Dual seat allotments cause vacancies in PG med counselling

Dual seat allotments cause vacancies in PG med counselling 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  30.11.2024

Chennai : At least 50 candidates in Tamil Nadu were allotted seats in both govt and management quotas after the first round of postgraduate medical counselling. Candidates can either accept one of the two seats or forgo both and apply for the next round. As a result, between 50 and 100 of these seats, besides others, are expected to remain vacant at the end of the first round. Officials have indicated that this trend of dual postings and subsequent vacancies may continue in the upcoming rounds of counselling this year. 

This year, the state selection committee relied on an error-riddled merit list prepared by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBE). Some students with lower scores were ranked higher, causing confusion. “The rank distribution in the govt quota differs from that in the management quota for nonservice candidates. This discrepancy is understandable for service candidates since they receive added incentive marks to their scores,” said Student Counsellor Manickavel Arumugam. 

For instance, a non-service candidate placed five ranks below another student in the state quota rank list was placed five ranks above the same student in the management quota list. To resolve inconsistencies between the state and manage ment lists, the selection committee conducted parallel counselling for both categories. It also issued a disclaimer and encouraged students to contact the national board for any clarifications regarding the merit list. “The fundamental purpose of an entrance test is to determine which candidate is superior. This test has failed to achieve that objective. It is worse for the state to wash its hands off the responsibility," Arumugam said. 

For the first time, the national board conducted NEET-PG in two batches on Aug 11 and declared results on August 23. The results came in percentiles instead of individual scores. This made it difficult for nearly a dozen states, including Tamil Nadu, which offer additional marks as incentives to in-service candidates. Tamil Nadu wrote to NBE seeking normalised marks so it could add incentive marks for counselling. This request was denied by the NBE. After discussions with the National Medical Commission, the apex body regulating medical education in the state, and the national board, it was decided that NBE would release the merit list using incentive marks given by states. At least two high courts – Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan – have already stayed the counselling following petitions of irregularities in rank lists. “We are hoping the state will do something here too,” said a candidate.

Recovery of commutation: Ex-forest officials move CAT .‘Officers Knew Rule When They Opted For Scheme’

Recovery of commutation: Ex-forest officials move CAT .

‘Officers Knew Rule When They Opted For Scheme’

SagarKumar.Mutha@timesofindia.com 29.11.2024 

Hyderabad : A group of retired chief and principal chief conservators of forest department along with a few retired senior bureaucrats approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), urging it to direct the central govt to stop recovering commutation amount from their pension every month. 

Telangana high court has been passing orders directing the state govt to stop recovery the moment it completely gets back its amount. Dealing with a batch of petitions filed by retired tahsildar Bobbadi Appa Rao and others, the AP high court too has issued an interim direction to the state to stop recovering the amount since the state has already recovered the commutation amount. In fact, AP has directed its treasury wing not to deduct the commutation portion of pension from all those pensioners who have completed 11 years and three months till furter orders. A division bench of Telangana high court comprising Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwara Rao heard a petition filed by MV SN Acharyulu and 11 others. It noted their contention that interim protection from recovery was already granted by high courts of Punjab and Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Allahabad and passed a restraint order directing the state to stop recovery in all the deserving cases. “No recovery can be made henceforth without the permission of this court,” the bench said in its recent order. 

CAT bench in Hyderabad, however, cited the order of the Supreme Court and refused to grant any interim protection to the central govt employees. The CAT bench of judicial member Lata Baswaraj Patne and administrative member Shalini Misra said that applicants before it belong to All India Services who knew the rule position when they opted for commutation of pension. “This commutation is purely voluntary and optional and there is no compulsion that they should avail it at the time of retirement,” the tribunal bench said.

After opting for the commutation of pension and after enjoying the benefit up to certain years, the principle of estoppel should prevent them from raising the objections to the existing rules at a later stage, the bench said. The bench also said that mere reference to the orders of the high courts, without considering the rules and the law laid down by the Supreme Court in similar cases, is of no use. “If the applicants are aggrieved by the action of the central govt, they should first approach the competent authority,” it said. Instead of doing that, they straight away came to the tribunal. They challenged the rules without exhausting the available remedies.

‘EWS’ students get medical PG seats with fees running in crores

‘EWS’ students get medical PG seats with fees running in crores 

FAKEEWS CERTS? Students Ask How They Can Afford It If Their Income Is What they Claim

Rema.nagarajan@timesofindia.com 29.11.2024 

Over 140 candidates belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS, annual family income less than ₹8 lakh) have chosen postgraduate seats in clinical specialties from the management and NRI quotas of private medical colleges for which tuition fees alone range from ₹25 lakh to over ₹90 lakh per annum. This has led to many aspirants questioning how these candidates managed to get the EWS certificate if they could afford to pay over a crore for a three-year postgraduate course. 

The first round of allotment of postgraduate seats in medical colleges was announced on Nov 20. Out of more than 24,600 seats allotted in the first round, 135 seats from the management quota in private medical colleges have been allotted to candidates who registered as EWS. Eight NRI seats have also been allotted to EWS candidates. 

For instance, an MS Orthopaedics seat in the management quota of Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical sciences in Puducherry, for which the tuition fee alone comes up to ₹1.6 crore for the entire course has been allotted to an EWS candidate. Similarly, an EWS candidate has got an MD Radiology seat from the NRI quota in Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital, Mysore. The annual fees for this seat are ₹91 lakh. Many MBBS graduates who appeared for the NEET PG exam asserted that there was a huge increase in candidates using fake EWS certificates and demanded that the govt initiate an enquiry.

 “Seeing the counselling allotment results, it’s quite frustrating that EWS candidates have taken admission in colleges that charge fees in crores for three years. As a NEET PG aspirant, this is disheartening. How can someone from the EWS category pay this much as fees? How is the  govt issuing these EWS certificates? The govt must cancel the seats of these aspirants,” said a NEET PG aspirant.

NEWS TODAY 28.11.2024

 

Wait finally over! Retd official to get pension after 12 yrs

Wait finally over! Retd official to get pension after 12 yrs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 28.11.2024

Bengaluru : “Ours being a constitutionally ordained welfare state, the govt should conduct itself as a model employer,” the high court observed recently while coming to the rescue of a 73-yearold retired civil servant fighting for unpaid salary and pension arrears. 

“It pains us that this is not the first case where a pensioner was put to untold hardship and cruelty at the hands of the govt, which extracted his sweat, if not blood, for more than 33 years of service. All this cannot go scathefree,” a division bench comprising Justices Krishna S Dixit and CM Joshi observed in its order while allowing the petition filed by one Sadashivappa of Bengaluru. The authorities have now been directed to sanction and release regular pension and all terminal benefits to the petitioner within two months, with interest at the rate of 1% per month from the day the sum was withheld. “The rate of interest should stand altered to 2% in the place of 1% per mensem with retrospective effect if the delay exceeds two months.

Further, the respondents should pay a cost of Rs 50,000 to the petitioner,” the bench added. Sadashivappa, a Karnataka Municipal Administration Service officer, retired from service in Feb 2012. However, citing a pending inquiry into certain allegations against him, his retirement benefits were withheld despite him submitting several representations. He approached the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, which, however, on Feb 6, 2024, rejected his petition. He moved the high court. 

His main contention was that the pension payable to a retired employee is his right, constitutionally guaranteed under Articles 21 and 300-A of the Constitution. On the other hand, the govt advocate submitted that upon certain audit objections, the auditor general had directed the recovery of Rs 3.1 lakh from Sadashivappa, and the same is permissible under Karnataka Civil Service Rules (KCSR). 

The bench noted that the payment of retirement benefits of nearly Rs 9.5 lakh was withheld from the petitioner. “We repeatedly asked the govt advocate about the particulars of ‘pending inquiry’ and no material was produced before us to show that any disciplinary inquiry of the kind was ever instituted against him,” it said.

Offends petitioner’s fundamental right to life

“The fact remains that till date, no inquiry has been instituted against the petitioner, who demitted his office on Feb 29, 2012, on attaining the age of superannuation. Now he is in the evening of his life. No inquiry can now be instituted for the alleged lapses because of the fouryear limitation enacted in the provisions of Rule 214(2)(b)(ii) of KCSR. Since a retired employee holds his body and soul together with the periodic pension regularly paid, withholding the same at times amounts to suspending the means of livelihood and therefore, offends the Fundamental Right to life constitutionally assured under Article 21 in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Olga Tellis case,” the high court bench further noted in its recent order.

Exam fraud: 2k male students registered as females in Agra

Exam fraud: 2k male students registered as females in Agra 

Agra : 28.11.2024 

In a major scam uncovered in the ongoing semester exams at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Agra, around 2,000 male students were found fraudulently registered as female students to take exams at three private colleges affiliated with the university, reports Deepak Lavania. University examination controller Om Parkash said the anomalies were spotted at Major Angad Singh Mahavidyalaya, SBD College of Science and Education in Mainpuri, and Gulkandi Lalaram Mahavidyalaya in Mathura. These colleges were designated as ‘self-centres’ — the university allows colleges having more girl students to have self-centres for exams where the colleges can have their own staff members as invigilators. The irregularity came to light on Tuesday when significant variations in student numbers were noticed across the first, second, and third shifts.

Court: Withholding pension is cruelty at hands of govt

Court: Withholding pension is cruelty at hands of govt 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 28.11.2024 

Bengaluru : Terming the withholding of salary dues and pension benefits over a pending departmental inquiry ‘cruelty at the hands of the govt,’ Karnataka high court has ordered the release of arrears to a 73-year old retired municipal administration officer within two months. Sadashivappa, from Bengaluru, retired in Feb 2012, but his pension and salary arrears were withheld while awaiting the report of an inquiry into certain allegations against him. After exhausting his options, he approached Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, which rejected his petition on Feb 6, 2024. He moved HC. 

A division bench of Jus tices Krishna S Dixit and C M Joshi ordered the govt to pay Sadashivappa ₹9.5 lakh in dues, with 1% interest from the day the amount was withheld. “The rate of interest should be increased to 2% per month, instead of 1%, with retrospective effect if the delay exceeds two months. Further, the respondents should pay a cost of ₹50,000 to the petitioner,” the bench added. The govt advocate submitted that, following certain audit objections, auditor general had directed the recovery of ₹3.1 lakh from Sadashivappa, which is permissible under Karnataka Civil Service Rules (KCSR).

How can flyover less than 10 yrs old tumble down, must probe ‘scam’: HC

How can flyover less than 10 yrs old tumble down, must probe ‘scam’: HC

New Delhi : 27.11.2024 

Terming it a “scam”, Delhi High Court on Tuesday called for a CBI probe into the state of a flyover that is “tumbling” due to authorities cutting corners. A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela pointed out that despite the structure near Nathu Colony area developing cracks in 2018, no internal inquiry had taken place.

“Who are the people involved in this scam? How can you have such a weak structure? This is not even 10 years old. Can a flyover for which you would have spent crores come tumbling down? All flyovers constructed in the 1980s are still functional today. And your construction in 2015 is in shambles. It doesn’t take a magician to understand why it is tumbling; you have to conduct an investigation,” the court told the counsel for Delhi govt. 

Lamenting that no one was “bothered” that a report on the flyover by a consultant hired by govt was expected in 2021 but is still awaited, HC said it was “clear” someone was “trying to push corruption under the carpet”. Stressing that CBI would find out the persons who gave clearances, including the completion certificate for the structure, the court said the issue was that the authorities were “not doing some internal soul searching”.

NEWS TODAY 27.11.2024