1. In Chennai, the Hearts Beat for Foreigners
An organ transplant racket has surfaced in Tamil Nadu.. Officials of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have found that hearts harvested from brain-dead patients were given to foreign nationals, bypassing Indian patients on the waiting list. In 2017, foreigners got about 25 percent of all heart transplants in the state and 33 percent of lung transplants.
Based on a specific input that at least three hearts retrieved from brain-dead patients were given to international patients in recent months in Chennai, the Directorate General of Health Services convened an urgent meeting in New Delhi recently and framed strict guidelines for allocation of organs to foreigners. The group comprises officials of the Tamil Nadu Transplant Authority and representatives of all government hospitals and major private hospitals (which are licensed for organ transplantation).
(Source: The Hindu)
2. Nightmare on Chennai Streets: 14 Robbed at Knife-Point in 4 Hrs
Fourteen people were robbed of cellphones, cash or gold in a series of knife-point robberies by motorbike-borne gangs in various parts of the city in just about four hours late on Sunday, 10 June. The pattern was strikingly similar. The victims were intercepted suddenly and frightened at knife-point. They were quickly forced to hand over cellphones, cash or jewels. Before anyone could be alerted, the gang vanished from the spot.
Last week alone eight knife-point robberies were reported in the city and the police are yet to identify the robbers. But the spurt of similar robberies on Sunday night has left police surprised. The Sunday’s robberies started at Thirumangalam around 10.45pm a migrant worker from Bihar was targetted and a lorry driver managed to catch one of the robbers. But a series of similar cases were reported in different parts of the city throughout the night — at least one in every 30 minutes until 3am.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
3. Jayalalithaa Probe Panel Summons Ex-Police Chief S George to Appear
The Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission, which is probing the circumstances surrounding death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, on Monday, 11 June, has summoned former Chennai Commissioner of Police S George to appear before the Commission on June 13. The panel has also directed Dr Vikram, ENT specialist and Dr Raj Mathangi, both practicing at Apollo Hospital, Chennai to appear before the Commission on June 14. Both the doctors were part of a team that treated Jaya during her hospitalisation in Apollo.
The Commission has also directed S Poongundran, a trusted aide of Jaya, and IAS officer A Ramalingam to appear before the Commission for cross re-examination on 16 June. The Commission has directed Mahalakshmi, former Manager, Indian Overseas Bank, Stella Maris College Branch,Dr Jayashree Gopal and Dr. Shantharam, diabetologists, Apollo Hospital and Dr A Ramachandran of Dr A Ramachandran’s Diabetes Hospitals, Guindy to appear before the Commission for cross examination on 16 June.
(Source: Deccan Chronicle)
4. CM Defends Action Against TV Channel
Opposition parties led by the DMK and the Congress on Monday, 11 May, demanded in the Assembly that the FIR registered by the Coimbatore police against Tamil TV news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai and film director Ameer on charges of “promoting enmity” be withdrawn. Journalist organisations too staged protests in various parts of the State urging the government not to target media organisations.
However, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami stood his ground saying while his government respected freedom of expression, it had the duty to prevent incidents that would create communal tension and pose a threat to law and order. Replying to Opposition leader MK Stalin, Congress leader KR Ramaswamy and others who urged the government to withdraw the case, Palaniswami said the police had been conducting a probe into the incident and a final decision would be taken at the end of the investigation.
(Source: The Hindu)
5. IIT-M Placement Sees Jump, 70% Get Jobs
Around 70 percent of 832 students who registered for placement with the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras in 2017-18 have been placed. Last year, the institute recorded 66 percent placement. The placement season also saw a 56 percent increase in pre-placement offers. A total of 114 pre-placement offers were made and 95 students were placed in 2017-18, against 73 offers in 2016-17. There were several offers from companies such as Microsoft, Qualcomm and Goldman Sachs.
The students received 968 offers from 256 companies, including 19 international offers. Almost half the offers (45 percent) were from core engineering sectors and 22 percent were from the information technology sector. Interestingly, not all the offers from start-ups were accepted by students. The 38 start-ups that participated made 101 offers, of which only 83 were accepted.
(Source: The Hindu)
6. Consider Closing all Tasmac Bars, HC Tells Govt
The Madras High Court on Monday, 11 June, wanted to know from the state government as to why it should not close down all bars attached to liquor shops run by Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) across the State since it was the bars that were serving as safe havens for criminals to hatch plans for their crimes.
Though Tasmac had filed a reply to the question stating that liquor shops in the neighbouring States were opened by 10 am itself and Tamil Nadu was the only State to delay it by two hours, the judges expressed their dissatisfaction over the answer and said the grave situation posed by liquor addicts in the State could not be compared with other States. Wanting to hear the government’s stand on the issue of delaying the opening of the shops by two more hours, Justice Kirubakaran wondered what was the necessity to open liquor shops by noon itself since it only encourages addicts to visit the shops even before they could start their day’s work and begin earning something for the day.
(Source: The Hindu)
7. Centre’s Health Scheme to Cover 78 Lakh TN Families
Approximately 78 lakh families in Tamil Nadu are likely to be covered under the proposed National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) of the Ayushman Bharat programme, being implemented by the Union government. They are now being covered under the State government’s Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS). The figure of eligible beneficiaries (NHPS) has been worked out, using the findings of the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) as the basis.
The State government’s scheme is taking care of health requirements of a total of 1.58 crore families, says a senior official in the State Health Department. As the State government has decided to combine its scheme with that of the Centre, it is thrashing out issues on overlapping of benefits and premium.
(Source: The Hindu)
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