CBI raid reveals how agents corner train tickets

The CBI, Bengaluru on Wednesday raided 11 locations across different States and busted a racket in cornering railway tickets.

The Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) of the CBI registered a case against Shahid, assistant manager, IRCTC, New Delhi and others.

The CBI has said, “The accused had allegedly conspired and interfered with the IRCTC booking system by installing a software programme in the computers at various travel agents’ offices by which the agent can book six separate tickets, each for six passengers per ticket, i.e. 36 passengers in one go, where as in normal course an agent can book tickets only for six passengers at a time.”

The travel agents cornered tickets, which were then sold at higher prices.

CBI claims to have recovered incriminating documents, hard disks, tatkal tickets and material used for creation of multiple IRCTC windows. Sleuths also raided vendors of New Trained Software, which was used by the racketeers.

‘ The accused had allegedly interfered with the IRCTC system by installing a software at travel agents’ offices’

SC transfers Vyapam investigation to CBI

Noting that it will not allow even one more death, the Supreme Court on Thursday transferred all criminal and death cases linked to the Vyapam scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation for a “fair and impartial” probe.

The CBI will effectively be in charge of the investigations from Monday.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy said the question whether the probe should be monitored by the apex court can be decided later in consultation with the premier investigation agency.

Slamming the Madhya Pradesh High Court for deferring an application made by the State government for a CBI probe, Chief Justice Dattu said it seemed the High Court merely “wanted to wash its hands of the responsibility and lobbed the ball into the Supreme Court.”

The apex court made it clear that with the CBI on the case now, the High Court will not “touch” the Vyapam cases.

The Special Task Force, supervised by the High Court-monitored Special Investigation Team, has lodged a number of FIRs relating to illegal admissions/recruitment totalling 55 cases, of which 45 related to admissions in professional courses and 10 to recruitment in government services on the recommendation of high-profile persons.

The court scheduled the next hearing for July 24 even as senior advocate Kapil Sibal sought an early date, saying every day, people related to the scam were being found dead.

“We will not allow the number of deaths to go up from 36 to 37 or 38. Not one more will die,” Chief Justice Dattu told senior advocates Mr. Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Indira Jaising appearing in the batch of petitions filed by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and three whistle-blowers.

“The toll is 48 not 36... anyway this is not cricket that we celebrate if the toll hits half century,” Mr. Sibal responded.

During the hearing, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government, said the State was already in favour of a CBI probe and the apex court could decide whatever it wanted.

Stand appreciated

The court agreed with Mr. Rohatgi’s submission that it was left entirely to the Bench to decide whether the CBI probe should be monitored by the Supreme Court.

“We appreciate the stand of the Attorney-General,” Chief Justice Dattu said in reaction to the M.P. government’s stand.

New NAAC Norms to Speed up Accreditation

COIMBATORE: The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has decided to speed up the assessment of higher education institutions for accreditation.

According to the new procedure, applicable from August 1, the institutions can submit the letter of intent (LOI) for assessment and accreditation only after uploading the self-study report (SSR) on their websites. The registration fee should be paid within 10 days of submitting the LOI. The NAAC will process LOI and communicate its decision to the institution within 15 days.

Within a week of the LOI’s acceptance, the institutional eligibility for quality assessment (IEQA) must be submitted to the NAAC. The self-study report is to be submitted to the NAAC within two weeks of acceptance of the LOI or IEQA.

The NAAC will constitute the peer team and decide on the dates of its visit to the institution in three weeks of receipt of self-study report. The visit should be completed within one month.

If NAAC finds the LOI deficient, it will be rejected. The institutions will then have to submit it again, with registration charges.

The LOIs, IEQAs and SSRs submitted up to July 31, will be processed as per the existing procedure.

Currently, the LOI is processed within 40 days and the SSR submitted within six months of it. The processing, finalising and intimating the decision on IEQA will take another 75 days. There is no specific time frame for constitution and visit of the peer team, which now takes a few months.

In 2012, the UGC issued the Mandatory Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Educational Institutions Regulations, according to which all institutions of higher education had to get NAAC accreditation by June 1, 2014.

Institutions that failed to get accredited were not to get UGC assistance from April 1, 2015. Later, the deadline for accreditation was extended to December 31, 2015.

HC orders KIMS to pay Rs 1 crore each to 3 MBBS students

The High Court on Wednesday directed the Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in the city to pay Rs one crore each to three MBBS students within a month, for admitting them illegally and wasting one year of their academic career.

While hearing a petition by Girish Rithvik, R Lekhashree, Sreekar Surapaneni and Vadaanya Venkatesh, the students who were fighting for one medical seat in KIMS, Justice H G Ramesh ruled the seat in favour of Rithvik. He passed an order directing Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha, which runs KIMS, and the college to refund all fees paid by the other three students under different heads.

The total number of medical seats at KIMS was reduced from 150 to 120 for the academic year 2014-15, which led to a decrease in the management quota seats from 30 to 24. However, KIMS admitted 30 students instead of 24, hoping to get approval for the additional six seats, for which it had moved the Apex Court. But the court did not approve it.

Interim order

After the admissions, four students were left fighting for one seat. As they had moved the High Court, an interim order was passed allowing them to attend the classes. However, their admissions were not approved. The single judge ruled the seat in favour of one student on merit basis.

The judge said that the act of the college (KIMS) had resulted in they losing one academic year and also landing them in unnecessary litigation. This created uncertainty about their future and mental agony to them. The judge directed that an amount of Rs five lakh be paid by KIMS to all the four students for having driven them to unnecessary litigation. The judge ordered KIMS to refund Rs 65 lakh collected from Rithvik’s father towards contribution fund.

The judge said that the order would not come in the way of filing any civil or criminal proceedings against the two directors of the Sangha. The order would also not come in the way of the Medical Council of India to take action against KIMS and the Sangha in accordance with law for illegally admitting three students. The students may also file a contempt petition against the institution for not following the Supreme Court order.

MBBS course stopped in 7 U.P. colleges

The Medical Council of India has barred seven of the 16 private medical colleges in U.P. from running the MBBS course, officials said on Wednesday.

As a result, the number of MBBS seats in Uttar Pradesh for the 2015-16 session has shrunk by 900.

These seven institutes include Integral Institute of Medical Sciences and Career Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow and Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki.

Both the institutes in the state capital have 100 seats each while the Barabanki institute has 150 seats. The MCI had inspected them some time back and found them wanting on various parameters including faculty, infrastructure and labs.

The other institutes and medical colleges barred are Major S.D. Singh Medical College, Fatehgarh, Rama Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Hapur, Rajshri Medical Institute, Bareilly and FH medical College Tundla in Firozabad district. - IANS

Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences has announced the first counselling schedule for academic year 2015-16 for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses.

Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences has announced the first counselling schedule for academic year 2015-16 for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the University Vice-Chancellor T. Ravi Raju said verification of certificates and counselling for the physically handicapped would be done by the Medical Board on July 29 in the morning session.

Counselling will be held for OCs in the afternoon session from 3 p.m. on the same day and it will continue on July 30 and 31.

Counselling sessions will be held for SC, ST and BC candidates on August 1, 2 and 3 besides verification of certificates under sports, games, CAP (Army), NCC and PMC (Police Martyr’s Children). On August 4, for defence quota candidates.

Dr. Raju said counselling dates for special category seats will be decided after receiving the priority list from the Directorates concerned and second and final round of counselling schedule will be decided later.

Counselling sessions will be held for SC, ST and BC candidates on August 1, 2 and 3.

என்.ஆர்.ஐ.,களுக்கு ஓட்டு: சுப்ரீம் கோர்ட்டில் அரசு தகவல்...தினமலர்

புதுடில்லி: 'வெளிநாடு வாழ் இந்தியர்களான, என்.ஆர்.ஐ.,க்களுக்கு விரை வில் ஓட்டுரிமை அளிக்கப்படும். இதற்கான மசோதா, மத்திய அமைச்சரவை குழுவுக்கு தாக்கல் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது' என, சுப்ரீம் கோர்ட்டில் மத்திய அரசு தெரிவித்துள்ளது.

உரிமை

வெளிநாடு வாழ் இந்தியர் கூட்டமைப்பின் சார்பில் சுப்ரீம் கோர்ட்டில் பொதுநல மனு தாக்கல் செய்யப்பட்டிருந்தது. அதில் கூறப்பட்டிருந்ததாவது:

வெளிநாடுகளில் ஏராளமான இந்தியர்கள் வசிக்கின்றனர். இவர்களுக்கு ஓட்டு அளிக்கும் உரிமை வழங்கப்பட வேண்டும். 114 நாடுகளில், வெளிநாடுகளில் வசிப்பவர்களுக்கு ஓட்டுரிமை அளிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது; அதில், 20 நாடுகள் ஆசியாவைச் சேர்ந்தவை. நம் நாட்டிலும், வெளிநாடுகளில் வசிக்கும் இந்தியர்களுக்கு ஓட்டுரிமை அளிக்கப்பட்டால், ஒரு கோடி பேர், ஓட்டளிக்கும் உரிமையை பெறுவர்.

இவ்வாறு, அந்த மனு வில் கூறப்பட்டிருந்தது. இந்த மனு, தலைமை நீதிபதி, எச்.எல்.தத்து, நீதிபதிகள், அருண் மிஷ்ரா, அமிதவ் ராய் ஆகியோர் அடங்கிய, 'பெஞ்ச்' முன், நேற்று விசாரணைக்கு

வந்தது. அப்போது, மத்திய அரசு சார்பில் ஆஜரான கூடுதல் சொலிசிட்டர் ஜெனரல், பி.எஸ்.நரசிம்மா கூறியதாவது:

என்.ஆர்.ஐ.,க்களுக்கு ஓட்டளிக்கும் உரிமை வழங்குவதற்கு மத்திய அரசு விரைவான

நடவடிக்கை எடுத்து வருகிறது. இதற்கான வரைவு மசோதா தயாராகியுள்ளது. அந்த மசோதா, மத்திய அமைச்சரவை குழுவின் ஒப்புதலுக்கு தாக்கல் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது.

ஒப்புதல்

அமைச்சரவை ஒப்புதல் கிடைத்ததும், மக்கள் பிரதிநிதித்துவ சட்டத்தில் திருத்தம் செய்து, அதை பார்லி.,யில் நிறைவேற்றி, என்.ஆர்.ஐ.,க்களுக்கு ஓட்டளிக்கும் உரிமை வழங்கப்படும். இவ்வாறு, அவர் கூறினார்.