Appointment of ABVP prez in AIIMS board draws flak

Appointment of ABVP prez in AIIMS board draws flak

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.10.2020

A notification issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare appointing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) president and government Kilpauk Medical College head of surgical oncology Dr Shanmugam Subbiah as one of the board members of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Madurai, kicked up a storm in Tamil Nadu.

MPs Kanimozhi (DMK), D Ravikumar (VCK), Su Venkatesan (CPI) and B Manickam Tagore expressed their discontent over appointing Dr Subbiah, who was in news recently for “harassing” his woman neighbour in Chennai by throwing garbage and urinating at her doorstep. The Adambakkam police registered a case, but the complaint was withdrawn the next day. Kanimozhi tweeted: “Is this (appointment of Dr Subbiah) an endorsement of indecent behaviour and also an incentive for other BJP cadres to follow suit?”

The notification issued on October 15 by joint secretary Sunil Sharma said former ICMR director VM Katoch, who is currently president of JIPMER, has been appointed as the president of AIIMS, Madurai. TN Dr MGR Medical university VC chancellor Dr Sudha Seshayyan has been appointed as its member as per Clause (A) Section 4 of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act. Three others -- Director General of Health Service (ex-offico), Director of the Institute (ex-offico) and additional finance secretary and financial advisor to health department -- will be members under Clauses B, C and D respective

No prior nod needed, just e-registration for travel, govt tells court

No prior nod needed, just e-registration for travel, govt tells court

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.10.2020 

The e-pass system in Tamil Nadu has been replaced by e-registration regimen, which is an automated process requiring no prior approval for travel, the Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras high court.

International travellers entering the state and travellers to hill stations must do e-registration prior to their travel, Tamil Nadu advocate-general Vijay Narayan told the first bench of chief justice A P Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Wednesday.

“The state government has passed a government order on October 27 modifying the restrictions for movement of public in view of the pandemic,” he said, adding that through e-registration, a traveller should provide his basic details like address and contact number for the purpose of contact-tracing in case of spike in Covid-19.

The issue pertains to a PIL filed by K R Ezhil Nadhi challenging the restriction imposed by the government prohibiting travel to hill stations in the state.

Representing the petitioner, advocate Abishek Jebaraj contended that in view of the powers exercised by the Union ministry of home affairs, guidelines were issued on September 30, which restrains the states from imposing lockdowns outside containment zones.

It was made clear that there must be no restriction on inter and intra state movement, he argued.

It was the petitioner’s contention that e-registration requirement should be made post-travel and authorities should not insist on a pre-travel registration.

Refusing to concur with the submission, the bench said the state has substantially resolved the problem by passing the government order and disposed of the plea.

The state government made the submission to the court hearing a plea that challenged restrictions on travel to hill stations. The court disposed of the petition saying the state has taken adequate measures

›E-pass hurting tourism, P8

35% people not wearing masks, CM tells officers

35% people not wearing masks, CM tells officers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.10.2020 

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday said 35% of the population in the state was not wearing masks and that the district administrators should ensure strict compliance of rules. The government has distributed 46 lakh reusable cloth masks to the poor in Chennai, and 4.95 crore in the rest of the state.

During a video conference with district collectors ahead of extending the lockdown, the chief minister said, “People are careless and don’t wear masks, unaware of the severity of the disease. The administration should get them to comply with.” Palaniswami pointed to the Deepavali festive season and the rush on streets and told the local bodies to pay special attention to spray disinfectants in the Covid-infected areas.

The districts that record more than 100 cases a day should bring them below 100 ahead of Deepavali, while those that record less than 100 should get them below 50, and districts that see 50 cases a day should see nil cases, the collectors were told.

Palaniswami said the opposition should stop defaming his government’s Covid-management given that the virus spread was getting reduced in the state. The neighbouring states, which the opposition was pointing to earlier to ease the curbs, were lately seeing a high number of cases, he said.

The state government has spent ₹7,372 crore towards Covid-management, including ₹1,983 crore towards health expenditure. The number of daily cases has come down to less than 3,000 in the past four days and active cases also reduced to 30,000. Recovery rate has been 94.57% and the death rate 1.53%.

Pondy positivity rate 2.7%

Puducherry: After two days of zero Covid-19 deaths, Puducherry reported two fatalities on Wednesday. The death toll of the Union territory is 590. The UT’s fatality rate is 1.7%. The territory reported 102 fresh cases even as 154 patients were discharged, bringing down active cases to 3,686. Positivity rate was 2.7%, the lowest in the last three months.

Govt asks religious board to stop using state emblem

Govt asks religious board to stop using state emblem

Improper Use Is A Punishable Offence

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 29.10.2020 

The Tamil Nadu government has ordered the state Waqf board, which governs Muslim religious properties and is headed by a bureaucrat, and few other undertakings to stop using the official emblem of the government.

The government sought adherence to an earlier order which listed out the institutions allowed to use the tricolour-embellished Tamil Nadu emblem. The Waqf board did not find a mention on the list.

“It has been noticed that Tamil Nadu Waqf Board is using the State Emblem in tricolour. I request the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board and all offices under its control not to use the Tamil Nadu government state emblem by and to remove the state emblem from your letterheads forthwith,” B Chandra Mohan, principal secretary to the state government, minorities welfare department, said in a letter addressed to the board’s chief executive officer (CEO).

The letter, dated October 12, directed Faritha Banu, the Waqf Board CEO, to inform all district Kazis to stop using the emblem.

Government sources said Waqf Board is not the only state undertaking to receive such a letter as several others in other departments too have been told to strictly comply with the law.

Each department head (on October 5) was asked to take action against this and update the details soon. The complete list of designated commissions/offices allowed to use them is governed by two orders (G.O No.739 and  871) issued in 1994.

The move comes after complaints that office-bearers of state undertakings were misusing the emblem and that the government was keen on controlling this ahead of the election season, sources added.

Improper use of the state emblem is a punishable offence and the violators can be booked under Section 260 read with 5 of the Indian Penal Code (improper use of government emblem or stamp). Karur-based businessman Anbunathan was the last person to be booked for this offence while using them in an unlicensed ambulance with a fake registration number.

Transportation activist K Kathirmathiyon said these officials are not provided with G-series vehicle numbers (reserved for government staff). So they fix the emblem expecting merit and exemptions at toll plazas and check posts.

In a letter to the state Waqf board, which governs Muslim religious properties and is headed by a bureaucrat, principal secretary to the state minorities welfare department asked them to not use the state emblem and remove the same from their letter heads

20 engg colleges in TN couldn’t fill a single seat

20 engg colleges in TN couldn’t fill a single seat

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.10.2020

Thirteen colleges, including 12 government and aided colleges and one self-financing college, filled 100% seats while 20 colleges could not fill a single seat after four rounds of online counselling conducted by Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions committee. Last year, 16 colleges could not get a single student.

This year, 56.4% seats in 461 engineering colleges remained vacant after general counselling.

The absentees in the counselling jumped by 12% compared to previous year. Of the 1,10,836 students who were called for general counselling, 69,752 (62.9%) were allotted seats in four rounds, 6,612 less than last year.

In special categories, including sports, ex-servicemen, differently-abled and vocational stream, 1,443 students got allotment. Overall, 71,195 seats (43.6%) were filled against1,63,154 seats available with 91,959 seats remaining vacant. Last year, 48.2% seats were filled in the counselling.

Due to Covid-19, the number of admissions has come down by 5% in the counselling. However, top colleges say they had a good admission season.

“These colleges have filled more seats despite the Covid-19 crisis. Students and parents gave importance to colleges that have good placement records and faculty members,” said R M Kishore, vice-chairman, RMK Engineering College.

Colleges with poor placement records last year could not attract many students. This year, only 139 colleges were able to fill more than 50% of the seats in the counselling.

“At the end of academic counselling, almost 250 colleges have less than 100 seats in the first year. It is financially not viable for the management to give quality education. Students and faculty members would be affected,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. A majority of the students joined computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence and data science, electronics and communication, he said.

Principals said around 103 colleges will face a crisis in 2020-21 as they were able to fill less than 10% of their intake. A private college principal said colleges which have less than 10% admissions cannot afford faculty members and conduct classes for these students. “Anna University should intervene and transfer these students to other colleges which have more admissions,” he said.

City airport’s website fails to fly high -

City airport’s website fails to fly high -

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:28.10.2020

The city airport is yet to have a good website though there is a demand from people to know about Covid-19 restrictions and protocols, espcially at a time when states have started to change the screening and quarantine procedure for international and domestic passengers.

The existing website does not have information on flight schedules, details of health screening of passengers, quarantine rules. Instead it has only basic information about the airport.

The home page of Chennai airport's website that is run by Airports Authority of India shows in three boxes - Latest News, Tourist Places and Contact for advertisement. Closure of retirning rooms at the airport from February 3 and caution against employment fraud are shown under latest news.

In contrast, the website of Mumbai airport has a slide show detailing advisory for passengers, instructions for those repatriated to India, information for international arriving passengers, details of Covid-19 tests and others. There are also tabs to book an RT-PCR test at the airport's lab. Flight schedules are also posted. Similar is the case with websites of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and Kochi.

Sources said after a lot of complaints about the website, AAI improved its social media presence. AAI posts daily updates on flight schedules, quarantine guidelines, test protocols on its Twitter handle. However, the page gets a lot of comments and queries from passengers because most of the tweets get drowned when fresh tweets or retweets are posted. There will be at least four to five comments under each of the posts asking for details on flights, Covid-19 quarantine rules, availability of testing facility at the airport, need for test certificates and others. "The website has been outdated and poorly designed for the last few years. The local officials are not able to do much because it is handled from Delhi," said an airline official. .

M K Ajith Kumar, spokesperson, South Indian MICE Association, said "An updated website absolutely essential for domestic travellers and international travellers. A business traveller from abroad may want to know the whether the airport has a meet and greet facility, connectivity to the city. The airport is well linked to a metro station. These details can be updated daily otherwise they fall prey to touts. Domestic passengers will be able to check Covid-19 protocols which keep changing from one state to another."

Job on compassionate ground not charity: HC - The Times Of India

Job on compassionate ground not charity: HC - The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 28.10.2020

Appointment on compassionate ground is neither an act of charity nor temple ‘prasadham’, the Madras high court said censuring BSNL for refusing such appointment for a deserving candidate.

“Death of a sole breadwinner will definitely cause huge imbalance in any family especially when the family is in the low-income group,” a division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice R Hemalatha said. The court made the observations while allowing a plea moved by G Vijaya Prasanna challenging an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) denying her the benefit of compassionate appointment.

Vijaya Prasanna’s father K Gajendran died in 2003 while working as a telegraph man in BSNL.

In 2004, the petitioner gave a representation seeking appointment under compassionate ground. Though she was appointed as an office assistant on contract basis, her application for permanent appointment was rejected.

“… in view of the assets / liabilities of the family of the deceased, official support arrangement, constitution of the family and overall assessment of condition of the family, the circle high power committee did not agree to recommend the compassionate ground appointment and rejected the request under provision of the scheme,” BSNL said through an order dated June 1, 2016.

Aggrieved, the petitioner moved the CAT but her plea was dismissed by the tribunal, prompting her to move the high court.

Allowing the petition, the bench said, “In the instant case, the authorities, by their act, have deprived a truly indigent destitute and impoverished family, of a deserving compassionate appointment.”

Instead of extending a helping hand at the time of distress, authorities have remained mute for years only to turn the tables against the petitioner. Callous attitude and lack of empathy have caused this denial of an appointment on compassionate grounds, the court added.

The court then directed the BSNL to consider appointment of the petitioner under compassionate ground favourably within three months.