எய்ம்ஸ்' மருத்துவமனை அமையும் இடம் அருகே திருப்பரங்குன்றத்தில் இருந்து, 4.5 கி.மீ., துாரத்தில் ரயில்வே ஸ்டேஷன் அமைப்பது குறித்து, தெற்கு ரயில்வே பரிசீலித்து வருகிறது.

தென்மாவட்ட மக்களின் நீண்ட நாள் கோரிக்கையை ஏற்று, மதுரை தோப்பூரில் எய்ம்ஸ் அமைக்க, 2019 ஜன., 27ல் பிரதமர் மோடி அடிக்கல் நாட்டினார். 224 ஏக்கரில் 750 படுக்கைகளுடன் உள் நோயாளிகள், வெளிநோயாளிகள் பிரிவு, 100 எம்.பி.பி.எஸ்., மற்றும் 60 செவிலியர் இடங்களுடன், மருத்துவக் கல்லுாரியுடன் கூடிய எய்ம்ஸ் மருத்துவமனை இங்கு அமையவுள்ளது.

திருச்சி முதல் கன்னியாகுமரி வரையிலான மத்திய மற்றும் தென் மாவட்டத்தினர் இங்கு சிகிச்சை பெறலாம். செங்கோட்டை, கன்னியாகுமரி, திருநெல்வேலி, துாத்துக்குடி, திருச்சி, ராமேஸ்வரம், கோவை உள்ளிட்ட ரயில் வழித்தடங்களில், பயணியர் சிகிச்சை பெற வரலாம்.

எதிர்கால தேவையை கருத்தில் கொண்டு, எய்ம்ஸ் மருத்துவமனை அருகே ரயில்வே ஸ்டேஷன் அமைப்பது அவசியமாகிறது. கன்னியாகுமரி மாவட்டம், குளச்சல் தொகுதி எம்.எல்.ஏ., பிரின்ஸ், இது குறித்து தெற்கு ரயில்வேக்கு கடிதம் அனுப்பிஇருந்தார்.

இதற்கு பதிலளித்து, தெற்கு ரயில்வே போக்குவரத்து பிரிவு மூத்த மேலாளர் பரத்குமார் அனுப்பிய கடிதம்:எய்ம்ஸ் அருகே ரயில்வே ஸ்டேஷன் அமைக்கும் கோரிக்கை பரிசீலிக்கப் படுகிறது. திருமங்கலம், திருப்பரங்குன்றம் ரயில்வே ஸ்டேஷன்களுக்கு மத்தியில் எய்ம்ஸ் மருத்துவமனை அமையவுள்ளது.

திருப்பரங்குன்றத்தில் இருந்து எய்ம்ஸ் அமையுமிடம் 4.5 கி.மீ., துாரத்தில் உள்ளது. தற்போது கூடுதல் கிராசிங் ஸ்டேஷன் வழங்க தேவையில்லை. இருப்பினும் ரயில்கள் நிறுத்தத்திற்கான முன்மொழிவு, தேவைகளின் அடிப்படையில் பரிசீலிக்கப்படும்.இவ்வாறு அதில் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

Transport dept extends validity of ‘travel as you please’ passes

Transport dept extends validity of ‘travel as you please’ passes

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:26.06.2021

Tamil Nadu transport department has extended the validity of ₹1,000 ‘travel as you please’ (TAYP) passes, which expired duringthe total lockdown.

Accordingly, passes which were valid for travelling in MetropolitanTransport Corporation (MTC) buses between May 16 and June 15 will be valid till July 15. These passes will be sold till Saturday (June 26) at 29 bus depots in the city, where they are usually sold only till June 22. Close to 1.4 lakh use these TAYP passes every month, according to an official release.

Besides this, MTC sells monthly seasonal tickets to 40,000 regular bususers a month. Validity of these tickets too has been extended till July15, said transport minister R S Rajakannappan. After 43 days, MTC resumed bus services in Chennai on Monday and is operating close to 2,000 buses every day.

No time curbs for women to travel on suburban trains

No time curbs for women to travel on suburban trains

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:25.05.2021

Southern Railway has allowed more categories of people including women to travel by suburban trains and has increased the number of services from 478 to 630 on weekdays from Friday.

Women will be allowed without time restrictions. They will be issued return tickets while men who work in non-essential sectors will be allowed only during nonpeak hours (early morning to 7am and 9.30am to 4.30pm and 7pm onwards) with single journey tickets.

Passengers with a reserved ticket in a mail/express trains will also be allowed to travel in suburban trains to reach railway stations to board trains.

People who reach the city by mail/express trains will also be allowed to board suburban trains.

Those who work in state government or Union government departments, public sector units, high courts and courts and staff of the private sector will be allowed to travel with a permission letter and identity cards.

There will be no change in the number of trains on Sundays, said a press release.

There will be 123 services on Moore Market Complex - Avadi/Tiruvallur/Arakkonam/Tiruttani route, 126 services on Tiruttani/Arakkonam/Tiruvallur/Avadi - Moore Market Complex route.

There will be 42 services on Moore Market Complex - Gummidipoondi /Sullurupeta route, 42 services on Sullurupeta / Gummidipoondi - Moore Market Complex route, 116 services on Chennai Beach – Tambaram/Chengalpet/Tirumalpur route, 116 services on Tirumalpur/Chengalpet/Tambaram - Chennai Beach route, 33 services on Chennai Beach - Velachery route, 32 services on Velachery - Chennai Beach route.

Two loot 19 ATMs with unique trick - The Times Of India

Two loot 19 ATMs with unique trick - The Times Of India

Target Only One Type Of Machines; Search On

Selvaraj.A@timesgroup.com

Chennai:

Police are on the lookout for two men who stole at least ₹48 lakh from 19 ATMs of the SBI across the state, seven of them within the city. SBI has suspended ATM withdrawals across the country and officials are trying to work out how the men managed to steal the money only from a particular kind of Japanese-made cash deposit machines.

In the past three days, the Chennai police have received seven complaints of cash missing from SBI ATMs. Camera footage from the ATM kiosk at Vadapalani showed two suspects, one of them wearing a helmet, withdrawing cash three times, a total of ₹69,000, on June 19. The incident came to light on Tuesday after the SBI bank officials confirmed ₹69,000 was unaccounted for. Similar incidents were reported at six SBI ATM kiosks in Velachery, Taramani, Virugambakkam and Ramapuram. All the incidents took place between June 17 and 19. A similar pattern of robberies has also been reported in other states within the last week.

Following this, SBI’s Chennai regional general manager Radha Krishnan met city police commissioner Shankar Jiwal and submitted a complaint. Radha Krishnan told reporters: “As a precautionary measure, we have suspended all SBI withdrawals across India. The theft took place only through one type of cash deposit machine.”

Commissioner Jiwal said, “The robbery took place using a small technical glitch in the machines. All the 7 cases have been recorded on CCTV cameras. The footage is being examined. We will check with other banks if they have had similar thefts.”

A special team has been formed led by additional commissioner N Kannan to catch the ATM robbers. Police sources said preliminary inquiries revealed that the duo had created a savings account in SBI using fake documents and had at least ₹20,000 cash in it. Police suspect they used some kind of device to block the sensors of the machines. They would withdraw cash from the machine and wait till the machine started to pull it back in. They would then quickly remove the cash but the machine would show it had been deposited back in, is what the cops suspect they did with the help of their device. SBI officials have got in touch with the machine’s manufacturers in Japan to resolve the issue.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT: The suspects at a Vadapalani ATM kiosk

City’s RTI activists urge TN to start portal for e-filing of applications

City’s RTI activists urge TN to start portal for e-filing of applications 

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

Right to Information (RTI) Act activists in the city are keenly awaiting the newly elected DMK-led Tamil Nadu government to effect changes in the way the Act is implemented in the state.

For starters, activists want the state government to implement filing of RTIs through an online portal for all government departments.

The previous AIADMK-led government had implemented online filing of RTIs on a trial basis only for the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (P&AR) department. However, with a glut in applications, the portal has been forced to clarify that only applications pertaining to the department would be accepted.

In neighbouring Puducherry, RTI applications to more than 50 departments can be filed online through the Central government’s portal rtionline.gov.in.

Pavan Gandhi, an RTI activist and advocate, said that the software of the central government is available and it is not impossible to replicate it at the state level. “But the question is whether the government wants to be transparent. Online filing of RTI applications makes it easier for the applicant while physical filing is cumbersome. Reduced paperwork in the wake of Covid-19 is also good,” he said.

Veteran RTI activist V Gopalakrishnan said that state finance minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, who heads the P&AR department, is an internationally noted figure and hence should bring in similar transparency measures. “We have been discussing this online filing of RTIs since 2014. When we have brought in the best economists in the world to advise our state government, why shouldn’t our technology also be advanced,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Activists also pointed out that buying a court fee stamp for ₹10, which is a pre-requisite for physical RTI applications, is cumbersome as availability is limited. “Also, many vendors charge ₹2-3 extra for the court fee stamp,” Gopalakrishnan said.

The previous AIADMK-led government had implemented online filing of RTIs on a trial basis for the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (P&AR) department

TN seeks Centre’s nod to start UG medical courses in 11 new colleges

TN seeks Centre’s nod to start UG medical courses in 11 new colleges

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:23.06.2021 

The state is awaiting approval from the National Medical Commission to start undergraduate medical programmes in the 11 newly constructed medical colleges from 2021, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said on Tuesday. If the state gets the nod, it will add 1,650 seats to the undergraduate seat matrix, pushing the seat tally to 5,200 across government medical colleges.

The government has already appointed faculty and staff and work on construction of buildings has been expedited. “As per the NMC guidelines, we have made the campus ready for first year admissions. We are waiting for the committee to visit these campuses for inspection,” he said. The committee is likely to come for inspection next month. “If they find any discrepancies, we will rectify them before the second inspection,” he said after a meeting with members of Tamil Nadu Medical Council. The meeting was chaired by health minister Ma Subramanian.

As part of the national mission to increase the number of medical colleges across the country, the Centre had granted permission to Tamil Nadu for commencement of 11 new medical colleges in districts in Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, The Nilgiris, Ariyalur, Nagapattinam, Kallakurichi, Tiruvallur, Tiruppur, Namakkal and Krishnagiri. The state, he said, was confident of getting their nod for all colleges.

The anatomy, physiology and biochemistry labs, library, hostels ₹ required for first year students ₹ have been completed. Tamil Nadu has allotted ₹2,470.93 crore during the interim budget in 2021 for these colleges. With this, most districts in the state will have at least one government medical college.

Besides increasing the number of seats, these colleges will help expand tertiary care to districts. The new medical colleges will help the health department provide quality medical training at affordable cost and offer speciality and super speciality care to people living in the area free of cost. “We are ensuring that the functioning 700-750 bed hospitals attached to these colleges have all the facilities to offer quality care,” he said.

Meanwhile, Subramanian said the doctors have placed their demands for better pay and compensation. “We know doctors have toiled through the pandemic...Their demand for pay government doctors’ pay hike was made in 2009. I will discuss the issue with the CM,” he said.