Number of HIV-affected persons has come down in Krishnagiri district

The number of HIV-affected persons has come down considerably in Krishnagiri district during last year, K. Chandramouli, Director, National Aids Control Organisation, said here on Friday.

Mr. Chandramouli inspected the operations of Anti-Retroviral Testing (ART) centre at the district headquarters hospital, STD clinic, blood banks and counselling centre in Krishnagiri along with Shambu Kallolikar, Project Director, Tamil Nadu Aids Control Society.

Inspecting the blood bank, Mr. Mouli enquired with the officials whether they had enough stock of blood to meet emergency requirement and also about the refrigeration system at the bank.

He enquired about the number of patients visiting the ART centre daily and how the HIV-affected persons were counselled at the 17 centres called ‘Nambikkai Maiyam' across the district.

He was informed that on an average 50 to 70 HIV affected persons were visiting the ART centres and as many as 120 to 140 new HIV-affected persons were registered at the centre.

They were being counselled or given treatment on a continuous basis. Apart from this, those identified through the 17 counselling centres were also given continuous treatment.

He also enquired about the number of patients visiting the STD clinics and how they were motivated to undergo treatment at the clinic.

He also visited the community care centre run by the District Aids Control Society and asked the inmates about the treatment given at the centre and how they felt after the treatment.

Mr. Mouli instructed the officials to identify HIV-affected persons through blood donation camps and give continuous guidance and counselling. Those suffering from STD should be sent for HIV test. Those afflicted with HIV should be given continuous counselling through field workers. Awareness camps should be conducted on a regular basis in the district.

Later, he along with Mr. Kallolikar distributed education assistance of Rs. 3000 each to 100 children.

During the inspection, V.K. Shanmugam, Collector, M. Masilamani, Joint Director (Health), T. Kavin, Project Manager (Aids Control), P. Shanmugam, Secretary, Red Cross Association and G. Karunanidhi, founder, HIV-Positive Network, accompanied him.

Rain with strong wind uproots trees

Heavy rain with strong wind uprooted trees and advertisement banners and hoardings were torn on Wednesday morning.

An old tamarind tree was uprooted on Tirupattur road, near Bargur, and damaged the compound wall of a school. Due to it, traffic on the route was affected for more than hour. As a precautionary measure, power was shutdown in many parts of the town on Wednesday night.

Power supply was affected in and around the Government General Hospital due to sudden failure of the transformer in the Papparapatti area in Krishnagiri town till Thursday evening.

Though the temperature during day time was at its peak, the cool breeze and the rain brought respite in the evening. Residents spent a sleepless night due to power failure. Denkanikottai registered the highest rainfall of 25 mm on Wednesday night.

Rajaji ‘illam' kept under lock, tourists disappointed

First Indian Governor General of India C. Rajagopalachari, affectionately called Rajaji, was born in Thorappalli village near Hosur in Krishnagiri district.

A small tiled house, where he was born and brought up, was taken over by the state government on December 10, 1978 on his birth centenary. It is now being maintained by the Department of Information and Public Relations.

The village is 10 km from Hosur and 2.5 km from the Bangalore-Chennai National Highway. A bronze bust of Rajaji was commissioned by the government at a cost of Rs. 2 lakh and was unveiled by Minister for Information and Public Relations Parithi Ilamvazhuthi on December 24, 2009.

“Though the government of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has been honouring the leaders of the yesteryear and Tamil scholars by creating Mani Mandapams and memorials, it has kept the Rajaji Illam under lock for more than a month,'' said a tourist from Karnataka.

Rain lashes Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri districts

Rain-hit: The compound wall of the Forest Ranger's office on Bangalore road in Krishnagiri collapsed on Friday night due to heavy rain.

DHARMAPURI/KRISHNAGIRI: Rain with thunderstorm and lightning lashed many parts of Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri districts on Friday night.

This brought down the mercury level on Saturday.

Weather was pleasant and the sky remained cloudy all over the districts.

Some parts of the Dharmapuri district experienced rainfall for three days from April 20.

Rainwater stagnated in the low-lying areas in the town.

Rainfall registered in Dharmapuri district: Dharmapuri town 89 mm, Collectorate 65 mm, Pennagaram 64 mm, Palacode 45 mm, Pappireddipatti and Marandaalli 40 mm and Harur 35 mm.

Rain lashed Krishnagiri district from evening till mid night Friday.

In some place it was drizzling till morning. Shoolagiri registered a maximum of 95 mm rainfall.

Farmers expressed happiness as the ground water level is expected to increase.

Compound wall collapse

Compound at the Forest Ranger's office in Krishnagiri collapsed due to the rain.

No one was injured as it happened at night.

Rainfall registered in many parts of Krishnagiri district: Shoolagiri 95 mm, Krishnagiri Reservoir 85 mm, Krishnagiri town 75 mm, Thaly 73 mm, Nedungal 68 mm, Royakottai 51 mm, Hosur 50 mm, Barur 47 mm, Denkanikottai 25 mm, Uthangarai 23 mm and Anchetti 16 mm.

Rs. 4.98 cr. disbursed under Agriculture Workers' Scheme

As many as 4,690 people benefited under the State Government's Agriculture Workers' Protection Scheme to the tune of Rs. 4.98 crore for the past one year, Collector V.K. Shanmugam has said.

A review meeting was held at the Collectorate recently. Presiding over the meeting, Mr. Shanmugam scrutinised the applications received for various assistance such as marriage assistance, compensation for natural death and accidents and old-age pension etc.

Applications

The applications received from the agriculture workers were scrutinised block-wise by the Collector and the action taken on the applications was taken up for review at the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr. Shanmugam said that under the marriage assistance of the members Rs. 7.43 lakh was disbursed to 187 persons, for the marriages of sons and daughters Rs. 47.68 lakh to 1164 persons, for natural death and last rites Rs. 2.07 crore to 1,659 persons, for accident deaths and last rites expenses Rs. 1.89 crore to 185 persons and old-age pension totalling Rs. 45.66 lakh was given to 1,485 people during the past one year.

Officials were instructed to scrutinise the applications from the agriculture labourers on priority basis and disburse the assistance as early as possible.

Likewise the applications received for educational scholarships, maternity assistance and Janani Suraksha Scheme should be disbursed to the agriculture workers without any delay through the concerned departments.

P. Prabhakar, District Revenue Officer, K. Alagesan, Special Deputy Tahsildhar (Social Security Scheme), K. Rajagopal, Tahsildhar and other officials participated in the review meeting.