Audits and fun trips
When a three-member team visited the Tenkasi Government District Headquarters Hospital (GHQH) to verify if it's eligible for National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certification, the hospital admin was on its toes. The health staff toiled day and night, and apparently modified the in-patients' case sheets to show that doctors routinely performed the daily ward rounds.
Doctors were instructed to limit their private practice during the audit. The expert team members, however, raised unpleasant queries over various flaws in the hospital. To keep them in good humour, the admin arranged a trip for them to Kanniyakumari, cutting the audit hours, we were told.
Quarrel over quarries
Like in many States, running metal quarries and crusher units is intertwined with politics in Tamil Nadu. Obviously, sparks flew when the district administration shut 54 quarries in Tirunelveli and imposed a massive fine of Rs 300 crore for violations.
Recently, a member of parliament, running a thriving blue metal business, lost it at the district collector at a press meet when the latter refused to give a time frame for the stone quarries to start functioning again. "If politicians can threaten IAS officers in the presence of ministers and the media, how can we act against the quarry mafia and still retain our jobs?" asks a helpless government official.
'Money' plant snatchers
Residents looking for money plants to beautify their houses look no further than the vertical gardens in the bridge underpasses across Chennai. While most stop at secretly plucking trimmings, some go a step further. They lift the entire plant holders to use as containers in their houses, leaving the panel at the underpass looking like a chart filled with holes.
Tough nut of tech
In an age when cybercrimes and internet frauds are on a steady rise, tech illiteracy among senior cops in Chennai is shocking. Some struggle to do even basics such as uploading pictures on social media. It’s learnt that a sub inspector recently had to teach his higher-up how to make a call on a social media app.
Voice of the 'voiceless'
Several ministers and senior politicians made a beeline to Kallakurichi after it erupted in collective anger. When the media sought answers from the school education minister at a press meet, a senior minister present there decided to exert his seniority, adding that there is no difference of opinion between the ministers and what he spoke were also the words of the other minister. Post the press meet, reporters however met the ‘junior’ minister outside the hall and sought his answers.
(With inputs from Thinakaran Rajamani, Nirupama Viswanathan, Gautham Selvarajan and Bagalavan Perier B. Collated by Maneesh T)