By Umaima Shafiq/Gulf Times Correspondent

Documents lost in floods to be replaced
Efforts are being taken to replace important documents lost due to the deadly floods in Chennai.
Many banks have cancelled service charge for customers using ATM cards of other banks and deployed mobile banking vans in flooded areas of the city. Canara Bank is providing three months salary as instant loan and waiver of penal interest on monthly payments for November and December. Customers can also withdraw government pensions from accounts without submitting their life certificates if they were lost or damaged.
The Ministry of External Affairs organised a special passport issuance meeting on December 12 at Rayala Towers in Anna Salai and three other passport offices to issue new booklets without charging processing fees.
The Chennai Corporation and private volunteers are making similar efforts to replace ration cards, voter ID, Adhaar cards, LPG gas cylinder booklets, school books, college certificates and other documents. The Directorate of Medical Education will hold a two-week camp from today to issue fresh certificates in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore districts.

Rescued woman delivers twins
A 29-year-old pregnant woman rescued by the Indian Air Force (IAF) delivered twin baby girls at a private hospital in flood-hit Chennai last week.
Deepti Velchamy was airlifted from the terrace of her house in Ramapuram in Guindy and kept at the Tambaram air base where she went into labour.
She was then flown to the Sri Ramachandra Hospital in Porur which had her records in its online data. Her husband Karthik who was in Bangalore thanked the IAF. The IAF was also commended for rescuing many other pregnant women.
Meanwhile, the government has postponed half-yearly exams for all schools in Tamil Nadu from December 7 to January.
The government has also extended the due date for payment of electricity bills for consumers in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore districts to January 31.
The semester exams for the University of Chennai will be held from today to January 6.

Soothsayer murdered
Mani, a 45-year-old soothsayer, was found murdered at his home in Singanallur in Coimbatore last week. Mani used to have dozens of visitors every day whose ‘fortunes’ he predicted using Hindu religious texts and calendars. He was unmarried, wealthy and had been building a house behind his current residence.
Last week, as visitors were queuing up to see him as usual, his assistant who was decorating a temple in the premises saw through an open window that Mani was lying dead in a pool of blood in the hall. Police confirmed that Mani’s throat had been slit and gold jewellery was missing from his home. They have begun interrogating his devotees, staff and construction workers at his new house.

Rwandan girl student rescued
Nivamugeni Marie Grace, a Rwandan student who went missing from her college at Namakkal was found in Kolkatta last week.
Marie Grace, a biochemistry student, was apparently lured to Kolkatta with a promise to get a scholarship to study in the US. Her father, a minister in Rwanda, became worried when she did not report back to college after a week’s holiday (December 2-8). He alerted Namakkal and Delhi police through their country’s consulate in New Delhi.
She was found imprisoned at a secret location but her abductors were missing. Search is on for the kidnappers.