The Hindu 10.11.2010
Alumni meet expresses gratitude to Corporation
Special Correspondent 
Thanking:A section of audience at a function organised by the alumni of lab technician course of Chennai Corporation on Tuesday.
CHENNAI: At the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here, a large group of youths from under-privileged background took time on Tuesday to thank the organisation that had secured them a respectable job and status in society.
The youths had undergone a two-year laboratory technician course at Communicable Diseases Hospital, Tondiarpet, of Chennai Corporation after leaving school. In the last 16 years, around 400 students have taken the course which is taught by doctors working for the Chennai Corporation.
The programme on Tuesday was got up to honour the teachers and the Chennai Corporation.
The course was launched with the aim of ensuring that the students of Corporation-run schools get decent jobs. Most of the students were children of the civic body's employees with little means, said P. Kuganantham, Health Officer of the Corporation. He urged the alumni to set up a corpus that could be used for developing programmes to upgrade their skills and educate poor students.
Students of the first batch that took the course in 1993 recalled that they trailed doctors in hospitals in the mornings and spent the afternoon reading lessons. Most of them have been absorbed into the Corporation's laboratories through Employment Exchange programmes. Some of them are employed in leading private hospitals.
Mayor M. Subramanian said the Corporation would try to get a resolution passed in the Council to ensure that the students who underwent training at Communicable Diseases Hospital would be given priority in postings to the Corporation's health centres.
The civic body would release the financial assistance towards the higher education of the children of burial ground assistants within 10 days, he said. The Corporation had received 10 petitions from the children, including two from candidates pursuing engineering courses, Mr. Subramanian added.
