Denied passport twice, surrogate baby finally flies to Japan with mum

Following lack of clarity on the baby's nationality in the surrogacy certificate, the case was referred to MEA; passport officials later issued the child an identity certificate

A middle-aged Japanese couple who became parents of a child born to a surrogate mother through IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) had to face bureaucratic hurdles to procure a passport for their newborn.

Reason: According to the surrogacy certificate submitted to the passport office, the couple's embryo was transferred into the surrogate mother in September 2014, she tested positive for pregnancy in June 2014 and the baby was delivered in February this year.

If the conception took place before the embryo transfer, as the document issued by Anand-based Dr Nayna Patel stated, the child was clearly not theirs and therefore the nationality of the newborn was questionable.So, the officials at Regional Passport Office sought clarity on the matter from the commissioning parents.

Rs 95L microscope kept locked at Civil

The Cryo Em, an electron microscopeworth Rs 95 lakh that can study Ebola and other highly pathogenic viruses, isgathering dust in a locked laboratory

The most advanced electron microscope that can study Ebola and mutated viruses has been put under lock and key at the E-1 ward on the ground floor of Civil Hospital.

US visa glitch - Students cancel tickets, worry getting late for first sem in US varsities

Several students who have securedadmission in US universities, have cancelled the tickets as their visa interviewshave been rescheduled

A technical glitch that has brought down the computer system for issuing visas and passports at US embassies worldwide will not be fixed until at least next week, according to reports. The issue has left hundreds of visa applicants in the city worried. Several students, who have enrolled in the US varsities that will soon begin their sessions, have been left in the lurch.

GANDHI LOST IN MODI'S MODEL

Ahmedabad'shallmark of consensual politics inherited from Gandhi is being replaced bytop-down private sector approach to urban development that has no room for thepoor. This is the conclusion of a study funded by Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation

SUSHILABEN MANIBHAI NAIDU, 44

The government did not provide any financial assistance while displacing us. We have created these huts with our savings. The place is very unsafe for girls and being a mother of four girls I am always concerned about their safety. My husband had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that our entire family would commit suicide if we weren't provided with houses but we never got a response.

Nothing juvenile about Facebook crime cases

Cyber-crime related to the networking website has gone up by 40 per cent and majority of these crimes are being committed by adolescents

**Hemant Mehta, is a bright student studying in a private school. In October, this 14-year old created a fake Facebook account of one of his male classmates who used to bully him. Tech-savvy Hemant who couldn't win a physical fight with the bully used social media to get even.

**Last April, Kushal Shah, a 17-year-old science student of a reputed school received a call from the police for committing a cyber-crime. Kushal liked a girl in his coaching class but she rejected his proposal. In a bout of rage, he created her fake account and posted an edited picture of them posing as a couple.»

**Aditya Rawal was known to be studious and a math lover. At the age of 16, he could solve math problems of class XII. But in his 2014 annual examination; he unexpectedly received low marks. Angry, Aditya hacked in to his math teacher's Facebook account and posted slangs.

Here in our city… GODS UNITE ALL

A day after Somnath Temple banned the entry of non-Hindus without permission,Mirror's Kuldeep Tiwari and Rupsa Chakraborty visited the temples in the cityposing as a Muslim couple. To their surprise, they were warmly welcomed notonly by the temple staff and the security guards but also by the devotees.This, in a city that saw one of the worst communal riots in the country in 2002and earned itself the ignominy of being religiously intolerant

BHADRAKALI TEMPLE

LAL DARWAZA

When the reporters arrived at the temple posing as a Muslim couple who had come to seek the goddess's blessings, a group of women cops got up and welcomed them. The reporters found it quite surprising. The cops took them inside the temple, and requested the priest to offer them the prasad. Citing security reasons, a woman cop asked our reporter to lift her veil. “This is just part of routine check. Please do not take any offence. Everyone is welcome here. Do come again,“ said the cop. She also familiarised the duo with the temple's rich heritage before seeing them off with a smile.

Body blow

While more and more Amdavadis aredonating their bodies for advancement of science, medical colleges refuse toaccept them citing lack of facility to preserve bodies or reluctance to workafter office hours

While medical colleges across the country are struggling to meet shortage of cadavers, city colleges are turning away donors' bodies. Lack of infrastructure to preserve the bodies is the reason that colleges like NHL and Sola give while refusing to accept the donations. LG and BJ medical colleges accept bodies, provided it is brought during office hours.

Ushmaben Shah, a 79-year-old cancer patient who breathed her last on May 22, 2015, wanted to donate her body to benefit medical students.But this noble approach hit a roadblock when medical colleges refused to take her body citing several excuses.

Detecting narcotics from skeleton gets easier now

Researcher at forensic sciencedept at GU has developed nanotechnology sensor which can detect narcotics fromskeletons through smart phone

You must have seen several Hollywood crime serials where detectives find out the cause of death from skel eton within seconds. But this is no more a fiction as a researcher from Forensic Science Department of Gujarat University has developed nanotechnology based-sensor that find out the cause of death by detecting narcotics from skelegujarat university, tal remains through smart phones. And all this just in seconds.“Nanotechnology has been used in almost all aspects of science but hasn't been used efficiently in forensic science. At a time when drug related crime is on the rise this advanced technology can solve crime mysteries faster,“ said Anand Rajput who has developed the technology.

Watch out! Your car can catch fire

Don't blame it on the heat. Poormaintenance and negligence on part of drivers is leading to an increase innumber of cars catching fire

The sweltering heat has taken a toll on cars in the city. Cases of cars catching fire have witnessed a rise with the increasing heat in April.

As per data provided by the control room of Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES), with the rising temperature, there has been an increase in the number of cars catching fire. Twelve such cases have been recorded so far this month, while 34 car fire cases have been recorded since April. In the past, the fire department has recorded more than 100 car burning cases in summer.

Condom crunch hits city, thanks to cut in budget

Ahmedabad has been grappling with condom crunch as the distribution is down by 44 per cent, revealed AMC's Aids Control Society (AMCACS) in response to an RTI plea filed by Mirror. The supply has been majorly hit across the country after NDA government slashed its budget for department of AIDS control by 22 per cent. In 2013, about 58,22,800 condoms were distributed that dipped to 32,04,206 in 2014. National Aids Control Organization (NACO) is the agency that distributes free condoms at Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) centres across the state.

HOW PUNSARI IS UPPING ITS SMARTNESS QUOTIENT

This model village in Sabarkantha givesits residents complete access to WiFi, smart roadside libraries,air-conditioned schools and has not seen an FIR in three years

Dhaval Chauhan, 22, son of a farmer and a freshly-minted BTech graduate from Nirma University, decided to set up a firm in his village. He offers electrical and automation solutions to nearby vil lages, makes Rs 6 lakh a year and finds “no good reason“ to move to a big city.

City warms up to grocery portals

Registration on grocery portals goes up by 40 per cent as people prefer hassle free online shopping to visiting supermarket

Visiting a kirana store or a su permarket to shop for grocer ies has become a passé. Now, people are turning to online grocery portals to get their groceries home delivered. According to sources, the enrolment to these portals has gone up by 40 per cent, a testimony to the fact that given a choice people would prefer hassle free shopping from the convenience of their homes. In the past one year, four new grocery portals have started operations in the city, with more national websites eyeing customers here.

Nepal tourists' troubles - Broken phone link and profit-making

Second quake delays flight backhome for many Gujaratis stuck in Nepal; opportunistic local shopkeepers arecharging exorbitant price for eatables

There is no light, food or wa ter...the hotel has been de stroyed in the earthquake. We are staying in bus. But don't worry, we will be fine.“ This is the message Roshni Tejas Thakkar received from her family members who are stranded in Nepal after the tragedy struck the Himalayan country.Six of her family members, along with 65 other tourists, went to Kathmandu on a pilgrimage on April 17. It turned into a nightmare after the tremblor destroyed all communication links and basic facilities.

Ahmedabad delivers highest number of home births

Five-yeardata shows more than 5,000 children are born every year at home in Ahmedabaddistrict which is higher than less-developed or tribal districts like ChhotaUdepur, Valsad, Mehsana, Sabarkantha or Porbandar
Despite having the latest technology and the highest num ber of hospitals in the state, Ahmedabad has registered the highest number of baby deliveries outside hospitals. Every year, on an average, 5,000 deliveries are made either at home or in an ambulance. Shockingly, the number of such deliveries is higher in Ahmedabad district than in under-developed or tribal districts like Chhota Udepur, Valsad, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Porbandar and Navsari.

Social dept in hot water over transfer of kids

Social Department's move to shift 28 children under state's protection from Khanpur Protection Home without proper arrangements attracts criticism from child rights activists

The Social Justice and Empowerment Department has been left red-faced after its attempt to right a wrong backfired. Taking into account last month's CAG report which pointed out several irregularities in the child protection services, the department ordered the Khanpur Observation Home to shift 28 children, in need of protection, to another centre. The idea was to separate these children from those who have a criminal record or past. However, the hasti ly taken decision has landed the department in hot water after the protection home failed to find a safe place for the 28 children to stay.

CUT'TING DISREGARD

State govt under Modi ignored Centre's 2009 advisory to set up rape crisis centres in each district. Now Modi-led Centre plans to cut down RCCs to one in each state

Rape cases instate spike by over 70 pcin 5 years, yet Centre shows…

Two rapes occur every hour in India, reveals National Crime Records Bureau data. Statistics also show an 837% increase in rape cases in the country the last five decades. In Gujarat, which is considered a safe haven for women, rape cases have spiked by 70 per cent over past five years.

PAIN IN THE NECK

Cap of a cold drink bottle worthRs 10 costs a man Rs 2 lakh Dhaval Patani has trouble chewing food, so he oftenswallows it. One day he gulped down the cap unknowingly and carried it in histhroat for 9 months. Surgeons took 5 hours to remove it

Dhaval Patani from Kutch reeled from chest and back pain for 15 days. This forced him to approach a doctor who asked him to take an x-ray image.

The 44-year-old businessman got the shock of his life when it showed cap of a cold drink bottle embedded in the side wall of this food pipe.

Banks lead list of tax-payers

Axis bank tops chart for sixth year;telecom, infra and pharma sectors follow suit. Gujarat is growing and so is tax collection in the state. The size of the bag has increased by 21.89 per cent over last year's collec tion. And this time again, banking sector leads the tax payers' list with Axis Bank topping the chart for the sixth consecutive year. It is followed by Vodafone, Adani Port and SEZ, Gujarat Mineral Developmental Corporation, Sun Pharma and Gujarat Gas.

GUJ MISSES TAX TARGET BY 4K CR

Eleven of the top 18 taxdefaulters in the country are from state. Huge tax-to-GDP collection gap led toshortfall, say experts

Gujarat seems to be following Prime Minister Narendra Modi blindly. People from the state seem to have latched on to his idea that the state does not pass on any tax to the Centre and, in turn, does not seek any aid for it. Gujaratis seem to have taken his statement a bit seri ously. This year, they have paid less taxes.

With the Centre likely to miss the revised target of direct tax collection by around Rs 40,000 crore, Gujarat has emerged as one of the worst performing states with its direct tax collections falling short of meeting the target by more than Rs 4,000 crore.

Gujarat is extremely resistant to TB drugs

Gujarat has recorded the second highest number ofextreme drug-resistant TB since the discovery of the disease in India threeyears ago; the state has recorded the third highest number of deaths afterMaharashtra and Delhi
Thirty-four-year-old Anita Agarwal (name changed) was admitted to TB Hospital on the Civil campus in Ahmedabad. When she did not recover after six months of treatment, worried doctors tested her sputum, only to discover that she had developed third-line drug-resistant TB.

Five-yr-old wins battle with drug-resistant tuberculosis

For the first time in state, a childwith multi-drug resistant TB of spine recovered after two years of treatment

Seven-year-old Sultan Liyas Shaikh from Juhapura is the first child under 10 who has recovered completely from second-line of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) of spine in Gujarat.

Sultan has recovered completely, living like children his age: going to school, paying football with his friends and having food of his choice after two years of treatment. But it was different two years ago when at five he weighed only 10 kg.

Tweet your #passportquery

Passport applicants can now getquick replies to queries by tweeting their questions to @rpoahmedabad, RegionalPassport Office, Ahmedabad's official Twitter handle which was formed on March11

Gone are the days when you had to wait for days to receive a reply to your pass port queries. Now, all you have to do is tweet them and receive a reply within hours. Yes, t h e r e gion a l p as sport of fice, Ahmedabad, is now on twitter in an effort to serve the people in the best way possible.

Umeed Yojana scam - Two caught inflating attendance

Probe against Saath Charitable, Shanti Educational Initiative for faking number of students to gain more money

Two organisations working for the marginalised sections of society have come under AMC scanner after civic officials detected malpractice in their dealings. The vigilance department of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has initiated an inquiry against two public welfare organisations -Saath Charitable and Shanti Educational Initiative (SEI) --after malpractice was found in their Umeed scheme to provide vocational training to the poor.

AMC blocks society's attempts to go green

Residentsof ICB Island Society on New SG Road sought AMC's approval to plant saplings inthe area devoid of greenery. But corporation cancelled it citing laying ofpipelines

At a time when Ahmedabad is struggling to preserve its green patches, an initiative by a group of people to make their society green gets a cold response from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

A year ago, the residents of ICB Island Society on New SG Road had sent an application to the AMC, seeking approval for planting 100 saplings in and around their society.

However, though the corporation initially supported the initiative, it backed off later.

The area surrounding the society, constructed four years ago, is devoid of greenery. Still, there has been no initiative by the AMC to create green spaces, the residents complain.

Year after Centre proposes protection panel - No green signal for plan to shield kids at station

Ahmedabad division has not implementedcentral Railway Board's plan to set up Child Protection Committee that willprovide food, shelter to kids roaming, begging at rly stations

Railway stations are among the most dangerous places for children where they often become victims of sexual harassment and drug abuse. To take special care of children, the central government had ordered all states to form Child Protection Committee (CPC) at major railway stations. It is more than a year but Ahmedabad Railway Division has not implemented it.

At BJ, saftey is a PJ

Ticker leading to the headline: Last October, twoKashmiri youths were detained for illegal stay at BJ Medical College hostel.You would like to think it was a wake up call for authorities. Nope. The newhostel blocks are even more unsafe

*The new hostel is located in a slum area, 4 km from the college

* Anybody can get in since guards do not check ID cards.
*A month ago, local goons barged into the hostel with weapons and threatened students

* Cellphone worth Rs 40,000 stolen from hostel room

Authorities of BJ Medical College have still not learnt their lesson. After a fire broke out in the one of their hostel rooms last October, police had detained two Kashmiri youths who were found to be staying illegally in a room allotted to an undergraduate doctor.

State not in the pink of health

Gujarat is promoted as themodel state but when it comes to health conditions, things are not that rosy;the state has the unenviable record of topping the chart on diseases like TB,cholera and oral cancer

Gujarat's model of development might be a thing of envy for many states, but the health index of the state shows that the government has lagged behind in social healthcare. Nationally, the state has recorded the highest number of cases in several other diseases even as swine flu seems to be the biggest health scare affecting Gujarat and a few other states right now. Gujarat recorded the highest number of HIV, drug-resistant cholera, swine flu and oral cancer patients in 2014.

THANK YOU AIN'T ENOUGH

A team of 115 doctors, nurses,anaesthetists, ward boys and laboratory staff has been working round-the-clockat Civil Hospital, attending to patients fighting the H1N1 virus

Swine-flu outbreak has already infected 2,637 people in the city and claimed 46 lives so far.

Most of them have undergone or are still admitted to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital where a team of 115 staff members has been working round-the-clock to save lives. Every day, 21 doctors are assigned different shifts along with anaesthetists, nurses, ward boys and laboratory assis tants.

Very Shameful

In a brazen display of insensitivity, doctors at VSHospital refused to attend to an eight-yearold rape victim for 45 minutes asshe lay in the emergency ward, bleeding from her private parts and writhing inpain. That was not the end of Sunita's (name changed) harrowing experience.When the staff finally attended to her, they made the child relive the traumaby asking uncomfortable questions and discussing the incident among themselvesin front of her. The hospital's alleged delay in providing medical assistanceand the shameful behaviour of the staff is in clear violation of The Protectionof Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012.

SWINE FLU DEATHS - A MATTER OF HEART

Four of every 10 patients who died ofswine flu had cardiac issues; experts say that expectant moms, people withasthma, arthritis, HIV, diabetes and poor immunity are more vulnerable to thevirus

Sixty-four-year-old Sudhir Mehta died of swine flu on January 31, three days after being admitted to Civil Hospital. He was a resident of Thaltej and was referred to the hospital by a private hospital in his neighbourhood.

Swine flu is quickly acquiring epidemic-like proportion in the state and people from across society are dying every day, taking the death toll in the city to 55 by Monday. But a strand seems to run through Mehta's and 22 other cases of death: all of them had a long history of cardiac ailments.