Another Nirbhaya convict moves apex court for relief

TNN | Feb 29, 2020, 04.59 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Less than five days before the scheduled hanging of the Nirbhaya convicts, Pawan Gupta, the sole death-row inmate yet to exhaust all legal remedies, filed a curative plea in the Supreme Court on Friday seeking commutation of his capital punishment to a life imprisonment.

Gupta, against whom a fresh death warrant has already been issued for his execution along with the three other convicts, filed the curative plea through lawyer A P Singh seeking setting aside of the apex court’s earlier verdicts on the appeals and review petitions in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. After the curative plea, he is entitled to file a mercy plea to the President though the Delhi high court-fixed deadline to avail these options has expired on February 11.

In the past two months, the Supreme Court and subsequently the President of India have rejected the curative and mercy petitions of the three other convicts — Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.

The trial court on February 17 fixed March 3, 6am as the fresh date and time for the execution of the death warrants after it had to be postponed twice as the convicts — after a delay of more than two years — began availing curative and mercy plea options one by one.

The prison rules lay down that in cases of multiple death-row convicts, all have to be executed together and that too after giving a convict a window of 14 days following the rejection of a mercy plea. This forced the Tihar Jail authorities, where the convicts are lodged, to approach the trial court to postpone the hanging date and give a fresh one.

In his plea, Gupta has argued that his age on the day of offence was 16 years and two months as per the records of the school last attended by him and “the age has not been determined in accordance with the procedures laid down under the Juvenile Justice Act”. This information was suppressed by the state throughout the proceedings, he has alleged, seeking an immediate stay on the execution of the black warrant issued by the trial court.

“The birth certificate from the school shows that the petitioner was a juvenile on the date of the incident. Such a procedure for age determination was also present under JJ Act, 2000 and the petitioner was entitled to the appreciation of his juvenility under the earlier Act,” the plea further argued.

Two other convicts, Singh and Sharma, had challenged the rejection of their mercy petitions by the President, but both have been dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Dismissing their pleas, the apex court said there was no illegality in the decision of the President. The court also rejected their contention that the President was not supplied with all relevant documents pertaining to the case and that their mercy plea was decided with a “pre-determined mind” and without any application of mind.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

Guest faculty protest removal from service

TNN | Feb 27, 2020, 04.52 AM IST

Trichy: Redeployment of excess teachers from Annamalai University, Chidambaram to three government colleges in Trichy and Pudukottai has created a ruckus as the guest faculty members working in the colleges have been asked to leave the institutions.
Guest faculty members in the recently-converted government arts and science colleges in Lalgudi, Orthanadu and Aranthangi staged a protest seeking reinstatement of the guest staff members who have been asked to leave the colleges.

The director of collegiate education, Chennai has ordered for the redeployment of 39 excess teaching staff from Annamalai University on Tuesday. These teachers have been redeployed in place of vacant posts in colleges, which have been presently being managed by ad hoc teachers for years together.

With the redeployment of the staff, four guest faculty members from Lalgudi college and three each from Orthanadu and Aranthangi colleges have been asked to leave.

One of the guest faculty from Orthanadu college said that she is working as a guest faculty for the last nine years and now suddenly she has been asked to leave the college despite being a qualified teacher.

UGC has mandated that not more than 20% staff members in an institution should be hired on ad hoc, but most of the constituent colleges under Bharathidasan University are run with more than 80% guest faculty members. While we have worked for the development of the college all these years we have been asked to leave all of a sudden, she said. There are more than 200 guest faculty members working in 10 constituent colleges working under Bharathidasan University, among which four have been converted into govenrment colleges recently. TNN

Students, public can visit BDU research centres today

TNN | Feb 28, 2020, 04.10 AM IST

Trichy: The research centres and laboratories of 22 science departments at Bharathidasan University here will remain open for college and school students and the public on Friday in view of National Science Day. The university will conduct the annual National Science Day programmes on Friday and Saturday.

The ‘open day’ is observed to display the university’s research infrastructure and activities happening there.

The university has equipment worth several crores of rupees for research. They include Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope worth Rs 2 crore and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy worth Rs 1 crore.

“Women in Science is the theme of the National Science Day this year. We have invited 150 colleges and many schools asking them to encourage girl students to visit the university,” said S Rajasekar, dean, faculty of science, engineering and technology, BDU.

The visit would motivate the students to take up a career in science in future, he added.

BDU launches exclusive website for entrepreneurs

TNN | Feb 28, 2020, 04.12 AM IST

Trichy: Bharathidasan University (BDU) has launched an exclusive website (www.bechrusa.in) for its entrepreneurship, innovation and career hub, which was started last year, with an objective to develop innovative ideas by students into business models. Students from BDU and its affiliated colleges can apply for theme-based projects, post-doctoral fellowships and seed money for start-up ideas through the portal.

BDU is among seven universities in the state which was allotted Rs 15 crore under the Rashtrya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA 2.0) to establish entrepreneurship and innovation career hub.

The hub, registered as Bharathidasan University Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub (Bech), under Section 8 of Companies Act, 2013, will inculcate entrepreneurial skills in the academic curriculum and research at the higher education level.

“Bech will promote students to become innovative entrepreneurs on completion of graduate studies. It is ready with a roadmap in preparing students right from the basics of entrepreneurship, project proposal, research and training and seed money till they come out with a prototype to become a full-fledged entrepreneur,” said BDU vice-chancellor P Manisankar

Bech has been organizing a series of awareness programmes towards sensitizing students on entrepreneurship, innovation in a systematic and scientific manner.

“Bech has plans to collaborate with a global partner to give shape to entrepreneurship and innovation career hub and plan further development,” said N Prasanna, Bech co-coordinator. “We are looking forward to nurture ideas from students that can be developed into a successful business model,” he said.

Officials take bribe through touts, farmers tell collector

TNN | Feb 29, 2020, 04.18 AM IST

Trichy: Collector S Sivarasu has warned government officials who demand bribe for discharging their official duties of strict action. Farmers at the grievance meet alleged that government officials have invented news ways to take bribe from people through touts, even as services can be availed online bypassing touts. Responding to a complaint, the collector said that he would order the police to conduct searches at the government offices where bribery complaints are rampant.

The collector made the statement after Puratchi Thalaivar MGR social workers association president V Ganesan from Musiri raised allegation of interference by touts at all the government offices, particularly in getting certificates for income, nativity, community etc. After listening to the complaint, the collector denied it stating that people can apply for certificates and other services online where touts and bribery is not possible.

Accepting the collector’s reply, Ganesan said that the online system has failed to serve its purpose because touts persuade applicants as they are able get files quickly processed with the connivance of officers concerned and fleece them.

“Though the online system is in place, touts are taking the call in many of the offices because the officers keep the touts to indirectly take bribe from applicants. Having no other option, the applicant also shell out their hard earned money to get the work done at the earliest. Or, they will have to wait for a long time and made to run from pillar to post,” said Ganesan.

A farmers’ association leader who was also part of the grievance day meeting also echoed the same view that many of the government officials were inventing novel ways to fleece the general public to clear their files.

Ganesan also complained to the collector about missing boards at the offices of village administrative officers (VAO) which has the working hours. “None of the VAO offices has the board mentioning the working hours. It should be in place so that the people can meet them conveniently,” he said. The collector has assured to look into the matter.

Health worker gets 3 yrs jail for taking Rs 300 bribe

TNN | Feb 29, 2020, 04.20 AM IST

Trichy: The special court for prevention of corruption act (PCA) cases in Trichy on Friday convicted a woman multipurpose health worker of taking a bribe of Rs 300 from a pregnant woman for issuing her the government’s maternity assistance.

The judge handed out simple imprisonment for one and two years to T Kalaiselvi, 39, of Ponnagar for accepting gratification and criminal misconduct respectively. The judge also ordered her to pay Rs 1,000 each as fine for the two offences. The judge however released the woman on bail considering the quantum of punishment, which is below three years.

It was a 12-year-old case that came to an end on Friday. Kalaiselvi was a multipurpose health worker at the urban primary health centre (UPHC) in Periya Milaguparai. S Elizabeth Rani, 28, a pregnant woman from Edamalaipattipudhur, enlisted her help for getting financial assistance of Rs 6,000 under the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy maternity assistance scheme, and got the first instalment of Rs 3000 before her delivery.

After the child was born, Kalaiselvi waited for the second instalment of Rs 3,000. However, instead of giving the cheque addressed to Elizabeth Rani, she demanded Rs 300 as bribe to hand it over. Unwilling to bribe her, the woman lodged a complaint with the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) in Trichy on May 27, 2008. The team laid a trap the next day and caught Kalaiselvi red-handed at the PHC when she was accepting the money from Elizhabeth Rani.

Tamil Nadu: GRH new burns ward ready, yet to be opened

TNN | Feb 27, 2020, 04.40 AM IST

MADURAI: A new state-of-the-art burns ward, which was proposed to be built at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in Madurai at a cost of Rs 6 crore, is yet to be inaugurated.

According to sources, construction of the building is complete but it is yet to be equipped and opened for use.

Dean of the GRH, Dr Sangumani J asserted that the new ward would be fully ready within the next two weeks.

The proposal for the new ward had come in 2018 after the current 20-bedded burns ward was found to have flaws and was found insufficient to handle victims with burn injuries in the aftermath of the forest fire at Kurangini in Theni, which left 23 dead.

“The building is fully complete. However, the necessary equipment is yet to be acquired. Within two weeks, we are hoping to get it. Soon after it is done, we want to equip and open the ward as soon as possible,” said Sangumani, speaking to TOI.

However, hospital sources said the building was completed almost two months ago but was just kept locked up.

“We were expecting it to be equipped soon and opened but it did not happen. We suspected administrative delays,” said a source.

The building of the new burns ward is located close to the ophthalmology section and old nephrology department near the hospital’s compound wall.

The ward, as proposed, is set to be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to provide specialized care for patients with burn injuries. The unit is set to have water beds and kept fully-sterile fitted with hepa filters.

The facility would be centrally air-conditioned and there would also be an upgraded laboratory to treat patients better.

In a similar case, a new separate clinic for transgender people has been built and kept ready but is yet to be officially inaugurated.