Aadhaar necessary for Transtan waitlisting

Aadhaar necessary for Transtan waitlisting

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:16.11.2021

Organ failure patients registering for waitlist and relatives of brain dead patients (donors) registering for organ donation should submit Aadhaar details for verification with the state transplant authority (Transtan), a GO released on October 25 said.

While activists and transplant coordinators said it would be difficult to seek such information from relatives of braindead patients at a time when annual donations are falling, health minister Ma Subramanian told reporters it was done to encourage and honor donor relatives.

In April, Transtan member secretary Dr R Kanthimathi proposed to introduce an application form for authentication to stop malpractices such as use of fake Aadhaar cards. The ministry of electronics and information technology gave its nod in July.

Heavy rain alert for city, adjoining districts

MORE RAIN

Heavy rain alert for city, adjoining districts

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 16.11.2021

The days are likely to be cloudy with light rain in some areas for the next two days. Heavy rain is likely to resume by Wednesday due to the impact of the low pressure intensifying and reaching the south Andhra coast.

A met department forecast for 48 hours said the sky condition will be generally cloudy. Thunderstorms with light to moderate rain are likely to occur in some areas.

A heavy rainfall warning has been issued for Chennai, Kancheepuram and Chengalpet districts in addition to Ranipet, Vellore, Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, Kallakurichi, Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai and delta districts of Tamilnadu and Puducherry and Karaikal for Wednesday.

However, a low pressure that may form over the Arabian sea in the next 24 hours may prevent further intensification of the low pressure that is currently over Andaman Sea, said an IMD report.

This may mean that the likelihood of the city receiving good rain on the weekend after it crosses the coast is low.

The low pressure in Andaman Sea is likely to move northwest and become well marked during the next 48 hours.

Thereafter it is likely to move further and reach near south Andhra Pradesh – north Tamil Nadu coasts on Thursday.

"Based on Tuesday’s analysis, the possibility of further intensification of the system appears to be low, mainly owing to the enhanced likelihood of formation of another low pressure area over east-central Arabian Sea off south Maharashtra coast during next 24 hours."

An east-west shear zone runs from southeast Arabian sea to southwest Bay of Bengal across South Karnataka, north Kerala and north Tamilnadu.

On Tuesday, Meenambakkam recorded 1mm rain since morning while the core city received some drizzle. The outer areas of the city like OMR received 2cm rain while Pallikaranai got 1cm on Monday night.

Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai areas received 12cm heavy rain of 12cm rain and Cuddalore recorded 7cm rain.

The low pressure in the Andaman Sea is likely to move northwest and become well marked during the next 48 hours, bringing rain to the city, IMD said in a report

Curious case of 3 one-ways on Venkatnarayana Road

Curious case of 3 one-ways on Venkatnarayana Road

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:16.11.2021

Thanks to unnecessary one-way routes on streets and arterial routes branching out of Venkatnarayana road, motorists are forced to take a detour through different lanes to access the main road. Adding to their woes are several encroachments on these oneway stretches leading to a bottleneck on the 1.3-kilometre long Venkatnaryana Road in T Nagar.

Motorists are unable to directly access the Usman Road junction from Venkatnarayana Road, where the one-way portion of Burkit road has taken over by illegal parking of share autos, cars and trucks. They are required to take a diversion via Dhandhapani Street resulting in traffic snarls on Venkatnarayana Road-Dhandapani Street junction.

The situation is no different on Venkatnarayana Road-Anna Salai route. Here motorists must take a diversion from Mooparappan Street to reach Anna Salai which again leads to a traffic jam at Link Road. On this stretch too a 100-metre portion of the Sivaganam Street has been converted into a one-way. However, the encroached space leads to people taking a longer distance and avoiding the oneway.

“If the one-way portion on Burkit Road is being converted into a two-way, the travel time will reduce to just five minutes. I fail to understand why this route has been partially one-way for several years. If the road converts into a two-way, the illegal parking space for share autos will have to go,” said C Munusamy, an auto driver at T Nagar who takes 10-30 minutes to travel between Venkatnarayana Road and Usman Road.

When contacted, Mambalam traffic police said that action will be initiated against illegal parking on Burkit Road. “The reason for having one-ways was allowing twoway traffic in all four directions. Instead, these are resulting in a vehicle pile-up," a traffic cop said.

Sabarimala temple to be opened today for annual pilgrimage season

Sabarimala temple to be opened today for annual pilgrimage season

To ensure darshan for a maximum number of devotees, with a ceiling of 30,000 a day under the virtual queue system, 10 spot booking counters will start functioning in a couple of days.

Published: 15th November 2021 02:25 AM | Last Updated: 15th November 2021 02:25 AM |

The Lord Ayyappa temple here will be opened on Monday for the two-month annual pilgrimage season.

By Express News Service 15.11.2021

SABARIMALA: The Lord Ayyappa temple here will be opened on Monday for the two-month annual pilgrimage season. Melsanthi Jayaraj Potti will open the sreekovil at 5.30 pm in the presence of thantri Mahesh Mohanaru. Elaborate arrangements have been made by the authorities for devotees for darshan during the pilgrimage season within the limits of Covid protocol.

To ensure darshan for a maximum number of devotees, with a ceiling of 30,000 a day under the virtual queue system, 10 spot booking counters will start functioning in a couple of days. Devotees will have to produce either a vaccination certificate after having two doses or an RT-PCR certificate on arrival at Nilakkal along with virtual queue passes.

Devotees will be allowed for darshan from November 16 morning, the first day of the pilgrimage season, though the temple will be opened on November 15 afternoon. A total of 13.34 lakh devotees have booked under virtual queue for darshan till Sunday while about 2 lakh devotees cancelled the booking, Sabarimala devaswom executive officer Krishnakumara Warrier said. Regarding prasadam buffer stock, Krishnakumara Warrier said that the total stock of aravana prasadam was at 10 lakh containers and appam at 2 lakh packets as on Sunday.

He said steps have been taken to ensure the production of 2 lakh containers of aravana and 1 lakh packets of appam a day. The installation ceremony of the new melsanthi of Lord Ayyappa temple N Parameswaran Nampoothiri will be performed at 6pm on November 15. As part of the ceremony, the thantri will perform ‘kalasabhishekam’ on the new melsanthi.

After ‘kalasabhishekam,’ the thantri will pass on the ‘moolamantram’ of Lord Ayyappa to the melsanthi after leading him to the sreekovil. At Malikappuram Devi temple, the thantri will perform the installation ceremony of the new melsanthi Sambu Nampoothiri after the conclusion of the ceremony at Lord Ayyappa temple.

5 emergency med centres opened for pilgrims

T’Puram: Ahead of the Sabarimala pilgrim season, the health department has set up five emergency medical centres at Nilakkal, Pampa, Erumeli , Charalmedu (Ayyappan Road) and Sannidhanam. “People experiencing an increase in heart beat, breathlessness and chest pain shall take treatment at these centres. We have issued directives in different languages for the convenience of people from other states as well,” said Health Minister Veena George. The centres will start function on Monday. “Pilgrims facing fatigue have facilities to take rest at these centres.

They can also check blood pressure and get first aid. The medical centres are provided with sufficient medicines and have oxygen parlours that will function round the clock. They are equipped to deal with heart attack cases,” the minister said. Staff nurses deployed at the centre are trained to provide automatic external defilberator. The centre at Sannidhanam has an operation theatre for emergency cases. Ventilator facility is available at Pampa and Sannidhanam centres that are operated by specialist doctors from Medical Colleges.

Higher edu institutes tie up with hosps, nursing homes

Zeeshan.Jawed@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:15.11.2021

Colleges and universities across the city have tied up with medical facilities to treat emergency cases once campuses reopen on Tuesday.

Institutes that already have some medical facilities on the campus have ramped them up and tied up with the nearest hospitals or nursing homes so that emergency cases can be dealt with properly.

They have also made arrangements to thermal scan temperature of teachers and students, facilities to wash hands properly before entering the classes and disinfect the campus.

The government in an advisory last month listed several measures that authorities must undertake for the safety of students, teachers and other staff and arrangements they must make to maintain social distancing.

Jadavpur University which already has a health centre on the campus has tied up with a private hospital in the vicinity. An ambulance will be available to handle any emergency. “The health centre has a full-time medical superintendent and many specialists visit every week. We have set up an isolation room where anybody showing symptoms can be kept and attended. We have also tied up with a hospital in Jadavpur,” said an official of the university.

Scottish Church college has made arrangements to scan the temperature of everybody entering the campus and facilities have been made for washing hands. It has tied up with a private medical facility in north Kolkata. “We Safety of students and staff is our priority,” said principal Madhumanjari Mandal.

St Xavier’s College has also augmented its health facilities and made arrangements for scanning of temperature and disinfecting the campus.

Seth Anandram Jaipuria College has tied up with RG Kar Hospital. “We have requested the authorities to conduct medical camps on the campus at least once a week, so a thorough check-up can be done,” said principal Asok Mukhopadhyay. At Maulana Azad College, teachers have been counselling the students about the dos and don’ts for the past one week during online classes. “We have also set up isolation facility and tied up with a medical facility,” said Subhasis Dutta, principal.

Colleges & varsities firm up plans for split, hybrid classes

Colleges & varsities firm up plans for split, hybrid classes

Poulami.Roy@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:15.11.2021

From classrooms to laboratories, higher education institutes are in their final stages of adopting the new hybrid teaching mode. Universities and colleges are set to reopen on Tuesday after a 20-month hiatus.

Authorities of different universities held a series of meetings in the last two weeks and formulated their own individual guidelines. The first decision was how many students and which classes are to be called back for offline classes, immediately. It was also decided that both online and offline modes of teaching will continue.

Various departments of technology campus of Calcutta University have planned to call final semester students for two days a week. Some of the departments have been planning to install upgraded set-up for running online-offline at the same time.

Departments with a large number of students like zoology have planned to call students to attend only elective subjects divided in small groups. “Only students of elective subjects will attend physical classes. Classes will be taken in small groups which are not more than five, but core subject classes will run in online mode” said Parthiba Basu, professor, zoology.

The commerce department has decided to divide classrooms depending on its strength. “Class strength will be divided into small numbers, so more teachers may be required for regular classes,” said a CU professor.

“Different campuses of CU have already been cleaned and sanitized. Tables, chairs of each classroom of different departments and buildings have been cleaned properly. We have identified two classrooms for making seating arrangements. Initially, our final year students will come and attend physical classes for two days a week,” said Sankhayan Choudhury, professor, computer science & engineering department.

Apart from the department of chemistry all other departments of Presidency University have decided not to start physical classes initially. Geography, geology and other lab-based subjects will call students for practical classes. Only the chemistry department will start offline classes for theory and practical both. UG and PG final year’s students and second-year students will be called for offline theory classes. Debnil Paul, MA final year student, said, “We want all the classes to start in offline mode and the hostel should open for at least final semester’s students who will attend offline classes.” University is not going to open three canteens and hostels immediately. Central library and other departmental libraries and reading rooms will open from Tuesday. Students are free to visit departmental faculties and can access the library from Tuesday.

Jadavpur University will not call UG first year students from Tuesday. Life science, biotech, geography, electronics department from Science faculty will call PG2 students while chemistry department is still in dilemma. Arts faculty has decided to call one year of UG and one year of PG students daily but first year students won’t be called now. Engineering faculty will call PG1, PG2 to physical classes. PhD and MPhil students will come as per requirement. Authorities has done repairing work, too. Departments of evening courses may complete classes earlier, so that students can reach their house before night restrictions set in.

HC says 4-yr-old not competent witness in Pocso case, frees man

HC says 4-yr-old not competent witness in Pocso case, frees man

‘Lower Court Gave Undue Importance To Girl’s Statement’

Swati.Deshpande@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:15.11.2021

Quashing a 2019 conviction under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso), the Bombay high court said the sessions court had given “undue importance to a stray statement’’ of a four-year-old without ascertaining first whether the child could be a competent witness.

Mumbai sessions court had convicted the accused to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in 2019. He was one of two accused in the case. The co-accused had been acquitted by the trial court.

The HC said, “A child is a competent witness provided he is capable of understanding the questions put to him and is able to give rational answers.’’ But in this case, the child was barely four years old and of a tender age, and “it was obligatory” on the judge to ascertain first whether the child can depose as a competent witness, which the trial judge had not done, the high court added.

The prosecution’s case was that the accused, who was hired to paint a room, had made the child sit on his lap. It was alleged that at 9.30pm, he then touched her private part and that the other man had slapped her.

The child, who did not have the cognitive skills to remember, recollect and narrate an alleged sexual abuse by a painter-workman, had later in her cross-examination by the defence lawyer also said she was deposing as told by her mother, observed Justice Anuja Prabhudessai while acquitting the man convicted in the 2017 case.

The prosecution’s case was based mainly on the child’s testimony. “Conviction can be based on the sole testimony of a child witness provided the witness is competent to depose to the facts and is a reliable witness,’’ said the HC.

The man had been convicted under section 10 of Pocso for aggravated sexual assault, where minimum punishment is five years’ RI. Both the accused had pleaded they were not guilty.

Observing that the trial court had “failed to evaluate competency’’ of the child as a witness, the HC scrutinised her evidence to ascertain whether her deposition can be relied on. The HC judgment noted that the child “was not trying to conceal the truth’’ and the tenor of her answers during trial indicate she lacked the intellectual capacity and maturity to understand the nature of questions and to give rational answers, hence she “cannot be considered to be a competent witness.” Besides, there is no confirmation of the identification of the accused in the case, the HC noted as the date of painting work was a day after the alleged crime, said the room owner.

The Bombay high court judgment noted that the four-year-old girl ‘was not trying to conceal the truth’ and the tenor of her answers during trial indicated she lacked the intellectual capacity and maturity to understand the nature of questions and to give rational answers