
State governmentprocuring substandard wheelchairs, says PIL plea
The Hindu
Petitioner faults Bengaluru-based firm
A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Madras High Court complaining that the State government had been procuring and supplying substandard and defective battery-operated wheelchairs since 2015 to those suffering from muscular dystrophy and tetraplegia.
The case filed by Spinal Injured Persons Association, a registered body, has been listed for admission before Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu on Monday. The association wants the government restrained from procuring the wheelchairs without conducting quality check.
In an affidavit filed through its counsel E. Vijay Anand, the association president D. Gnana Bharathi said the government had introduced the scheme of supplying battery operated wheelchairs in 2015. Since then, a private company based in Bengaluru had been bagging the contract periodically.

The municipal bus stand auditorium in Malappuram was packed. But nobody quite knew what to expect. After all, a new event was making its debut at the State School Arts Festival. The moment V.G. Harikrishnan started his rendition of Pyar bhare do sharmile nain..., everyone was convinced that Ghazal was here to stay. The student from GVHSS, Atholi (Kozhikode), was applauded loudly for his rendering of the timeless ghazal sung originally by Mehdi Hassan.

For the last few weeks, several wards in Madurai city have been getting piped drinking water through a new drinking water scheme. The sweetness of the generously supplied water has led to loss of business to several suppliers of canned drinking water in the city. But, not many know that the water supplied to the houses in Madurai is directly drawn from Lower Dam of Mullaperiyar Dam in Idukki district of Kerala.











