Pre-departure RT-PCR test a major headache

Pre-departure RT-PCR test a major headache

Ayyappan.V@timesgroup.com

Chennai:11.110.2021

Taking pre-departure rapid RT-PCR tests at Chennai airport’s international terminal, compulsory for those going to countries in the Middle East, especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has become a problem, with little social distancing.

Poor crowd control and a lengthy procedure involving paying money, offering samples and receiving reports make it a hassle. Those who have to reach the airport 5-6 hours before departure are forced to crowd in front of the counters to give samples and obtain the results between 12am and 5am for early morning flights. There are no Airports Authority of India (AAI) staff or Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel to regulate things. Online registration can be done, but the queue system is inefficient, say passengers. Arun B, who recently travelled to Dubai, said he had to wait for almost half an hour to collect a form for the rapid test. “People have to fill it up, stand in a queue to make payment and then go into another queue to give samples and then hang around for announcements to collect the report. The announcements are not clear, making people crowd around closer to listen.”

The payment of Rs 3,400 should be made online to save time, he said. “People are sometimes told to come back later after they reach the counter because they would have reached too early and some other passenger had to be given priority due to early flight timings. The worst part is the form filled manually has to be filled again online.” The entire purpose of the tests is defeated as it makes it a place to spread Covid, Arun added.

Basheer Ahmed of Chennai Metro Travels said the process is not done professionally. “There is an option to pay online but it is not easy. We have got inputs from passengers saying they had to go too early for the tests because of the crowd. There are around four flights early in the morning.” An AAI official promised to streamline the procedure and make it online. “Crowd control measures will be adopted. The test for arriving passengers too will be expanded to provide space because the number of flights has increased.”

No Covid deaths in Chennai for second consecutive day

No Covid deaths in Chennai for second consecutive day

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:11.10.2021

For the second consecutive day, not a single person in Chennai succumbed to Covid-19. Besides Chennai, another 29 districts in Tamil Nadu including Coimbatore reported no Covid-19 deaths on Sunday.

So far, a total of 35,783 have died of the virus in the state. This included 15 deaths reported on Sunday.

For more than two months, the state's case fatality ratio hasn't come down. It has hovered around 1.3%. It means for every 100 confirmed cases, at least one died of Covid-19.

But the number of fresh infections has continued to decline in Tamil Nadu. On Sunday, 1,329 tested positive for the virus.

Though Chennai reported the maximum number of cases (164), the test positivity rate (TPR) of the district remained unchanged at 0.8% this week, which was below the state's average of 0.9 %.

Coimbatore, which stood second on Sunday's infection chart with 157 fresh cases, has a slightly higher TPR of 1.3%. Erode is another western district with a similar TPR. Namakkal (64 new cases) in this region had the highest TPR of 2 % on Sunday.

"As the vaccine coverage has increased, the infection rate has reduced in 18 Tamil Nadu districts compared to last month and many were in western Tamil Nadu", said J Radhakrishnan, state health secretary.

However, those with fever should immediately contact the nearest hospital instead of self-medication, he told reporters on Sunday.

But on the flipside, the number of samples tested at TN labs has dropped last month. Earlier, it was above 1.55 lakh a day. But it has dropped to 1.4 lakh now.

HC upholds relief for accident victim’s kin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:11.10.2021

The Madras high court has confirmed the compensation awarded to the family members of a car driver who was killed in a road accident when a government bus collided with his car in Sivaganga in November 2004.

Kannan was driving a car on Thirupathur-Sivaganga Road when the bus coming in the opposite direction collided with it, killing him on the spot. His family members moved the motor accidents claims tribunal for compensation. The tribunal directed the transport corporation to pay ₹17.07 lakh compensation to the victim’s family as the accident happened due to the rash and negligent bus driver. It was also asked to pay ₹40,000 to the car owner who also sought compensation. The transport corporation challenged both the orders before HC Madurai bench.

The standing counsel for the transport corporation submitted that the bus driver had stated that the accident occurred due to the negligence of the car driver against whom a criminal case was also registered. Without considering these facts, the tribunal had erroneously fixed negligence on the bus driver, he said.

A division bench of Justice V Bharathidasan and JusticeJ Nisha Banu observed that an eyewitness had stated that the accident had occurred due to the negligence of the bus driver. The evidence of the bus driver cannot be taken into consideration as he is an interested witness. The transport corporation did not examine any of the passengers on the bus to prove that the accident occurred due to the rash and negligent driving of the deceased. Therefore, the judges said the tribunal had rightly fixed the negligence on the part of the bus driver.

The judges observed that though the claimants, who are the widow, parents, minor child and unmarried brothers and sisters, are entitled to consortium of ₹40,000 each, the tribunal had not granted any amount to them.

The judges dismissed both the appeals by the transport corporation.

UGC asks all univs to campaign against single-use plastics

UGC asks all univs to campaign against single-use plastics

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:11.10.2021

The University Grants Commission on Friday asked universities and colleges to conduct impactful awareness campaign to avoid the single-use plastics as part of Centre’s ongoing Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav campaign.

“Awareness programmes to avoid single-use plastics have been identified as one of the themes for the campaign with a view to gather momentum, scale visibility and outreach,” UGC secretary Rajnish Jain said in a letter to the vicechancellors of all universities. The letter called for awareness on the recently notified Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, as well. The rules aim to phase out single-use plastics which have low utility and high littering potential by 2022.

53% absent for UPSC prelims exam in city

 53% absent for UPSC prelims exam in city

Chennai:11.10.2021

Of 28,422 candidates who registered for the Union Public Service Commission’s civil services preliminary exam from the city, only 13,216 candidates (47%) appeared for the exam on Sunday.

The exam, which was scheduled to be held on June 29, was postponed due to the Covid-19 second wave. Trainers said attendance varies each year depending on the vacancy and preparation of the candidates.

According to aspirants, the general studies paper on Sunday was a mixed one with less questions from current affairs and geography. “More than 20 questions were from history and few were from current affairs. Unusually, the UPSC asked three questions from sports,” a candidate said.

Another candidate said the questions were interpretative and not straight forward this year.

“The general studies paper was tougher than last year, the aptitude test was more or less the same,” said S Chandru, academic head, Shankar IAS Academy.

Israel Jebasingh, founder and director of Officers Training Academy, said the cut-off will be 96 or 97 marks out of 200, which will be slightly higher compared to last year. TNN

Online quiz to up discussion skills of Class X students

 Online quiz to up discussion skills of Class X students

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:11.10.2021

The school education department is conducting weekly online quiz every Saturday to spur Class X students to take part in classroom discussions, The basic quiz is aimed at bridging the gap in learning for government school students who have been learning through Kalvi TV video lessons in the past 18 months.

The quiz is designed based on the learning outcomes of Class IX and X lessons. A quiz is conducted for 90 minutes and students have to attend 10 objective type questions from each of the five subjects at a hi-tech lab in high and higher secondary schools.

After each quiz, the department sends questions with correct answers for classroom discussions.

"The questions will not be directly from textbooks and the performance will not be counted for any evaluation. The main purpose is to initiate classroom discussions as these children were away from schools for a long time," an official from the school education department said.

The department is planning to conduct eight quizzes, and so far, four have been completed.

However, teachers said students are finding it difficult to answer the questions as a majority of the questions are from outside the textbooks.

"It's a good move, however, the internet speed in hitech labs is very slow and many students could not submit their responses due to poor net connection. The state government should provide high speed internet connectivity to government schools on priority basis," said A Peter Raja, president, Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary School Headmasters' Association.

Railways wants to shut down schools, shift students to KVs

Railways wants to shut down schools, shift students to KVs

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:11,10,.2021

The Railway Board has once again mooted a proposal to shut down schools run by zonal railways which don’t have a significant number of students on their rolls. Those schools with substantial number of students may be merged with Kendriya Vidyalayas, the board said.

In a letter issued on September 28, Mahesh Kumar Meena, joint director (establishment) in Railway Board wrote to zonal railways to assess schools managed by them.

This is in line with the board's instructions which stipulate that ‘efforts should be made to progressively close down existing railway schools matching the expansion of KVs and other nonrailway schools.’ Eventually, railway schools would be transferred to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).

This is being done to optimise the utilisation of resources spent on running schools, the letter stated. “A quota for children of railway employees might be given in KVs,” the letter stated.

The letter has asked zonal railways to identify railway schools which can be handed over to KVs and also close down schools where the enrolment is small and where it is not feasible to merge it with another institution.

Southern Railway runs seven schools (six of which are in Tamil Nadu), which has a total enrolment of 2627. Amount allotted to them is around Rs 20 lakh. These schools are in Perambur, Arakkonam, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Erode, Pothanur and Palakkad.

M Suryaprakash, working general secretary of Southern Railway Employees Sangh (SRES), which is one of the unions representing employee issues, said that this was a move keeping in line with the Union government’s plan to privatise railways.

“Facilities like schools and hospitals were created by Railways for the benefit of its vast number of employees. It is the government’s responsibility to maintain and upgrade them, instead of shutting it down. Railway schools can offer some special railway related subjects that can help students prepare for a career in the organisation,” he said.