Around Town 3SATURDAY9 SEPTEMBER 2017CHENNAI

Lions International District 324 A1 governor K S Babai presented K S Sundararajan Award to Lady Willingdon Government Higher Secondary School headmistress D Eswari Bhoopalan in Chennai recently for her service in the fi eld of education. Eswari is working as a teacher for the past 27 years and being headmistress for the past two years. She has produced cent per cent result. The award was instituted by Lions Club of Central Madras.

Applications invited for PG course in

yoga, naturopathyNT Bureau

Chennai, Sept 9:Applications are invited from eligible

candidates for admission to three years M D (Yoga and Naturopathy) post graduate course at Government Yoga and Naturopathy Medical College Chennai for the academic year 2017-18. Applications

c a n b e downloaded from the Health Department website -www.tnhealth.org. Last date for receipt of fi lled in applications is 28 Setember. Date of entrance examination is 21October, a press release said.

NT BureauChennai, Sept 9:

‘There are 45 million blind persons in the world, of which 12 million are in India, which includes 1 per cent of corneal blindness,’ said Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals chairman Dr Amar Agarwal. Participating at a human chain to

raise awareness for eye donation as part of national eye donation fortnight 2017 in front of the hospital at Cathedral Road on Friday, he said they have been campaigning at all their hospitals to bring the masses on a common platform to understand the importance of eye donation.The human chain was inaugurated

by fi lm actor Vivek, where over 500 members belonging to different age groups comprising college students, doctors and staff of Dr Agarwal Eye Hospital and general public held placards and pledged to donate eyes.

‘Blindness is one of the major public health problem faced in developing countries like India. Individuals should come forward to pledge to donate their eyes and

support this noble cause,’ said Vivek.The national eye donation fortnight

is observed every year from 25 August to 8 September.

12 mn people are blind in India: Amar Agarwal� Over 500 people pledge to donate eyes

Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals chairman Dr Amar Agarwal, actor Vivek among others participating at the human chain to raise awareness for eye donation in Chennai on Friday.

NT BureauChennai, Sept 9:

Tamilnadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation Ltd, popularly known as Aavin, widening its product portfolio, has introduced milk packets at Rs 10.The State-government backed fi rm

already retails milk packets in 500 ml and one litre quantities produced from its manufacturing outlets.The company has milk dairies

a t A m b a t t u r , M a d h a v a r a m , Sholinganallur producing 11.50 lakh litres of mil per day.Milk and Dairy Development Minister

K T Rajenthra Bhalaji at a function held on Friday, introduced the 225 ml milk packets that will be sold for Rs 10 at the retail outlets, three type of ice-cream variants and re-introduced Aavin Delight milk.The Aavin Delight milk is available

in 500 ml packet and come with a shelf life of 90 days. It is priced at Rs 26. The ice cream variants include -- mango bar, strawberry, grape duet, two-in-one ice cream. Each would be sold at Rs 20.Aavin has registered monthly

sales of Rs 3.25 crore which is

23.64 per cent higher than what it made last year. Aavin Managing Director C Kamaraj, Joint Managing Director R Seethalakshmi and senior government offi cials participated in the function, the release added.

Aavin introduces milk packets for Rs 10

S BEN RAJAChennai, Sept 9:

As a metropolitan city, Chennai and i t s admin is t ra to rs have the burden of handling a lot of work - r ight from sol id waste management to infrastructural development. Any slackness or a natural calamity turns things upside down. A case in point is the devastation caused by Cyclone Vardah and the 2015 f loods. It is important to adopt newer technologies in all segments to at least mitigate adverse effects.News Today caught up with an

engineer and professor based out of New Zealand, Mark Dyer, during his visit to Chennai. With over 19 years of experience in mega infrastructural projects in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa, he is an expert in tunneling, deep foundation, fl ood defence, highways management, bio-remediation of contaminated land and waste management comprising of landfi lls, tailing dams and sewage treatment.During his interaction, he revealed

his insights about the developments regarding Chennai.Excerpts:Q: Chennai faced the most brutal

floods of this decade in 2015. What are the best measures to safeguard a city from excessive fl ooding?A: Yes, that was one of the worst

floods in all these years. A flood happens when there is no adequate channelling of water. When I think about fl ood mitigation, a combination of measures come to mind. These include neighbourhood scale urban flood modelling to characterise surface run-off with sub-surface sewer capacity and natural infi ltration rates. So, when sewage capacity exceeds run-off floods can be mitigated to a great extent.Q: Having spent over 19 years in

various fl ood defence projects, what are the best practices to adopt during the construction of a canal or dam?A: It is important to appreciate

that the material properties of the dam change with time making

clay materials more permeable through desiccat ion cracking leading failure. Likewise, poor construct ion detai ls between old and new repairs can lead to excessive seepage and failure. Rapid inspection methods using visual and geophysical techniques

are highly essential in this case.Q: With some of the delta regions

in Tamilnadu getting contaminated due to crude oil extraction, tell us about bio-remediation.A: Oil contamination can be quite

disastrous especially for agriculture but there are ways to reclaim the land. Bio-remediation relies on using existing bacteria in the soil to destroy pollutants. As an engineer, you have to stimulate the bacteria to accelerate the remediation processes. For example, the spillage of petrol or chlorinated compounds are carcinogens.Q: With cities like Chennai facing

the burden of handling tonnes of solid waste on a daily basis, what are the effective methods to dispose of them?A: One solution would be to create

a circular economy to reuse waste materials. This could be as simple as conversion into energy through biomass. Apart from increased technical knowledge, an ecosystem would need energy created to reuse this waste material. A first step could be to create a consortium of universities and small companies plus local government to promote, co-fund and foster projects that build international best practices

with 12-month-long prototypes to test ideas.Q: You also involve yourself

in calcite cement deposition t e c h n i q u e s f o r g r o u n d improvement. Let us know how to go about it.A: Calcite deposition process

depends on stimulating bacteria in the ground to transform sand into sandstone. Lands that are primarily composed of sandstone usually allow the percolation of water and other fl uids and are porous enough to store large quantities making them valuable aquifers and petroleum reservoirs.Q : W h a t a r e t h e l a t e s t

d e v e l o p m e n t s i n s e w a g e treatment? Let us know the difference they can make to treated sewage.A: The latest development is

to understand and introduce an engineering monitoring system for the microbial ecosystem present in the fi lters and bio fi lms as part of an improved quality control system that minimise failure rates.

HOW TO MAKE CHENNAI A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN

� Expert speaks on issues confronting the city and ways to tackle themBETTER PLANNING

Mark Dyer’s research covers fl ood risk management and stability of fl ood levees as well as the biologically mediated processes in the soil for remediation of organic pollutants and deposition of calcite cement for ground improvement.He currently chairs the European Cooperation in Science and Technology

(COST) research program on People-Friendly Cities in a Data Rich World comprising 100 academic and industry members from Iceland to Israel, exploring the concept of people-friendly cities through better urban design, governance and technology.

EMU trains to be partially cancelled

NT BureauChennai, Sept 9:

To facilitate engineering works for construction of a pedestrian subway at Tambaram and Perungalathur, the following EMU trains will be partially cancelled between Tambaram and Chengalpattu tomorrow.Chennai Beach - Chengalpattu

EMU local, scheduled to leave Chennai Beach at 3.55 am, 4.40 am, 5 am, 5.20 am and 5.55 am will be cancelled, a Southern Railway press release said.Similarly, the following EMU trains

will be partially cancelled between Chengalpattu and Tambaram on Sunday.Chengalpattu - Chennai Beach

EMU local, scheduled to leave Chengalpattu at 3.55 am, 4.30 am, 4.45 am, 5.10 am and 5.55 stands cancelled.Passenger special EMU trains

will be run between Chengalpattu and Guduvancheri on tomorrow. The special EMU trains will leave Chengalpattu for Guduvancheri at 3.55 am, 4.30 am, 4.45 am, 5.10 am and 5.55 am. Similarly, special EMU trains will

leave Guduvancheri for Chengalpattu at 4.30 am, 5.06 am, 5.30 am, 6 am and 6.30 am.

NT BureauChennai, Sept 9:

The School Education Department will be opening its online portal for new applicants to fill 41,832 vacancies across the State board schools from 11 to 25 September. Of the 1.2 lakh seats allocated, 82,909 students have been admitted so far under RTE quota and now the third round of seat-allotment will be conducted to fi ll the remaining, an offi cial press release said. The fi rst phase began on 31 May and

the schools were inspected to check the extent of RTE implementation.

But many selected candidates did not turn up to secure the seats and so a report was submitted on 20 June regarding the vacancies.Then, the second phase of selection

of candidates took place on 29 July. Now, fresh applicants can also apply by logging on to www.dge.tn.gov.in to submit their applications.Also, there are nearly 10,000 e-seva

centres across the State to help the students in uploading the forms. Other than this, applicants can also upload their RTE applications at the offi ces of Chief/District Education Officers, Matriculation School

Inspectors and School Officers free of cost. Under RTE norms, preference will be given to those residing within 1 km radius of the school.Since there are huge vacancies

in private, self-fi nanced and aided schools, the managements can appeal to the public to make use of this, says the school education department.It is notable that the government has

took the RTE application uploading process wholly through online to achieve transparency for the fi rst time.

Third-phase online admissions for students

� 41,832 seats will be filled under RTE in schools from 11 Sept

Aavin has registered

monthly sales of Rs 3.25 crore which is 23.64 per cent higher

than what it made last year

NT BureauChennai, Sept 9:

Isha Yoga founder Jaggi Vasudev’s initiative, ‘Rally for Rivers,’ has successfully completed seven days since its start on 3 September and the team will reach Chennai tomorrow. They will be organising a grand ceremony at YMCA Ground, Nandanam with the active participation of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam, Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan, Apollo Hospitals founder Dr Pratap C Reddy, sources said.

The rally was started by the Isha Yoga founder to prevent rivers and other water bodies from getting dried up. The initiative also strives for the interlinking of river which is still a challenging move in the country. Union Environment, Forest and

Climate Change Minister Harsh Vardhan Singh, cricketers Virendhar Sewag, Mithali Raj and car racer Narain Karthikeyan fl agged off the nationwide campaign around a week ago from VOC Park in Coimbatore, where river Noyyal is dying a slow death. The campaign also aims to bring a policy change at the national

level to save the rivers.Harsh Vardhan at that time said

the rally was a historic event for the whole country. He said it was sad that a rally was organised in India,

blessed with so many rivers. ‘This is our moral responsibility. It is our duty to see that we protect the rights of the future generation of children,’ he said adding that the Central government would welcome Sadhguru when the

rally culminates in New Delhi on 2 October after covering 16 States and 7,000km.’Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev said that

the phenomenon of simultaneous droughts and fl oods in the country was born out of the society’s apathy. ‘Our ancestors handed us the rivers, forests, canals and other natural resources. But the present generation has taken such a huge bite from it that there will be nothing left for future generations in the coming decades,’ he said.He added that instead of just taking

up a social activity, he wanted to

bring in a long-term policy change.‘This 30-day journey is to create

awareness about our rivers and ensure that all citizens take part in this change. It is historic that political parties of various States in spite of differences in their ideologies and State affairs are coming together for this cause. It is time that we say no to freebies and seek better developmental projects from the government and support them when they are implemented’ he said.Those who want to take part in

tomorrow’s event can contact 80009 80009 to register their names.

‘Rally for Rivers’ to reach Chennai tomorrow� Grand event will be held at YMCA Ground � CM, Deputy CM to participate

The rally was started by the Isha Yoga

founder Jaggi Vasudev to prevent rivers and

other water bodies from getting dried up

Professor Mark Dyer of New Zealand