Vaccination slows, 17.1 lakh get jabs in 7th mega camp

Vaccination slows, 17.1 lakh get jabs in 7th mega camp

Rain Plays Spoilsport In Many Parts Of The State

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:31.10.2021

Two lakh staff, thousands of volunteers, 50,000 vaccination camps, more than 8,000 vehicles in addition to public campaigns and door-to-door canvassing by nurses could bring less than 20 lakh people to the seventh mega vaccination camp on Saturday.

By 8.15pm, the immunization division attached to the directorate of preventive medicine announced 17.1 lakh people visited vaccination camps. Among these 10.8 lakh people have taken the first dose. The slowdown in vaccinations across the state has often been attributed to a combination of misinformation and mistrust, branded by public health workers in the state as vaccine hesitancy. On Saturday, officials said, rain in many parts of the state brought down attendance in camps.

As a result, more than 1.7crore adults in the state haven’t taken even one dose of the vaccine and nearly 50 lakh are due for their second dose – some of them are due since May. “Most people who haven't been vaccinated are either reluctant, anxious or procrastinating,” said health secretary J Radhakrishnan.

Many people who took vaccines over the last one week told TOI that they were forced to roll up their sleeves because of unavoidable reasons. “I am not averse to vaccination. I just didn’t think it was required,” said a senior citizen S Rajeshwari, who took the vaccine at a primary health center in Chennai on Thursday. For months, she and her husband were not willing to take the vaccine, until her son insisted. “He works for a corporate company. His office has made it mandatory for members of the house to get vaccinated. If we don’t take it, he will not be able to go back to work,” she said.

People had different ways to reach the vaccination centers on Saturday, but most of them said they made the decision abruptly, after months of inaction. “I got sick of wearing the mask all day at college. I wear them even when I step out with friends for coffee. They keep reminding me to wear it properly as I am not vaccinated. I came here today because I am sick of it,” said a 19-year-old college student, Sakshi A.

Vellore-based senior virologist Dr T Jacob John said many people should be encouraged to take this path quickly. “Fresh cases are down; hospitals are empty and there are no longer stringent lockdowns. So, people are probably assuming we are safe,” he said. “Vaccines can stop the new surge. We must get all our vulnerable people covered,” he said.

11 districts report increase in cases

Chennai:31.10.2021

Eleven districts reported an increase in cases on Saturday when the fresh cases in the state dropped to 1,021 from 1,039 on Friday.

The state reported14 deaths and discharged 1,172 people from the registry. At the end of the day, there were 11,685 active cases and the cumulative toll tally reached 36,097. On Friday Chennai reported 126 new cases and Coimbatore recorded 118.

At least 25 districts reported fewer than 20 cases each on Saturday. With two new cases Ramanathapuram reported the least number of cases followed by three each in Tenkasi and Mayiladuthurai.

Of the 14 deaths reported on Saturday, there were three in Coimbatore and two each in Erode, Trichy and Nagapattinam. Chengalpattu, Salem, Kancheepuram, Thiruvarur and Ranipet reported one death each. Twenty nine districts reported zero deaths. TNN

Over 4L get 2 doses of vax in Puducherry

More than four lakh people have taken two doses of Covid-19 vaccine while more than seven lakh people have taken one dose of the vaccine so far in the Union territory of Puducherry. Healthcare authorities have so far administered 11.26 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine. They have tested 19.13 lakh swab samples of which 16.16 lakh samples returned negative.

The territory reported 39 fresh cases even as 48 patients recovered in the last 24 hours ending at 10am on Saturday bringing down the active cases to 437.

The territory did not report any Covid-19 death for the sixth consecutive day. The death toll remained at 1,857. Puducherry headquarters reported the maximum fatalities with 1,453 followed by Karikal (250), Yanam (107) and Mahe (47). TNN

33 OFFICES RAIDED

Diwali ‘gifts’: DVAC seizes over ₹18L cash, liquor worth ₹6.5L

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:31,10,2021

Directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) officials recovered ₹18.2 lakh unaccounted cash, liquor worth ₹6.5 lakh and 36 boxes of crackers as Diwali gifts during surprise raids at 33 government offices in the state on Friday evening.

The raids conducted simultaneously were held in 14 departments — TNEB, transport, registration, fire and rescue, commercial tax, police, land reforms, taluk supply office, Tasmac, rural development, drug control, industrial safety and health, municipality and DTCP.

DVAC officials are planning for a mega raid in other places on Monday and Tuesday to prevent the last round of Diwali gifts being given to government officials.

Earlier, DVAC director and director-general of police P Kandaswamy had conducted meetings with subordinate officers to gather details of the corrupt officials in all the departments.

They scrutinised the officials based on their rapport with businessmen and politicians. The officers monitored the officials call log details and finalised the list of 60 officials as per the priority and the raid was kickstarted.

In a similar raid conducted in 2020, anti-corruption officials had seized ₹4.30 crore and 519 sovereigns of gold jewellery in the guise of festival gifts from government officials .

'Medical Practitioners Must Be Protected From Onslaught Of Frivolous Complaints': Madras High Court Issues Guidelines For National Medical Council

'Medical Practitioners Must Be Protected From Onslaught Of Frivolous Complaints': Madras High Court Issues Guidelines For National Medical Council: The Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed an order dated May 4, 2021 of the Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) suspending a gastroenterologist by observing that principles of natural justice were

Medicos wrap up Rhapsody with fashion show, DJ night

Medicos wrap up Rhapsody with fashion show, DJ night

Vivek Singh Chauhan TNN

Lucknow:28.10.2021

MBBS students of 2020 batch Simple Singh and Aryan Arora, along with their seniors from 2019 Sanya Dikshit and Siddhant Aggarwal, were conferred with Mr and Miss Rhapsody awards on the third and final day of the three-day annual cultural festival of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) on Wednesday.

The festival had to be cancelled for the past two years: in 2019 due to anti-CAA protests and in 2020 due to Covid.

This year, Rhapsody finally got its colour, and students joined with twice more enthusiasm.

The festival adorned with the colours of passion, fun, adventure, art, and skill culminated with a DJ Night, which students enjoyed immensely. The highlight of the final day was the selection of Mr and Miss Rhapsody and the fashion show ‘Allure’, in which around 300 students, along with 40 teachers, participated.

Medicos in diverse and trendy attire gave tough competition to fashion models. A ramp walk and question round followed in which participants gave spontaneous answers to judges to win the title.

Over three days, students exhibited singing, dancing, acting, and other talents. Along with this, competitions like poster making, skit, and medi-quiz were organized.

T colleges ignore NAAC tag, put education quality under lens

T colleges ignore NAAC tag, put education quality under lens

No Accreditation For About 90% T Colleges

State To Study Reasons, Guide Institutes

Preeti.Biswas@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:28.10.2021

With only 11% of higher educational institutions in Telangana being accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the council has now asked the state higher education department officials to take up an internal survey to know the reasons for not initiating or accelerating the accreditation process.

The NAAC had conducted a state-wise analysis of accredited higher education institutions in Telangana and released a report on October 26 in Bengaluru.

The report indicates that of the 1,976 colleges in Telangana, only 141 have a valid accreditation. Of these, 35 are government colleges, 19 are grant-in-aid colleges and 87 are private or self-financed colleges. Nationally, 21% colleges are NAAC accredited.

The NAAC accreditation assesses institutions on teaching, learning and evaluation, research and innovations, infrastructure and learning resources, student support and progression, governance and management, helping students to gauge quality of education in an institute. Based on the performance in each aspect, institutions are awarded grades A+, A, B++, B+, B, C and D.

While other states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala fare much better, Telangana is yet to make a mark.

Officials from the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) said there was no resistance among college managements to undergo NAAC assessment.

“Lower percentage of accredited colleges in Telangana is due to various shortcomings, especially in rural areas. Based on NAAC findings, we would try to understand the limitations of colleges and universities and accordingly work with them. We have also decided to financially help institutions in preparing NAAC documentations,” said R Limbadri, TSCHE chairman.

The NAAC officials said as the accreditation process was voluntary earlier, many did not come forward in the last many years.

“Now that the NAAC accreditation has been made mandatory to seek funds under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan scheme and other central schemes, many colleges are in the fray. Massive handholding is required to encourage institutions for accreditation,” said NAAC director SC Sharma.

As per NAAC figures, more than 200 colleges from Telangana are now at various stages to secure NAAC accreditation.

Students move out of T for better courses

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:

Poor quality of professional courses in Telangana has led to a gradual migration of students to neighbouring states, with several seats left vacant in courses such as engineering, management, BEd and law among others As per the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) report, more than 1.34 lakh engineering seats, 8,299 B Pharmacy seats and 33,632 management seats had no takers between academic year 2015-16 and 2018-19.

Experts admit that admissions in Telangana dropped as the exodus to deemed-to-be-universities and private universities in neighbouring states increased in the past few years.

“The deemed-to-be-universities are more innovative in curriculum. There is a huge pool of courses to choose and exposure is also higher. Therefore, they are in high demand compared to local institutions,” said DN Reddy, former vice-chancellor of JNTUH.

Vacancies and no research major challenges

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:

Vacant teaching positions, poor upkeep of institutions and no research in Telangana’s institutes have been identified as major challenges by NAAC.

“In almost all universities, a large number of faculty positions are lying vacant. The process of filling of vacancies for teaching and non-teaching staff has not been taken up. Consequently, the faculty student ratio as well as cadre ratio is low and there is dearth of permanent faculty,” read the report.

It said that even in colleges, there are very few permanent staff members and there needs to be a drastic improvement in faculty cadre ratio. Experts said that lack of faculty members has a cascading effect on the quality of education at large.

“When there are not enough faculty members, quality of teaching takes a backseat. Existing staff gets overburdened with many other responsibilities due to which neither are they able to take up enough research work nor are they able to guide enough PhD scholars,” said DN Reddy, former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad.

In addition to this, poor industry linkages and feedback mechanism, academic audits etc are among the other challenges that have been identified hindering the quality of education in higher institutions in the state.

Travel cos cautious on booking tickets to US

Travel cos cautious on booking tickets to US

Sudipta.Sengupta@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:28.10.2021

Lack of clarity over Covaxin’s validity among USA-bound travellers, has put city tour agents on guard. Worried about the fate of these passengers — and the repercussions for their business — most of them are steering clear of accepting requests for ticket bookings from people vaccinated with two shots of Covaxin. This, despite their desks being flooded with enquires from prospective flyers.

“We are getting a lot of calls from people who have taken Covaxin and want to travel to the US. At least 50% of our enquires comprise such travellers,” said Abdul Majid Faheem, Travel Agents Federation of India (Telangana and AP chapters).

Flyers hoping issue will be solved soon

“But we are not being able to entertain their requests because we are told they will not be allowed entry. If they get into trouble, it will adversely impact us as well. It’ll also become chaotic if we have to cancel them last minute,” added Faheem.

The confusion has been created by the World Health Organisation delaying its emergency use license (EUL) to Covaxin. WHO’s technical advisory group met recently and decided to ask for more data from Bharat Biotech before issuing the license.

TOI spoke to a number of airlines and travel agents across the country who said there was no clarity on whether a Covaxin-vaccinated person can travel to the US if he/she has a negative RTPCR test result.

“We hope this issue is resolved soon as there is a tremendous demand for the US at the moment and we do not want to lose out on business,” Faheem said.

Agrees Rajeev Kale, president and country head (holidays, MICE, visa) at Thomas Cook (India). According to him, reopening of the US borders and acceptance of doubly vaccinated Indians has created high demand from Hyderabad and Telangana.

“We are receiving not just queries, but also booking requests from customers who already have valid visas,” he said adding, “While we continue to receive interest from customers vaccinated with Covaxin shots too, we await approval from the US authorities before we are able to go ahead with such bookings.”

The uncertainty has left travellers in a dilemma. “I was hoping to spend Christmas with my extended family in New Jersey. I really hope the authorities clear this Covaxin issue before Christmas,” said Manikonda resident, Arjun Rao, who took his second Covaxin dose in June.

“We are also hoping for positive news for customers who are doubly jabbed with Covaxin to be allowed to travel soon,” said Daniel D’Souza, president and country head, SOTC Travel.

Ayodhya pilgrimage part of govt scheme

Ayodhya pilgrimage part of govt scheme

Pilgrim Programme To Resume In A Month

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:28.10.2021

The Delhi cabinet headed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday approved the proposal to add Ayodhya as one more pilgrimage destination under the Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana that was started in mid-November 2019. The Delhi government-funded pilgrimage to various religious destinations was on hold due to the pandemic, but it will be started within a month.

Ayodhya is the latest addition to the list of Jagannath Puri, Ujjain, Shirdi, Amritsar, Vaishno Devi, Dwarkadhish, Tirupati, Rameswaram, Haridwar, Mathura and Bodh Gaya. Kejriwal said he wanted to help the elderly fulfil their fervent yearning to complete pilgrimage to these religious places.

Over 35,000 people have availed of the scheme till now. The CM said all officials were working constantly to make necessary arrangements for the purpose. “It gives me immense pleasure to inform the people of Delhi that we have approved a monumental proposal in today’s cabinet meeting by adding Ayodhya as another destination under the Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojna. The elderly who have the desire to visit Shri Ram Lalla at Ayodhya will have their trip facilitated by Delhi government for free,” added Kejriwal.

The entire expense of leaving from home until returning, including travelling by airconditioned trains, stay in AC hotels, meals and local travel, would be borne by Delhi government. “The elderly can take someone as an attendant to help them in their journey. The attendant’s expenses will be covered too,” said the CM.

“For the last couple of years, we had halted the scheme due to Covid-19 for everyone’s safety. But now that the situation has improved considerably, we will resume it. All officials are tirelessly making efforts to ensure that within a month or so trains to the listed shrines are resumed. Soon, you will be able to begin registration. I hope that everyone who avails of the scheme and goes on the tirth yatra has a fulfilling and comfortable trip,” Kejriwal said.

Eligible people can apply online at https://edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in to benefit from this scheme. They can also apply by visiting the offices of the divisional commissioner, area MLA or the Tirth Yatra Committee. Candidates are selected by a draw of lots.

Delhi govt-funded pilgrimage to various religious destinations was on hold due to the pandemic

3 5 THOUSAND PEOPLE AVAILED OF SCHEME TILL NOW