Dr NTR University of Health Sciences, June 01, 2011 16:14
VIJAYAWADA: Dr NTR University of Health Sciences, the first such university set up in the country in 1986, plans to focus more on research programmes as it completes 25 years of functioning.In an exclusive interview with The New Indian Express, vicechancellor Prof IV Rao gives a detailed note on the ongoing programmes and future plans of the university. Here are excerpts.Q: How many colleges are affiliated to NTR University of Health Sciences?A: Over 350. These include institutions offering medical, nursing and paramedical courses.Q: Why have the university authorities failed to set up an academic campus in 25 years?A: There are several reasons for it. Now, the government has come out with a proposal for a 75acre campus near Mangalagiri between Vijayawada and Guntur.Q: Will the administrative wing continue to be in Vijayawada once the campus comes up?A: Certainly. The academic campus will be set up as an expansion programme.Q: Can you throw some more light on the academic reforms?A: Double valuation of PG examination papers was introduced this year. Two examiners value a student's answer papers. The valuations are carried out separately and there is no chance of one examiner knowing the valuation by another. The average of the two will be awarded to the students.Q: There is a feeling that teaching at colleges needs improvement.A: The university has been utilising the services of eminent professors who are acting as visiting faculty to 30 medical colleges in the state towards this goal.Q: What are the measures taken to strengthen the faculty?A: The university introduced training programme for teachers. One such programme was conducted at the NRI Medical College near Chinnakakani in Guntur district. Indian US medical graduates demonstrated lifesaving skills and basic life support systems at a workshop.Q: Is the continuing medical education confined to some cities?A: The university has been organising it in the four regions -Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Hyderabad- to help PG students and professors. It plans to set up a modern laboratory and has asked colleges to set up basic skills labs.Q: Research in medicine,it is often alleged, is lagging behind in the state. What does university contemplate to remove this stigma?A: Now the focus is on research programmes. A notification has been issued recently for Ph.D programmes The university will conduct an examination after completion of the course to improve the standards of research scholars.
Read More
Kanaka Durga temple lack of Security personnel May 30, 2011 19:07
VIJAYAWADA: The word security has no meaning at Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Vari Devasthanam (Kanaka Durga temple) in Vijayawada. Any body can walk in and walk out through the existing metal frame detectors at the entrance, which are out of order. Even though the Kanaka Durga temple sees a huge rush of devotees on weekends and festival days, it is surprising that no attention is paid towards security of the temple and devotees. There is a lack of coordination among security personnel, including the private security guards and local police. It must be noted that recently many devotees complained of theft of valuables. The problem increased during this summer when thousands of devotees visited the temple along with their children. Also, there are several routes on the hillock to enter the temple and there is no system to check the entry and exit of people. A police outpost is present at the temple which normally has two constables. On Sunday, one head constable and three other constables are deputed in view of the heavy rush. The local police has also deputed 20 Home Guards. Besides, 16 Special Protection Force constables and two head constables guard the temple sanctorum and the strong room, where the temple jewellery and other valuables are stored. Speaking on the security at the Kanaka Durga temple, Vijayawada commissioner of police Amit Garg said the SPF is looking after temple security. He added that if extra security is required, they would depute more policemen. The executive officer who assumed charge on Sunday admitted that there were some security lapses. He said only six metal detectors were working. He said the door frame metal detectors were under repair and added that presently, Home Guards carried out checking using hand metal detectors. “There are 32 CCTV cameras in the temple but only 20 are functioning,” said the officer.
Read More
12 AP pilgrims injured in Jharkand accident May 27, 2011 16:17
30 people, including 12 persons belonging to Mutyalampadu area of Vijayawada, are seriously injured in a road accident in Jharkand state this morning. The accident occurred when a truck collided head on with the bus carrying the pilgrims who are returning from the pilgrim centre Badarinath. Reports said the accident took place at Dilrung on NH 33 in Saraikela District.All the injured persons are being treated at the Tata Hospital and MGM Hospital in Jamshedpur, according to police.
Read More
‘Bejawada Rowdylu’ shooting permission cancelled May 25, 2011 13:52
Vijayawada police commissioner Amit Garg today cancelled all the permissions given for the shooting of the movie ‘Bejawada Rowdylu’ being directed by director Ramgopal Varma.Based on a complaint given by the social organization Sarvodaya Mandali, Garg has issued the cancellation orders this morning. With this, Ram Gopal Varma can’t shoot the movie in Vijayawada.Sarvodaya Mandali in its complaint said that the movie would bring bad name to the Vijayawada city. “Vijayawada is being depicted as a bad city by the director Varma and the movie would spoil the reputation of the city,” said the organization in its complaint to the police commissioner.
Read More
Baba visited East Godavari several times May 06, 2011 13:25
Sri Satya Sai Baba who has special affection for East Godavari visited the district 18 times between 1957 and 1983. According to sources, Baba was more attached to East Godavari after Anantapur in the state as he had more devotees here in the district. On all these occasions, Baba stayed in Rajahmudry and visited several places from here to deliver his spiritual lectures. The district has Satyasai Sevasamitis in almost all villages.The former MLC and staunch devotee of Baba, Mr Tanneru Bullayya, started the Satyasai Gurukulam at Rajahmundry and Baba used to preach from here. Devotees of Baba also hold the record of conducting all India Satyasai Seva Samiti meetings at Rajahmundry for four days in 1974. As part of social service activity, Sri Satya Sai Baba provided drinking water facility from the trust to 500 villages in East and West Godavari districts. In addition, Baba’s devotees also extend medical services in Agency areas in both the districts. Sri Satyasai Sevasamiti also constructed community halls.
Read More
Series of Awareness Programmes November 07, 2010 14:14
Owing to their nomadic lifestyle, truck drivers are often blamed for spreading HIV. Transport is a social vector in the transmission of the virus and transport sector workers are twice as likely to acquire the ‘infection’. This is mainly because ‘high risk’ practices tend to be common along the roadways.The ‘occupational hazard’ for truck drivers is costing dearly to the local truck industry. The mismatch between the dwindling number of people willing to take up the job of a truck driver and the growing needs of the truck industry is a matter of serious concern for lorry owners. Petrified by the element of ‘high risk’, families are preventing their kin from taking up these jobs. The wide space between the demand and supply of truckers has forced the industry to rely on drivers brought in from Bihar, Orissa, Haryana and West Bengal.“Almost 20 per cent of the truck drivers are from other states. Though the series of awareness programmes taken up by the Krishna District Lorry Owners’ Association to educate truckers on the need to abstain from unsafe practices has helped to some extent, we have a long way to go before bridging the widening gap,” says Chennupati Vazeer, Chairman of the Krishna District Lorry Owners’ Mutually Aided Cooperative Society.Mr. Vazeer attributes the crisis to a couple of other factors like improved opportunities in education sector for all sections and rise in per capita income. Ironically, the anti-child labour drive has also hit the truck industry in its own way, he says. Young boys engaged as cleaners accompany the driver and learn the nitty-gritty of the profession before graduating as drivers and taking over the wheels. “That is not the case any more as all children are sent to school now,” he explains.The spurt in instance of HIV/AIDS among truckers throws up a fresh challenge. “We have nearly 4,000 children hit by the virus either directly or indirectly in Krishna district. They are a mix of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ orphan children.”Shifting focus to their welfare, Mr. Vazeer plans to launch an organisation on November 29. “Instead of looking to foreign funding agencies for aid, we want to concentrate on the local resources. We have many philanthropists around who are willing to contribute their mite for a good cause. Moreover, these children are our responsibility. We must take care of their needs and well being,” he says.A membership fee of Rs. 10,000 would be charged to create a corpus and income earned from the principal amount will be used for charity. To begin with, Mr. Vazeer intends to reach out to 400-500 ‘affected’ children through his organisation. “I don’t want to confine activities of the organisation to a limited set of people. I want people from all walks of life to play a part in this endeavour,” he says.
Read More
K.Humpy unhappy over exclusion from Asian games. October 31, 2010 13:46
Expressing unhappiness over the All India Chess Federation's (AICF) decision of not selecting her to the 16th Asian games to be held in Guangz Hou in China from November 12 to 28, International woman chess player Koneru Humpy today said she had informed the AICF about her non-availability for the practice session due to preparation for her world tournaments.She said that, the woman world No. 2 player with 2593 yellow points in her credit, said she had not received any official intimation about her exclusion from the Asian games squad from the AICF, so far.'' I always give top priority to play for the country but I was denied an entry. I want the AICF should give some respect to the international players and keep in view their international tournaments,'' she stated.The AICF asked me to participate in the training camp. But did not Keep in mind my international commitments before denying me the entry, she lamented.Ms Koneru Humpy, winner of two gold medals in the 2006 Doha Asian Games said that she had to play world chess tournament, to be held in Turkey in December and Snow falls Vs old hands in Check Republic in November and was practicing for the same.'' It seems the chess federation has no need of my services,'' she said.
Read More
Archery coach Lenin Died October 24, 2010 17:54
Indian archery coach Ch. Lenin was killed and two Delhi Commonwealth Games silver medallists were injured in a road accident near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh early Sunday.International archer-turned-coach Lenin, Ritul Chatterjee and Chittibomma Jignesh were returning to Vijayawada after attending a felicitation function in Hyderabad when the SUV they were travelling in toppled after hitting a road divider.Police said the accident took place when Lenin, who was driving the Scorpio, tried to avoid a collision with a vehicle coming from the opposite direction and in the process hit the divider.Lenin, 25, died on the spot while Ritul and Jignesh suffered minor injuries. They were shifted to a hospital in Vijayawada.The accident took place at Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada, about 300 km from here."The accident happened at 2 am on National Highway 5. We were coming back from the ceremony organised by chief minister K Rosaiah. My son Lenin was driving and we were almost home until our car collided with an autorickshaw coming from the opposite side. The auto driver violated the rules and was driving on the wrong lane," Cherukuri Satyanarayana, Lenin's father and organising secretary of Andhra Pradesh Archery Association, said.Lenin, who earlier represented India in compound archery, was one of the coaches of the Commonwealth Games medal winning men's and women's team."It is a tragic incident. He was a very good human being. I interacted with him a lot of times. I am glad that Jignesh and Ritul are safe," Paresh Nath Mukherjee, secretary general of the Archery Association of India, said.Governor ESL Narasimhan and chief minister K Rosaiah had felicitated all the CWG medal winners and their coaches at the felicitation function they attended here Saturday night.Lenin, a silver medallist in the team (compound) event at Asian Grand Prix Archery Tournament in 2005, was the personal coach of Ritul, Jignesh and other upcoming archers.Ritul and Jignesh combined with seasoned archer Chinna Raju Srither to win silver in the men's compound category segment at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Read More
Arogyasri performed 7.5 Lakh surgeries October 23, 2010 15:27
As many as 7,51,165 surgeries had been performed in Andhra Pradesh under the government's health scheme 'Arogyasri' under which free medical treatment is provided to people Below Poverty Line at corporate and government hospitals.Disclosing this at a review meeting here today, Minister for Implementation of the Scheme P Satyanarayana said the total amount spent on ''Arogyasri'' during the last five years was more than Rs 2171 crores.He said Krishna district stood second in utilising the scheme performing 53,224 surgeries.Sucess Stories : Nagappa(40), lives in Agali, a Harijanwada. In Guntur district suffered a heart attack all of a sudden. Including him everybody thought that was the end, But Aarogyasri scheme came for his rescue and helped him to have the surgery very soon in Lalitha superspecialty Hospital, a multi specialty corporate Hospital in Guntur, totally free of cost. As the surgery was a grand success, which is of a cost of two lakh rupees, the beneficiary expressed his extreme happiness about the treatment. Nagappa told that C.M. Dr.Rajasekhara Reddy is equivalent to God for their family Surgery : Anjali, 8 months old baby brought all the Joy, when she was born to the young couple, Thammisetti Anjaneyulu and Nagamani who live in Gottimukkala village, of Kanchikacherla Mandal in Krishna district. They thought that Mahalakshmi (Goddess of wealth) graced them with a promising future. But their Joy suffered a major setback all of a sudden, when they came to know that Anjali had a congenital problem called, 'Entropy bladder' and an early surgery is needed. They were fortunate to meet the C.M. Dr.Rajasekhara Reddy in a Mega health camp and got arrangements to have the surgery in Yarra's super specialty Hospital, a multi specialty corporate Hospital in Guntur, totally free of cost. It was a successful surgery, which is of a cost of more than a lakh rupee. Now their joy has no boundaries .They said that they had never ever expected this to happen even in their dreams and are indebted to C.M. Dr.Rajasekhara Reddy for the entire life.
Read More
Vijayawada big shot behind Suri murder? January 05, 2011 14:59
Telugu TV channels have repeatedly telecast stories today saying that a big shot of Vijayawada town is behind the murder of faction leader Suri but no channel is revealing his name. Bhanu Kiran, who generally uses 8 different SIM cards on different occasions, had reportedly used the SIM number 9493422488 on the day he killed Suri. The buzz as leaked to some sources by police is that this big shot made more than 100 calls to this number on that day and from this number also nearly 60 calls and SMSs had gone to the mobile of the big shot. The news is that Bhanu moved around Banjara Hills from 12 noon to 2 pm and after that left to Madapur to meet Suri on the day of the murder. From there only, Bhanu and others went along with Suri who left to meet his lawyer at Sanathnagar. While Suri was returning from lawyer to his flat, Bhanu shot him dead in the speeding car at Yousufguda and simply disappeared. 20 minutes after killing Suri, Bhanu reportedly sent SMSs to the person in Vijayawada saying that Suri was finished. Even after killing Suri, Bhanu moved in Yousufguda and Banjara Hills for some time but news was spread that the murder took place at Jubilee Hills to mislead the police. Bhanu used this small time to escape to some safe place.
Read More
Vijayawada Archer for CWG 2010 October 07, 2010 17:10
As fire crackers burst, slogans like “Ritul Zindabad” rent the air in Vijayalakshmi Colony in Autonagar on Monday. The young trainee archers of Volga Archery Academy celebrated the selection of their senior archer Ritul Chatterjee as one of the three members of the Indian compound team that will take part in the Commonwealth Games to he held in New Delhi from October 2.All the hard work of Ritul, who made Vijayawada his home to nurture his archery skills, paid off as he sealed his place in the Indian team.Along with Ritul, former Volga academy trainee Ch. Jignas, who is now representing the India Army and bagged the second place in the final selection trials, and Tamil Nadu's C. Sridhar, who took the top spot, make up the Indian team.“We spotted him at the mini national held here in 2008.He enrolled in the Volga Archery Academy and won many medals for India. His selection will help the sport grow multifold,” said academy chairman Ch. Satyanarayana, speaking from Kolkata, where the selections were held.Mr. Satyanarayana said that he promised to produce an archer who would earn his slot in the Indian team.“I am so happy that I fulfilled my promise. Before participating in the Commonwealth Games, Ritul took part in World championship held at Shanghai in China on August 27,” he said.Asian medallist and senior national champion Ch. Lenin said that the role played by Vijayawada Municipal Corporation in the development of archery in the city was laudable. “The erstwhile Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna, present Commissioner G. Ravi Babu and Krishna District Olympic Association Secretary K. P. Rao were very helpful. The archery field at Mahanadu road is a perfect playfield for archers as there is no interference when they practise. We had a torrid time at IGMC stadium as we were afraid of the misfired arrows hurting other sportsmen,” he said.
Read More
Young Minds at Synergy 10 October 03, 2010 15:10
Young aspirants and future career-makers participated enthusiastically in Synergy-10, a literary and soft skills-related event organised by the Felines, a students' forum, as part of its continuing efforts to help enhance the skill-set of students from various engineering colleges in and around the city.The students made optimum use of the day's events by showcasing their skills and also to assess their overall preparedness for job interviews.Events like ‘Head the Herd', ‘Just a Minute', quiz and so on drew impressive participation from the students. The venue came alive with the vibrancy and cheerfulness of young ones who made collective efforts to make the event successful.Addressing the inaugural function, expert speakers dwelt at length on various aspects of personality development, character, self-learning and communication skills while urging the students to be well prepared for the future. They pointed out that confidence building and creative efforts would play a key role in moulding the bright futures of students.N. Parthasarathy, Education Officer of Agrigold, who was the chief guest, captured the imagination of the students by narrating a few stories to underscore the importance of competitive spirit, self-reliance and such soft skills.He asked the young ones to choose good reading material by identifying standard sources of information so that it would help broaden their mental horizons and ensure success in all their endeavours.K. Ramachandra, head of the Department of English at the VR Siddhartha Engineering College (VRSEC), the guest of honour, said that there was an immediate need on the part of young students to think different and pursue originality in their career-making efforts. He said that the students should not come under the bandwagon effect where everyone wants to run after the same course or career rather than pursuing the paths of their original liking.Ms. Zachariah, president of the Felines, along with other office bearers and members, conducted the day's events for the participants.
Read More