Several NRIs fail to book flights to US, stuck in TN

Several NRIs fail to book flights to US, stuck in TN

Ayyappan.V@timesgroup.com

1.6.2020

Chennai: Several NRIs who work in the US are still stranded in Tamil Nadu as many of them could not book tickets on the three Air India flights on Saturday. The tickets were sold out soon after bookings began and many missed out after the airline’s website and app slowed down.

There are around 5,000 people stuck in different cities, including 500 in Chennai.

Erica Mukherjee, an NRI stranded in Chennai, said, “Two to three flights occasionally are not enough. There are too many people waiting to travel. Only 10 to 15 people from Chennai managed to buy tickets. We all must go back immediately as our jobs are at stake and many are on loss of pay.”

The ministry of civil aviation is yet to device a concerted plan to help stranded NRIs to travel to the US in spite of the repeated appeals on social media, petitions and daily hashtag campaigns. More than 5,000 NRIs have come together in a group created in a messenger app and are communicating and coordinating daily.

Akshaya Viswanathan, who is stranded here while her husband is in San Diego, said, “Our only hope was resumption of international flights in mid-June. That will not happen now. Our hope is to secure seats on flights going for Vande Bharat mission.”

However, the experience of booking tickets on the three flights on Saturday was not reassuring for many who waited and logged in after they saw a tweet about the flights by Air India.

Gowtham from Seattle, who is stuck in Chennai, said, “My hopes of getting a ticket in the next lot is diminishing if the booking experience is going to be anything like what happened yesterday. There was website and app error. Payments got deducted while tickets did not get confirmed. We are gathering information about everyone who needs to travel and are planning to present a case to Air India, Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA.”

Air India official said that bookings for flights to the US began on Saturday but it was not true that the website slowed down because of high demand. Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri has tweeted that 1,417 people flew from India on Vande Bharat flights and more flights will be operated to the US and Canada.

Wedding planners find novel ways to restart businesses

Wedding planners find novel ways to restart businesses

Devanathan.Veerappan@timesgroup.com

Madurai:01.06.2020

Wedding planners in Madurai have come up with special packages suiting the lockdown restrictions pricing them competitively in order to kickstart their businesses after the lull. The two months have been tough for them as people had preferred to conduct marriages at their houses and nearby temples. Live telecast through website and YouTube channels, thermal scanning, hand sanitizers, N95 masks and getting required permissions are the new additions to the package. With the government yet to allow more than 50 people for marriages, packages are kept as low as Rs1.49 lakh inclusive of marriage hall. Wedding planners say that they could bring down package price as expenses towards food, thamboolam, electricity charges and time spent in hall will drastically reduce.

R Senthilkumar of Hello Events said that during lockdown people preferred houses and farm houses to conduct marriage, but now inquiries have started coming in to conduct marriages in halls. “To suit the needs of lockdown restrictions we are offering a couple of packages at Rs 1.49 lakh and Rs 1.99 lakh packages, which including hall, e-invitation, food, photography, videography, hand sanitisers, masks, thermal screening, live telecast and chair arrangement with social distancing,” he said.

“Live telecast was introduced since many friends and relatives could not take part in wedding. Around 4,000 people can watch through our website. We also telecast through Youtube as per requests,” he said.

Engg faculty put on canvassing duty to woo students

Engg faculty put on canvassing duty to woo students

Colleges Fear Dip In Admissions Due To Covid-19 Crisis

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:1.6.2020

Engineering colleges are facing a tough admission season due to the Covid-19 crisis. Fearing dip in admissions, many colleges across the state have put their faculty members on canvassing duty to woo students.

Many colleges have asked their faculty members to call up potential students while some colleges have even assigned them on door-to-door canvassing during the pandemic. Some colleges in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts asked the faculty members to come to colleges from the second week of May to make telephone calls to Class XII students.

“Out of 90 faculty members in our college, 70 were asked to come daily following the Anna University’s circular. Some of them were coming from affected areas inside the city. We were asked to canvass for admissions through telephone calls,” a faculty member from private engineering college near Chennai said. Some faculty members also raised concerns about social distancing. A college in Karur district divided the area up to 100 km radius surrounding the college into zones and allotted it to faculty members to canvass door-to-door during the pandemic.

“Door-to-door canvass started in the first week of May. For a zone, two faculty members were allotted and we were asked to admit at least six students to get our salary for May,” a faculty member said.

The salary would be reduced if the faculty members do not achieve their given targets. “Some parents didn’t wish to talk to us while some greeted us with snacks. Our faculty members have got more than 300 admissions in the past one month,” the faculty member added. Colleges also offered scholarships to the students who score above 80% marks in key subjects - Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

Another faculty member said colleges urge the students who are studying on scholarship to canvass and bring new admissions.

K M Karthik, president of Private Educational Institutions Employees Association, said almost all faculty members in engineering colleges are doing admission duty. “Engineering colleges in red zones in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts pressurizing the faculty members to come to colleges to do telecalling. The safety of the faculty members is compromised,” he said.

However, P Selvaraj, secretary of Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges, said engineering colleges have not started their admission process yet. “With Covid-19 crisis, it is not possible for faculty members to travel to villages or cities. The state government announced relaxations throughout the state except Chennai and its surrounding areas. Colleges may start their canvassing in coming weeks,” he said.

Many colleges have asked their faculty members to call up potential students while some colleges have even assigned them on door-to-door canvassing during the pandemic

Short menus, no small talk: Dine-ins to be quick

Short menus, no small talk: Dine-ins to be quick

Yogesh.Kabirdoss @timesgroup.com

Chennai:1.6.2020

Eating out can be quite different when restaurants reopen on June 8. You may not get all the delicacies you have been pining for over the past two months, there won’t be ACs and forget dining as a party! Eateries will not seat more than two individuals at a table and acrylic sheets will divide tables across. And you may have to order all the dishes before you are even seated. A majority of the eateries are likely to be self-serviced and there won’t be any table ordering as it might hold up the queue. But ordering shouldn’t take much time either, menus will be short and mostly south Indian fare.

The state government on Sunday permitted restaurants with dine-in facilities to open from June 8 but operate at 50% seating capacity to maintain social distancing. This isn’t applicable for facilities in containment zones in the city and air conditioning must not be used. Only takeaways are permitted in eateries now.

Though reopening for business is music to the ears of restaurateurs, getting their kitchens running is a mighty task. “The biggest challenge we face is acute shortage of labour. We will be able to reopen only 25% of eateries for dinein services, and most of them will be self-service facilities,” said M Ravi, president of The Chennai Hotels Association. According to him, about 70% of the 10 lakh employees of eateries in the city and suburbs were guest workers from other states, and another 20% from other parts of Tamil Nadu.

“Around 90% of our workforce has left Chennai. We need to sustain with the 10% left and there is a huge paucity of chefs and cooks preparing north Indian and Chinese cuisines,” he said. Since the two cuisines are predominantly served in many eateries, hardly 20% of the dishes on the menus will be available for customers, largely south Indian delicacies, he said. “You may see eateries returning to the menu cards of the late 90s, people will not have a lot to choose from.”

The city and its fringes, has around 8,000 eateries in a 30km radius. The places have seating capacity ranging from 50 to 300. As per the estimates of state’s food safety department, more than 1,500 licensed standalone restaurants operate within the limits of Chennai district.

Cabs, auto services to resume in city today

Cabs, auto services to resume in city today

Commute To Be Costly With High Demand & No Public Transport

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:01.06.2020

After a gap of two months, autorickshaws and cabs will start plying legally in the city from Monday, but fares could be higher than usual due to driver shortage.

T Ramanujam from Tamil Nadu Call Taxi Drivers Association said around 60% of cab drivers who worked in Chennai were stranded in their native places. “It is not clear whether all the available drivers will take the risk and return to work from Monday.”

While a few drivers have gone on long-distance trips and 5,000-odd have ended their lease agreements with cab aggregators as they faced huge losses even before the lockdown.

Drivers said they weren’t sure about the demand as well as it hasn’t increased in the past one week, when cab services were permitted for airport trips. Hardly 20 to 30 bookings were made a day.

On Monday, however, many IT professionals and employees of other private firms will be returning to work and demand might shoot up. But getting a return trip will be a problem, said D Kalanidhi, a driver from Ekkaduthangal. "Also, we are awaiting details on supply of sanitizers or disinfectants and government has made it mandatory to sue them at the end of every trip," he added.

Sources from aggregator Ola Cabs said efforts were underway to provide the essentials and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) at their parking yards and petrol bunks.

Uber in an official statement said a new in-app safety feature will notify drivers to replenish their PPE supplies after they have completed a predetermined number of trips. The notification will provide a list of convenient pick-up points and generate a QR code once they select the preferred location. An Uber volunteer will scan the QR code at the pick-up location and hand over the supplies to drivers.

Given the cap on number of passengers allowed per trip, however, cab drivers opined that many passengers would prefer autorickshaws to taxis.

While three were allowed in cars, excluding the drivers, a maximum of two passengers are allowed in autorickshaws.

With none sticking to the government-approved fares even during normal days, they will have a free hand charging more now. “Demand could also be much more as government Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses won’t be available,” said S Dinesh, who is working at a private firm in Sholinganallur.

Even before restrictions were relaxed, autos were operated illegally and drivers overcharged passengers during the lockdown 3.0. For instance, to travel from Periamet to Mint, they usually charged Rs 50- Rs70, but they collected almost double the fare in the last week of May.

Government authorities, however, assured that cases will be registered against auto drivers who fleece customers. People can complain against them by calling 1800-425-5430.

Officials have assured that cases will be registered against auto drivers who fleece customers. You can 1800-425-5430 to report a fare violation

WHAT’S THE NEW NORMAL? SOME DOS, SEVERAL DON’TS

FIGHTING COVID-19

WHAT’S THE NEW NORMAL? SOME DOS, SEVERAL DON’TS

Salons, Parlours Can Open, But City Off Limits For E-Comm Firms

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

01.06.2020

Some lockdown relaxations have been allowed even in Chennai, which remains the hotspot in the state, accounting for nearly 70% of the fresh cases every day. The easing will be in two stages, one from June 1 and the next from June 8.

From Monday, barring in containment zones, showrooms and jewellery shops can re-open and more employees can attend all offices.

Though shopping malls, theatres, bars and public halls will remain shut across the state, salons and beauty parlours can open even in Chennai. E-commerce companies can deliver both essentials and non-essentials across Tamil Nadu other than in areas under Greater Chennai police limits.

Highlighting the steps taken by the state government in its battle against Covid-19, chief minister Palaniswami said essential goods through PDS has been offered free of cost to 2.01 crore families for the months of April, May and June. Also,

35. 65 lakh workers and drivers from informal and unorganized sectors were paid Rs 1,000 each twice. “Each conservancy worker in Greater Chennai police limits will be paid an honorarium of Rs 2,500,” he said.

Since poor people in containment zones and those living in slums may not be able to maintain social distancing, a special drive will be carried out to screen them for the infection. “Affected people in Greater Chennai Corporation limits will be kept in quarantine zones for seven days and on discharge will be paid Rs 1,000,” the CM said, seeking support and cooperation of people in controlling the infection.

Restaurants can open across the state from June 8, but with 50% occupancy, in whole of Tamil Nadu. But religious places will remain shut and congregations banned till June 30.

Large retail showrooms can operate, throughout Tamil Nadu, with 50% staff, but can permit only five people at a time. Air conditioning systems cannot be operated.

IT and ITeS service companies can operate with 100% employees, outside Greater Chennai police limits. But, 20% employees should be encouraged to work from home. As Chennai, IT sector can employ only 20% of employees, but not more than 40 people.

International air travel, other than those flights operated under Centre’s orders, will remain shut. Lockdown will be implemented strictly in containment zones, the statement said.

Crowd restrictions on funeral and weddings will remain with 20 and 50 people being permitted. Section 144 barring assembly of more than five people too will remain in force across the state.

The CM said schools, colleges and research institutions will remain shut but online classes would be allowed.

Tourists entry will remain banned into the hilly Nilgiris district and Kodaikanal and Yercaud towns, while hotels and resorts, except for accommodating health and police personnel and government staff for quarantine purpose, will be closed.

TN 1-day count tops 1k; seniors badly affected

TN 1-day count tops 1k; seniors badly affected

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:1.6.2020

Tamil Nadu’s Covid numbers are rising unchecked with 13 deaths and 1,149 fresh cases reported on Sunday, the first time the daily count touched four figures. Now the state’s case tally is 22,333 and death toll 173.

With 804 fresh cases, Chennai continued to worry officials and doctors. The city also had cascading effects on its neighbours. While Chengalpet logged 85 cases, Kancheepuram had 16 and Tiruvallur reported 47 cases on Sunday. The remaining 101 cases where spread among 18 districts including 45 from Tiruvannamalai. Infection rates among natives and guest workers continued to increase at a high rate, leading to fresh outbreaks in districts. The state had 95 returnees from other states and countries testing positive for the viral infection on Sunday. The number of patients reporting sick to hospitals and the number of people dying within the first 24 hours of admission have also increased.

“In the beginning, most people who tested positive were the young and active. They have now taken infection into their homes. A large number of elderly and the vulnerable are now being affected,” said National Institute of Epidemiology deputy director Dr Prabhdeep Kaur.

IN THE RED

Be prepared for spike in complications and deaths, say experts

Three weeks ago, on May 10, 503 (5%) people of 7,204 Covid19 patients were above the age of 60. This increased to 812 (7%) out of 1,124 cases on May17 and1,358 (8.3%) out of 16,277 on May 24. On Sunday, it touched 9% with 2,052 patients in the same age group. In addition, there was a huge increase in patients with heart, lung, and kidney ailments and cancer testing positive. Four people who died on Sunday did not have comorbidities and an equal number of them were below 60 years of age.

“We should be prepared to see an increase in the number of complications and death in the coming days,” warned infectious diseases expert Dr V Ramasubramanian, who treats Covid-19 patients at the Apollo Hospitals. On Saturday nearly a quarter of his patients required intensive care including ventilator support, he said.

Statehealth minister CVijayabaskar said government hospitals were also seeing an increase in number of people reporting sick. About a fortnight ago, when there were1,600 cases in the four medical college hospitals in Chennai, about 2% of them required high flow oxygen or ventilator. On Sunday, this figure shot up to 4%.

The state has decided to limit permissions for people opting for home care because they infect family members and report too late to hospitals when they develop complications. Over all, the number of people dying in the hospitals within 24 hours also went up from 35 cases on May 23 to 67 cases on Sunday. The bulletin on Sunday said that a 49-year-old man from Namakkal died on Friday 16 minutes after admission following respiratory failure.Hedid nothaveco-morbidities. On Saturday, a 39-year-old woman, who had kidney failure, died 34 minutes after admission.

The state is also drafting policies and standards of care for people above the age of 40. But the challenge has been increasing as the state has been consistently losing people in the 30s. On Sunday, the youngest patient to succumb to the disease on was a 37-year-old man from Kancheepuram,,

admitted to a private hospital on May 16 with complaints of breathing difficulty. He died on Friday due to acute respiratory distress syndrome. He too did not have any co-morbidities.

“Our old strategies of active quarantinehaven’tbeen working. Wehave notbeen abletocontain casesin zones such as Royapuram and Pulianthope,” said Greater Chennai Corporation nodal officer Dr J Radhakrishnan. “We will now chase, track and aggressively test close contacts. Those tested positive will be sent to Covid care centres or hospitals. In crowded areas, we will encourage people to go the quarantine centre, where they will be given ₹1,000 at the end of quarantine period,” he said.