As water enters wards, hosps rush to shift patients

As water enters wards, hosps rush to shift patients

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

12.11.2021

More than 100 patients from Chromepet Government Hospital were moved to Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital and Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital on Thursday after water gushed into wards on the ground floor.

Director medical services Dr S Gurunathan said all patients were stable but they had to wade through kneedeep water to board ambulances and jeeps. Power supply was suspended for safety reasons.

The flooded wards brought back memories of 2015 floods and residents revived their demand for the hospital’s demolition. “The hospital is in a low lying area and there is no path for water to flow out. State should bring down the hospital and build a enew facility,” said social activist V Santhanam.

Attendants were annoyed that patients were shifted only after the hospital was flooded. “With the slightest of rain the hospital gets flooded,” said Palanivel S, whose niece delivered at the hospital. “The mother had to wade through contaminated water with the child.”

Doctors at the flooded peripheral hospital in K K Nagar moved two patients to Royapettah GH. “In most hospitals, we have placed high power motors to pump out water,” said director of medical education Dr R Narayanababu.

LATE MOVE: Patients were shifted from flooded hosps and pumps were used to clear the water

Wet spell set to subside from today

Wet spell set to subside from today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

12.11.2021

There could finally be some respite from the downpour as the IMD has said the wet spell will subside from Friday.

IMD has forecast light to moderate rain for the next two days over the city. But the break may not be for too long, as a fresh low pressure area is likely to form over south Andaman sea around November 13. On Thursday, the depression over the Bay crossed near Chennai coast between 5.30pm and 6.30pm.

“From Friday onwards, there are chances of reduction in rainfall,” said S Balachandran, deputy director general, IMD.

For the next 48 hours, IMD has forecast light to moderate rainfall with cloudy skies in the city and suburbs. Isolated places over Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Kanyakumari districts may receive thunderstorms with heavy rain on Friday.

Balachandran said Tamil Nadu recorded 40cm rainfall this northeast monsoon season beginning October 1 against a normal of 26cm. Chennai registered 74cm against a normal of 42cm, recording a 77% surplus rain.

IMD later tweeted, “A fresh low pressure area is likely to form over south Andaman sea and neighbourhood around November 13. It is likely to move westnorthwestwards and become more marked during the subsequent 48 hours.” But weather enthusiasts said there are chances for the system to skip Chennai and move up in latitude towards Andhra Pradesh.

CHENNAI SHOWS HOW NOT TO MANAGE MONSOON

CHENNAI SHOWS HOW NOT TO MANAGE MONSOON

Corparation Handled Rain Damage Better This Time, Say Experts; Residents Say No

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

12.11.2021

Soon after the December 2015 floods, the blame for the devastation caused was placed on encroachments in water bodies, blocks in major canals, lack of storm water drains in many places and the absence of data on critical areas.

Nearly six years later, after heavy rain has caused almost similar destruction, the question is whether Greater Chennai Corporation was better prepared to deal with the crisis. Experts say the city administration did better, but residents, who had to bear the brunt of nature’s fury, feel otherwise.

They say the corporation built drains over 900km since 2018, but when it mattered, some were blocked and some connected to those on elevated roads such as near Inner Ring Road in North Chennai didn’t work. In the central region, the dumping of debris for the Mambalam canal improvement work just ahead of the monsoon led to a disaster, while in the south lakes filled during the southwest monsoon overflowed, flooding homes and entire localities.

Since May, a senior corporation official told TOI, a lot of garbage and debris was removed from road sides and slum. The civic body de-silted 900km of the 2,500km of drains, de-silted 30,000 catchpits. New drains were constructed in Velachery, Nandanam and other areas and a response system was also put in place. This, he claimed, helped keep water away from major most bus route roads.

But, residents say, several localities came under 3-5 feet of water.

KK Nagar, pockets of Alwarpet, Velachery, Ashok Nagar, Kilpauk, Subramania Puram and Aziz Nagar in Kodambakkam, Pulianthope, Broadway, Choolai and Madipakkam were all declared high risk in 2019 and details of how the drains didn’t have enough carrying capacity was submitted to the civic body by experts. Yet, it was in these areas that drain work didn’t take place in the last five years. “We had submitted the proposals. It will be completed in a year,” said an official.

Another reason for the flooding, officials said, was that the November 7 rain had already inundated major areas. This week’s rain only caused more havoc.

M V Ramanamoorthy, director of National Centre for Coastal Research, said there was a lot of improvement in the system. “In 2015, we were not prepared for heavy rain. Earlier, we used to have distributed rainfall over two months. Now, the entire rainfall is received within a few days. It is difficult for any city to accommodate this much water. The administration has done a lot by clearing many bottlenecks. However, a comprehensive plan for the entire city is needed as in the future more such events are likely to take place often,” he said.

NO MERCY: People walk past a flooded stretch at Vijayaraghavapuram in T Nagar on Thursday

ARE WE SAFE : A dog looks over a flooded road in Semmanchery on Thursday

NET EFFECT : A huge tree got uprooted at Saligramam on Thursday

2015, 2021, WHAT’S NEXT?

One important lesson learned this year is that drains require maintenance throughout the year and not just ahead of monsoon

P Sajeevan | PERUNGUDI RESIDENT

Weightage for internal marks in engineering up from 20% to 40%

Weightage for internal marks in engineering up from 20% to 40%

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:12.11.2021

For students of affiliated colleges of Anna University stuttering at 60% overall fail rate, here is some good news. The university’s new regulation for 2021 has doubled the internal assessment weightage for awarding marks from 20% to 40%. The cumulative grade point average (CGPA) for getting first class has also been brought down from 7 CGPA to 6.5 CGPA. Just 25% of engineering students cleared all the subjects in the first semester in January 2019, shows data.

The new regulation also allows students to take a study break for up to a year for job or entrepreneurship and has scrapped a 2017 rule that mandated students to compulsorily complete arrears in four attempts. Students can also do up to two online courses in a semester against one course under current rule.

“Earlier, study break was allowed only on medical grounds,” an official said.

Theory courses with lab to have 50:50 weightage

The new changes were part of the plan to impart uniformity in engineering education. While affiliated colleges follow an 80%:20% weightage system for end-semester exams and internal tests, at autonomous colleges and university departments it is 60%:40% and 50%: 50%.

As per the new regulation, theory courses with laboratory components will have 50%:50% weightage for end-semester exams and internal assessment. For laboratory courses, it will be 60% for internal assessment in end-semester exams.

The number of internal assessments has been cut from 3 to 2 per semester. “There will be two internal assessments in each semester, each for 100 marks. An individual assignment or case study or seminar or mini project will carry 40 marks while a written test will be for 60 marks. The candidate’s score for 200 marks will be converted to 40 marks.” End-semester exams will be for 100 marks and the score will be converted into 60 marks.

Anna University vicechancellor R Velraj said, “The new regulations will give more flexibility to students.”

As per the earlier regulation, students must complete arrears in four attempts or redo the course in fifth semester.

The university has also allowed students to appear for arrears in subsequent semesters.

P Deiva Sundari, principal, KCG College of Technology, said, “The increase in weightage for internal assessment including assignment and case studies, mini projects will help students get more active learning. It has given more space for outcome-based education.”

The university also introduced a new grade “C”. “Students who clear the exam with 50 marks will get C grade,” an official said. It has included science club, literary club and fine arts club apart from NCC and NSS to inculcate scientific temper among students.

Velachery, Madipakkam inundated for 2nd time this week

Velachery, Madipakkam inundated for 2nd time this week

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.11.2021

The respite from Sunday’s rains was shortlived for residents of several neighbourhoods in Velachery, suburban Madipakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Adambakkam and surrounding areas as they once again woke up to flooded streets on Thursday. Water entered the ground floor of several houses in low lying areas.

While main roads were not entirely flooded, some stretches along Madipakkam Main Road, Sabari Salai and Velachery Main Road had more than 4ft of water, making commuting in vehicles difficult.

Traffic movement was cut off on a small stretch of Puzhuthivakkam Main Road near the Corporation Zone 14 office and cars from low lying areas in Madipakkam and Velachery were back on the flyover on Thursday.

Interior roads and low-lying residential neighbourhoods bore the brunt of the rain. In Velachery, Ram Nagar, AGS Colony, Dhandeeswaram, Tansi Nagar, Vijayanagar, Selva Nagar, Bhuvaneswari Nagar were completely inundated.

“Some of us took refuge in neighbour’s houses on the first floor. Authorities had stationed boats and rescued the elderly and those willing to move to safety,” said K Ramanathan of AGS Colony.

Residents of Otteri Salai, Nethaji Street and New India Colony Road in Puzhuthivakkam and Ram Nagar (north) in Madipakkam were among the worst affected as water entered the ground floor of several homes. “Authorities did a poor job by not overseeing contractors, who take up storm water drain work. The drains were not deep enough and hence their water carrying capacity was reduced, leading to flooding. There has to be some kind of accountability,” said M Patel, a software engineer who stays in Otteri Salai.

Officials said water from most areas was diverted to nearby waterbodies —Madipakkam lake and Puzhuthivakkam lake, but the houses which are below the road level were inundated. “The problem in these areas is that storm water drains from several areas are diverted through these channels to drain into Pallikaranai marsh. In case of heavy rain, the capacity of the drain is exceeded and water starts seeping out from manholes too,” an official with zone 14 said.

HC: CMRL has no authority to penalise mask-less commuters

HC: CMRL has no authority to penalise mask-less commuters

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:12.11.2021

The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) cannot levy ₹200 as penalty on commuters found without masks, as the Madras high court has restrained CMRL from doing so for want of authority.

“The best-intentioned actions, not backed by the authority of law, cannot stand. Though the intention of CMRL is laudable, it lacks authority to impose and collect fines,” the court said on Thursday.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu, passing orders on a PIL moved by advocate R Muthukrishnan, said: “…the authority to impose such a penalty could not have been appropriated by the CMRL without the law governing the CMRL expressly conferring jurisdiction on such a body to impose a penalty.”

If at all, the state may have imposed such a penalty, assuming that the ordinance and the subsequent enactment were and are valid by treating a metro station and metro coach as public places.

However, just because the state had the authority to impose the penalty, it would not imply that CMRL could draw therefrom or had the power or jurisdiction to impose such a fine, however well-intentioned the same may have been, the court added.

As to ₹87,000 penalty already collected by CMRL, the court said, “Since the quantum appears to be rather meagre, CMRL is permitted to retain the amount.”

No response on helplines a concern

No response on helplines a concern

Saranya.Chakrapani@timesgroup.com

12.11.2021

Days after the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) released helpline numbers to reach people in inundated neighbourhoods, and appointed senior IAS officers to oversee relief work, complaints are cropping up on how calls are not being followed up on, or responded to.

Rama Prabhakar, a resident of Mandaiveli’s Srinivasan Street, woke up to almost three feet of water flooding the road outside her home on Thursday. It entered the ground floor of their apartment in no time, ruining furniture and electronics devices. The family says they lodged a complaint on GCC’s Namma Chennai app in the morning and called their helpline 1913 soon after that. “They answered our calls and acknowledged our complaint, but didn’t follow up.

“By afternoon, their lines had gone busy and we had to pump out the water ourselves, when the rains subsided,” says Rama.

Several residents also alleged that they were asked to wait until the rain subsided before water could be pumped out of their homes. Angry residents in neighbourhoods like Korattur and Shanmugam Pillai Street in Mylapore said that their homes were inundated with sewage-contaminated rainwater and no action was taken despite persistent calls to the GCC helpline. Yamini Thirumaran, a resident of Perumal Mudali Street in Royapettah said that she had shared photos of an uninhabited bungalow’s compound wall that had broken into their premises and a large broken tree branch that was precariously hanging over their roof, with the local IAS officer, but never heard back. “When we called 1913, our complaint was brushed off,” she said. While the ‘100’ Police helpline too remained busy for most part of the day, in neighbourhoods like Teynampet and parts of south Chennai like Sholinganallur, GCC and supervising officials were appreciated for being prompt with complaints.

The Tangedco helpline 9498794987 too came under attack on Thursday, after residents from various parts of the city alleged that they were unable to reach them throughout the day.

Deputy Commissioner of Education, D Sneha, from the control room, said inundation around distribution transformers prevented them from restoring power in some neighbourhoods. She added that these areas are being prioritised.

RESIDENTS SAID WHEN THEY CALLED HELPLINES, THEY WERE ASKED TO WAIT UNTIL THE RAIN SUBSIDED