With three students taking their lives a day before Sunday’s NEET exam, top actor Suriya was among those who issued statements condemning the situation in Tamil Nadu over the controversial competitive examinations. But certain portions of the popular Tamil actor’s statement have now kicked up a storm with a Madras High Court judge calling for judicial contempt action and senior retired judges lining up in support of the star.
READ | Explained: Why Tamil actor Suriya’s remarks on NEET are being scrutinised for contempt of court
Suriya’s statement had a portion blaming the Supreme Court for forcing students to write NEET amid a pandemic. In his statement, the actor said the three deaths by suicide on Saturday, a day before the scheduled exam, due to the stress and anxiety of taking the test amid the pandemic had “shaken his conscience”.
Also Read | Madras HC judge calls for action against actor Surya for dig at judiciary over NEET
The statement had a portion referring to the judiciary: “Courts were delivering justice through video-conferencing due to life-threatening coronavirus fears (but) are ordering students to fearlessly go and write the exams.” This offended Justice S M Subramaniam who wrote to the Chief Justice A P Sahi for initiating contempt proceedings against Suriya. Justice Subramaniam wrote that the statement claims “Hon’ble Judges are afraid of their own life and rendering justice through video conferencing. While-so, they have no morale to pass orders directing the students to appear for NEET Exam without fear.”
The ‘Plastic Wall’ project in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district will soon be turned into a solid wall using a Gabion mesh, as per a new experiment by the municipality. The Plastic Wall – a project which was kick-started on June 5, 2020, on the occasion of ‘World Environment Day’ – is now 26.75 meters with at least 12000 kg plastic waste (non-saleable and non-recyclable).
READ | This ‘Plastic Wall’ in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris helps prevent landslides
Talking about the Plastic Wall, PM Malamurugan, sanitary Inspector at the Coonoor municipality, said, “Normally, we build walls with bricks, but these are built by soiled and other non-recyclable waste particles. Our Municipal Health Officer J Ragunathan suggested this idea. Plastics take approximately 120 years to decompose, so we thought why shouldn’t we experiment with this.”
Chennai has 9833 active cases across all 15 zones of the city as of Wednesday.
Here are the active cases in the top 10 zones in Chennai:
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Puducherry on Thursday logged 323 fresh coronavirus cases while 13 related fatalities pushed the death toll in the union territory to 431. The 323 new cases were identified after examination of 4,867 samples during the last 24 hours while 330 patients were discharged from hospitals, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release.
He said the overall tally of COVID-19 cases in Puducherry stood at 21,428 (after transfer of six cases to Tamil Nadu). The active cases was 4,744 while the number of patients who had recovered and were discharged was 16,253.
He said the fatality rate touched 2.01 per cent, adding this was the first time it had reached such a level in Puducherry and recovery rate was 75.85 per cent. As many as 13 people including four women died in the last 24 hours, he added. Most of the patients who died had co-morbidities,
particularly diabetes and hypertension and the deceased were in the age group ranging between 18 and 85 years, Mohan Kumar said.
The Health department Director said that 1,19,720 samples had been tested so far of which 92,383 samples have tested negative. Result of examination of the remaining specimens was awaited. Of the total 323 new cases, the Puducherry region alone accounted for 216 followed by Karaikal (68), Yanam (30) and Mahe (9).
A total of 3013 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in Chennai till date.Teynampet (Zone 9) leads the toll in Chennai with 402 deaths recorded till date, while Manali (Zone 2) has recorded the least deaths with 31 till date.
The number of active cases of novel coronavirus in the country crossed the one million (ten lakh) mark on Wednesday. These are the people who are yet to recover from the disease, and thus require medical attention, and are also the ones who can spread the infection.
Active cases now comprise less than 20 per cent of all confirmed infections in the country, but this figure varies widely in the states. That is because only the infections detected in the last two weeks are active, and the states which have been seeing high growth rates during these times, would have a higher proportion of active cases. In Tamil Nadu, less than nine per cent of all infected people are active right now.
In absolute numbers, Maharashtra has the largest number of active cases, about three lakh. In some states like Bihar and Tamil Nadu, the number of active cases is declining for the last few days, but in most states it is still on the ascendant.
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam extended birthday wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who turned 70 today.
Wishing Modi, EPS tweeted, "I Pray that the Almighty may grant him many more years of good health and strength to serve our nation." (sic)
Tweeting his wishes, Panneerselvam wished Modi good health and success as he endeavours to take India to unprecedented heights.
A total of 116 flights will be operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 58 arrivals and 58 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
Tangedco has announced a powercut in parts of Chennai today from 9 am to 2 pm to carry out maintenance work.
Here are the affected areas:
Tamil Nadu recorded 5652 positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the state tally to 5,19,860. Among these, Chennai reported 983 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 1,51,560.
Besides Chennai, 319 cases were reported in Chengalpattu, 189 in Kancheepuram, 248 in Thiruvallur, 27 in Ariyalur, 549 in Coimbatore, 263 in Cuddalore, 117 in Dharmapuri, 68 in Dindigul, 98 in Erode, 162 in Kallakurichi, 114 in Kanyakumari, 43 in Karur, 68 in Krishnagiri, 97 in Madurai, 71 in Nagapattinam, 120 in Namakkal, 72 in Nilgiris, 16 in Perambalur, 131 in Pudukottai, 36 in Ramanathapuram, 96 in Ranipet, 280 in Salem, 42 in Sivagangai, 70 in Tenkasi, 138 in Thanjavur, 50 in Theni, 93 in Thirupathur, 156 in Thiruvannamalai, 139 in Thiruvarur, 85 in Thoothukudi, 118 in Tirunelveli, 149 in Tiruppur, 98 in Trichy, 115 in Vellore, 142 in Villupuram and 50 in Virudhunagar districts.
Tamil Nadu recorded 5652 positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the state tally to 5,19,860. Among these, Chennai reported 983 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 1,51,560.
Tamil Nadu recorded 57 deaths on Wednesday, putting the state toll at 8559. 50 of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. The state discharged 5768 patients following treatment yesterday, putting the total number of recoveries at 4,64,668.
As of Wednesday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 46,633. Till date, 3,13,327 males, 2,06,504 females and 29 transgenders have tested positive for the virus in the state.
According to a bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu, 61,33,399 samples from the state have been sent for testing till date, with 84,567 samples having been sent yesterday.
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Welcome to the live blog from Chennai where we bring to you the latest updates on COVID-19, lockdown in Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu rains and more across Chennai and Tamil Nadu. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the state in real time.
A new university will be set up at Villupuram by bifurcating the state-run Vellore based Thiruvalluvar varsity, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced in the Assembly on Wednesday.
The new university will start functioning from the current academic year, he said, adding the move follows Villupuram people's long time request in addition to the plea of Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam who hails from the region.
Replying to DMK deputy leader Duraimurugan on splitting the Thiruvallur varsity, EPS laniswami said Villupuram was backward and the move was aimed at facilitating higher education of students from that region. Administration will be more efficient only if universities were restructured in keeping with the establishment of more and more affiliating colleges, he said.
Punishment for offences against women and children including causing deaths by demanding dowry, stalking and selling minors for prostitution will be made more stringent in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced in the Assembly on Wednesday. Steps will be taken to bring amendments to the Indian Penal Code by taking the Centre's nod to provide a higher level of punishment for offences against women and children, he said.
The proposed move is to ensure better safety and security for women and children, he said making a statement in the House.
As per the proposal, the minimum punishment for dowry deaths (IPC 304-B) shall be 10 years from the present seven and for disrobing (IPC 354-B), the minimum sentence shall be enhanced to five years from three now and the maximum punishment, ten years from seven. Similarly, stalking (IPC 354-D), on a second or subsequent conviction would see a maximum of seven years imprisonment from the present five, Palaniswami said. Recommendation would be made to the Union government to enhance the maximum punishment for selling and buying minors (IPC, 372, 373) for prostitution to life imprisonment from 10 years now and for insertion of a minimum sentence of seven years, he said.
"I would like to resolutely say that Amma's government will always be a fortress of protection to women and children," he said.
The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai has forecast rainfall in parts of Tamil Nadu owing to upper air circulation in the atmosphere.
According to the RMC, parts of Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Theni, Dindigul, Namakkal, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, Ranipet, Thiruppathur, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram will receive moderate to heavy rainfall.
Parts of Chennai are expected to receive light showers today.
Chennai has 9883 active cases across all 15 zones of the city. Chennai has been seeing a decline in cases with less than 1000 cases reported for over a week.
The number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus crossed the five million (50 lakh) mark on Tuesday, with the addition of more than 90,000 new detections. The last one million cases have been added in just 11 days. The gap with the United States, the country with the highest coronavirus caseload in the world, is reducing steadily. At the rate at which India is adding numbers, it looks poised to overtake the United States in about a month’s time.
The number of new cases detected on Tuesday was slightly lower than what has been the norm in recent days. The new detections have remained in the mid-90,000s for the entire last week, and it can cross the one-lakh figure on any day now.
The daily growth rate, however, has been steadily, though slowly, going down all this while. On Tuesday, the growth rate fell below 2 per cent per day (seven-day compounded daily growth rate) for the first time since the epidemic started in India.
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With three students taking their lives a day before Sunday’s NEET exam, top actor Suriya was among those who issued statements condemning the situation in Tamil Nadu over the controversial competitive examinations. But certain portions of the popular Tamil actor’s statement have now kicked up a storm with a Madras High Court judge calling for judicial contempt action and senior retired judges lining up in support of the star.
Suriya’s statement had a portion blaming the Supreme Court for forcing students to write NEET amid a pandemic. In his statement, the actor said the three deaths by suicide on Saturday, a day before the scheduled exam, due to the stress and anxiety of taking the test amid the pandemic had “shaken his conscience”.
While the first portion of Suriya’s statement was mainly about the insensitivity in prioritising a nationwide exam amid a pandemic, he also made remarks about larger systemic problems: “A government that was supposed to ensure equal opportunities for everyone brought a law with an education system that creates inequality,” the actor wrote. He blamed the education policies in the country and said they were formulated by people who were clueless about the ground realities of the poor and the downtrodden.
The statement had a portion referring to the judiciary: “Courts were delivering justice through video-conferencing due to life-threatening coronavirus fears (but) are ordering students to fearlessly go and write the exams.” This offended Justice S M Subramaniam who wrote to the Chief Justice A P Sahi for initiating contempt proceedings against Suriya. Justice Subramaniam wrote that the statement claims “Hon’ble Judges are afraid of their own life and rendering justice through video conferencing. While-so, they have no morale to pass orders directing the students to appear for NEET Exam without fear.”
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The number of Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu surged to 5,14,208 after a total of 5,697 cases was reported on Tuesday. With 68 fatalities, the death toll reached 8,502.
In Chennai, a total of 989 cases were reported taking its overall tally to 1,50,572. As many as 1530 people were discharged. With 12 deaths, the toll went past the 3,000 mark.
Apart from Chennai, Coimbatore (485), Chengalpattu (324), Salem (292), Thiruvallur (283), Cuddalore (268) and Tiruppur (262) recorded the maximum cases. In 18 districts, the number of Covid-19 cases was below 100.
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The number of Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu surged to 5,14,208 after a total of 5,697 cases was reported on Tuesday. With 68 fatalities, the death toll reached 8,502. Among the deceased, eight had no comorbidities. As many as 5,735 patients were recovered following treatment on Tuesday taking the number of recoveries to 4,58,900.
There are 46,806 active cases in the state. A total of 22,118 children below 12 years have tested positive till date. In the age group between 13-60, as many as 4,24,93,329 have been infected and 67,157 people above 60 years have tested positive.
The state tested 80,623 samples on Tuesday. Till date a total of 60,48,832 samples have been tested. There are 170 (65 government and 105 private) testing facilities in Tamil Nadu.
Till date, a total of 9,32,892 people have entered Tamil Nadu through various modes of travel and 6,510 have tested positive.
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Tangedco has announced a powercut in parts of Chennai today from 9 am to 2 pm to carry out maintenance work.
Here are the affected areas:
A total of 126 flights will be operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 63 arrivals and 63 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday granted permission to 13 universities and the Director of Technical Education to conduct final semester examinations this month.
Here are the universities which will be conducting examinations this month:
The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday granted permission to 13 universities and the Director of Technical Education to conduct final semester examinations this month. In a circular issued today, the Chief Secretary to the government, K Shanmugam said that the Secretary of the University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved the conduct of the examinations through online, offline or a combination of online and offline modes.
The circular stated that all educational institutions will have to take prior approval of the government before conducting the exams owing to the pandemic.
A total of 12 universities and the Directorate of Technical Education have opted for online examinations while one university has opted for a combination of offline and online modes.
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Good morning!
Welcome to the live blog from Chennai where we bring to you the latest updates on COVID-19, lockdown in Tamil Nadu and more across Chennai and Tamil Nadu. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the state in real time.