Airport waits for a Pied Piper to free terminal of cats and rats

Airport waits for a Pied Piper to free terminal of cats and rats

Tamaghna.Banerjee@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:02.10.2021

The city airport authorities are seeking professional cat and mouse catchers to get the terminal free of rodents and felines after a portion of the false ceiling and accompanying aluminium cladding fell off last Tuesday, startling an airline crew and narrowly missing a flyer.

The aluminium cladding that fell beside the entrance to a toilet in the departure terminal had also brought down a cat. An internal inquiry showed the animal was up there because of rats, which brought into focus the problem of rodents at the airport. Airport authorities have decided to hire an NGO to relocate the cats and a government pest control agency to exterminate the rats.

“The rat infestation has been a problem with the Kolkata airport. We have asked the central warehousing corporation in charge of rodent control and pest control at airports to look into the issue,” said airport director C Pattabhi.

An airport official said the rats mostly hide inside the false ceiling, electrical panels, hangars and apron areas. In January last year, a rat on a Dehradun-bound Air India plane from Kolkata had forced the airline to abort the trip at Varanasi, let out passengers and accommodate them in hotels for 24 hours as staffers looked for the rodent.

After Tuesday’s incident, Twitter was abuzz with posts on cat sighting inside the terminals. A Twitter user posted a seven-second video of a cat sitting comfortably on a bench in the airport cafeteria.

In the last year, multiple Twitter users have posted photographs of different cats roaming inside different parts of the terminal.

“I have spotted them quite often, but they are mostly harmless, sitting or quietly walking around,” said Sutirtha Basu, a frequent flyer.

“Cats come here in search of rats and leftover food. We have requested an animal welfare NGO to help us catch and relocate them,” said Pattabhi.

TOI contacted one of the animal welfare NGOs that had earlier been contacted by the Kolkata airport with a similar plea. “It’s not right to relocate a harmless animal, like a cat or a dog. The airport authorities had earlier requested us to relocate them, but we had told them we can only sterilise the animals. Following this, they didn’t contact us any more,” said Lopamudra Basu, secretary, Pashupati Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Dum Dum.

Court: Pay school fee dues by Oct 25

Court: Pay school fee dues by Oct 25

‘No Rustication, All Kids Be Allowed To Take Exams’

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey & Subrata Chattoraj

Kolkata:02.10.2021

The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed all defaulting parents to pay their school fee arrears by October 25. Schools have been directed not to rusticate any kid for the time being and allow all of them to sit for boards, annual or mid-term exams. Parents will have the right to pay “disputed” and “undisputed” amounts separately.

The order given by the division bench of Justice I P Mukerji and Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya said the court received affidavits from schools, saying their outstanding fees added up to a substantial amount, running into crores, and that if the fees were not received it would be difficult for schools to run or pay bonus to their employees in the festive period.

The order, however, mentioned that the court had also received several contempt petitions from parents, claiming schools were not charging the amounts according to the HC order of October 13, 2020. This order stated that parents had suffered due to the pandemic and could be allowed to pay 80% of the tuition fees. But “a dispute has been raised that the bills raised by the schools and other educational institutions are not in accordance with the said order”, Friday’s order stated. Many parents had filed contempt petitions that schools were charging much more than what the court had specified and that they had paid amounts, which were the court-sanctioned amounts. Many schools had allegedly refused to accept these calculations done by parents. This led to a deadlock and schools had clubbed parents, who had paid according to this calculation, with defaulting guardians.

Friday’s order clarified that parents would have to clear the entire amount decided upon by schools by October 25, but they could segregate the fees as “undisputed” and “disputed” portions and label them accordingly during the payment. “The school authorities will be entitled to straightaway appropriate the admitted amount. They shall also receive the disputed amount, deposit the same in a separate account and keep an account,” Friday’s order said.

The court has asked each school to file an affidavit, to show the amounts they received according to Friday’s order, prepare a list of defaulting parents and the total amount due from each of them. The court will hear both sides on December 3. Meanwhile, no school could rusticate any student and would have to allow them to sit for all exams, court said.

“The direction of the court upon parents to pay fees by October 25 in the manner provided in the order will help schools to run and maintain them for the benefit of all the stakeholders,” said lawyer Sourav Bhagat, who represented Birla High School, South Point School, MP Birla Foundation, Shri Shikshayatan.

Parents’ groups also lauded the order. “Most parents are facing a stand-off with school authorities because there has been a dispute over the outstanding amount. We welcome the order. We will now see how many school managements take this order seriously,” said Sanjeev Sharma, secretary of United Parents’ Protection Forum.

Ayodhya railway station new building to be ready by Dec

Ayodhya railway station new building to be ready by Dec

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow:02.10.2021

After months of delay, Indian Railways has announced that as part of the ambitious remodelling and upgradation project of Ayodhya railway station, its new two-storey building will be completed by December.

The station, being developed in two phases, is expected to cater to 1 lakh passengers per day. In the first phase, the two-storey structure on platform 1 will be able to handle 15,000 passengers on an average on regular days and 25,000 on peak days such as Dussehra, Ram Navami, Diwali, and parikrama days. After second-phase completion, the station can handle four times more passengers.

Divisional railway manager Lucknow (NR) Suresh Kumar Sapra said, “The new building to be completed by December will cater to all needs of pilgrims like dormitories, cloakrooms, sick rooms, shops, food court, circulating area, escalators, air conditioning, retiring room, LED billboards, mela shed, parking, new access road to station and others.”

“However, the 2-foot overbridge connecting the new building will be completed by March 2022,” he said.

The first phase was expected to be completed by June but the deadline was shifted to September. With the delay, the cost of construction has also increased from the initial Rs 104 crore to Rs 134 crore.

Unit at KGMU to remove pathogens from blood products

Unit at KGMU to remove pathogens from blood products

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow:02.10.2021

A machine to remove pathogens from blood products will be installed in the blood transfusion and medicine department of King George’s Medical University soon.

The machine will remove a range of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses such as HIV, parasites such as malaria, and white blood cells in blood products. This will reduce the risks of disease transmission and side-effects from blood transfusions.

Making this announcement on Friday at a function to mark National Voluntary Blood Donation Day, vice-chancellor Lt Gen Bipin Puri claimed that KGMU will be the first in the country to install such a machine.

“We are in talks with state authorities for installation and it will be available in four-five months,” he added.

Head of transfusion medicine department Prof Tulika Chandra said, “Patients with low immunity, blood disorders, cancer, and transplant are vulnerable to various diseases transmitted through blood transfusion. They will be benefited with the arrival of the machine.”

Meanwhile, 43 voluntary blood donors/motivators and NGOs working for blood donations were facilitated.

Governor Anandiben Patel, the chief guest, said, “Every eligible student should donate blood at least twice a year. Special camps should be organized at universities for this purpose.”

Special guest and medical education minister Suresh Khanna said, “All medical colleges will be directed to raise awareness and motivate people for blood donation.”

Law minister Brijesh Pathak said voluntary blood donation camps should be organized often.

Governor Anandiben Patel with ministers Brijesh Pathak and Suresh Khanna

Guinness record holder turns to carpentry

Guinness record holder turns to carpentry

Ramavarman T@timesgroup.com

Thrissur:02.10.2021

“Images do not matter…My family’s hunger will not end if I play flute to them,’’ says Murali Narayanan, a flautist who once set a Guinness World Record for playing flute continuously for 108 hours but now working as a carpenter to eke out a living ever since the pandemic rendered him jobless.

Curiously, it is Murali Narayanan a disciple of the flautist himself who is teaching him carpentry. Murali lives in a small house at a rehabilitation colony at Thalikulam with his aged mother, wife and three children. He had studied up to Class X, but could not continue studies as he had to look after his mother and sisters after his father died at an early age.

He had initially studied painting, and then trained in vocals as well as Nadaswaram, which he picked up under the Gurukula system by staying at the house of his teacher Engandiyur Krishnankutty Asan. Murali developed an interest in flute after he listened to sessions conducted by Nandakumar, Krishnankutty Asan’s son.

Murali set the record by playing flute for 108 hours at Thekkinkadu Maidan on December 28, 2019. The earlier record was in the name of a British woman Catherine Brook who had played for 27 hours 32 and minutes.

Murali has been a part of the dance troupes of Kalamandalam Kshemavathi and Manju Warrier. He has also conducted programmes in Germany, Estonia, Philippines and in the Gulf countries.

“I have not been able to go for any programmes in 2018, as I had to prepare for the marathon flute recital. It was scheduled to be held on August 2018, but then the floods came. In 2019 too I was jobless. The Guinness Record programme itself saddled me with a debt of Rs 15 lakh. Personally I have a debt of another Rs 10 lakh,’’ says Murali, adding that he waited long for the Covid to end. “But eventually I realised that I unless get some work, I would not be able to support my family. I was ready even to work even as a sanitation worker,’’ he says.

Murali’s friends were reluctant to take him along for taking up other jobs, considering his wide recognition.

Murali Narayanan working as a carpenter

Plea challenges maternity Act provision

Plea challenges maternity Act provision

New Delhi:02.10.2021

The Supreme Court Friday sought response from the Centre on a plea challenging the Constitutional validity of a provision of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which states that a woman would be eligible for maternity leave who legally adopts a child below the age of three months.

A bench of Justices S A Nazeer and Krishna Murari issued notices to the Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Women & Child Development while seeking their responses on the PIL which said Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 was discriminatory and arbitrary.

A woman who legally adopts a child below the age of three months or a commissioning mother shall be entitled to maternity benefit for a period of twelve weeks from the date the child is handed over to thesadopting mother or the commissioning mother, as the case may be. PTI

TN orders man-eater tiger to be shot dead

TN orders man-eater tiger to be shot dead

Udhagamandalam:02.10.2021

With the elusive man eater tiger killing one more person on Friday, the fourth in recent days, the Chief Conservator of Forests Sekhar Kumar Niraj issued orders to shoot it dead immediately.

After the tiger, which had killed a shepherd in an estate near Gudalur, about 80 km from here, on Friday last, the forest department started search operations to trap the feline by tranquilising it.

However, the tiger, with injuries, gave the slip to nearly 100 forest department staff and officials, including some from the Special Task Force from Kerala and two tamed elephants for the last six days.

The carnivore was found roaming in Mayfield, two km from the spot on September 29 and it killed a goat. The tiger entered Attakarai, coming under Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, some 40 km from the estate and killed an 85-year old man this afternoon, creating panic among villagers, who demanded action to trap it.

Gudalur MLA Pon Jayaseelan had also sought immediate action.

The tiger has so far killed four people, 20 cows and a goat.

Department sources said Niraj gave the order, considering the seriousness of the situation and failure to tranquilise the animal. PTI