“Do not be scared of NEET”

It appears that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test is here to stay

Stating that Tamil Nadu was unlikely to be exempted from the National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical admissions this year, S. Manova Raja, motivational speaker and Chief Executive Officer of Fragrhen Academy, advised the students and parents not to be scared of the exam.
“Irrespective of the stand one might take on the necessity of NEET, it appears that the exam is here to stay,” he said, while speaking on medical admissions at The Hindu EDGE Career Counselling here on Friday.
Arguing that NEET was advantageous in various ways, he said that medical aspirants had to take as much as 26 different entrance exams if they were aiming for admission to colleges across the country until the introduction of NEET.

“Now there are just three. NEET and two exams conducted for admissions to All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research,” he said.
Allaying fears that the State board syllabus in Tamil Nadu was inadequate for NEET, he said that the higher secondary syllabus in Tamil Nadu was almost as tough as the syllabus for NEET.

“The problem is most of the schools do not focus or skip Plus One syllabus here. But around 44 % of NEET questions will be from Plus One. Hence, the students can no more avoid Plus One syllabus” he said.
He said that if the students and schools avoided rote learning methods and focussed on understanding the concepts, students from Tamil Nadu could do well in NEET exams.

Highlighting that NEET exam required remembering a lot of details like scientific names and formulae, Mr. Raja urged the students to make use of vast amount of learning materials available in the internet that helped with preparation techniques.

Criminal case filed against Ministers

Action based on plaint by I-T officials

The city police have booked a criminal case against three Ministers — R. Kamaraj, Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan, Kadambur Raju — and two other AIADMK (Amma) party functionaries following a complaint by an Income Tax official.

Earlier, I-T officials alleged that the ruling party functionaries threatened them when they were conducting searches in the houses of Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar and Samathuva Makkal Katchi president R. Sarathkumar. The I-T Department (Investigation) wing director lodged a complaint with Police Commissioner Karan Singha on Wednesday for registering a case against the Ministers, Special Representative of the State government in New Delhi, N. Thalavai Sundaram and Aiyappan, a party functionary. The complaint stated that the Ministers and Mr. Sundaram barged into the premises and obstructed the officials from performing their duty. The police registered a case against five persons for offences under Sections 183 (resistance to the taking of property by the lawful authority of a public servant), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 189 (threat of injury) and 448 (punishment for house-trespass) of IPC.

Meanwhile, an officer said the complaint by the driver of the Health Minister of being manhandled by Central securitymen would be investigated.

MCI amendment on PG admissions challenged.... Press Trust of India

Court notice to Centre, MCI on plea filed by SRM University

The Madras High Court on Friday sought the stand of the Centre and the Medical Council of India on a plea against a notification that provided for common counselling for the PG medical seats in all institutions.
A Bench of justices S. Nagamuthu and Dr. Anita Sumanth issued notices to the Centre and the MCI, seeking their stand on the plea by the city-based SRM (Deemed) University.

In an interim order on the petition by the deemed medical university, the bench also asked authorities not to disturb 59 students admitted to the university before issuance of the notification.
The court, however, made their admissions subject to the outcome of the petition and posted the matter for further hearing on April 26.

The university, in its petition, said the MCI on March 10 this year amended the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, adding Regulation 9A.

Ministry’s directive
The Union Ministry of Health subsequently directed all the deemed universities to be a part of the common counselling for admission in post-graduate courses and to surrender 50% of their seats to the government quota.

The petitioner said there have been no seat-sharing arrangement between the State government and the deemed universities, either for the under-graduate or the post-graduate courses till now.
Citing the Supreme Court orders, including that in the T.M. Pai case, the petitioner said it has been held that the seat-sharing arrangement should be voluntary.
It prayed the court to declare Regulation 9A as unconstitutional and violative of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.

The petitioner also submitted that 59 students were admitted by the university, based on NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) rank list. Hence, no retrospective effect could be given to the amendment and it cannot affect admissions made prior to the date on which it came into force, it said. If the admissions were undone, selected students who had remitted fees and joined the courses would be “seriously affected”, the university said.

Three Erode colleges secure NIRF rankings

Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, has been ranked 57th among the top 100 engineering institutions in the country by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF).

Among the 22 engineering colleges from Tamil Nadu that figure in the top 100, KEC has taken the 11th position. The institutions were ranked based on five broad parameters: teaching, learning and resources; research and professional practice; graduation outcomes; outreach and inclusivity; and perception.

Participation in the NIRFwould help Indian educational institutions participate in the world rankings. Among colleges, Gobi Arts and Science College has secured the 57th position and Kongu Arts and Science College 63rd. Gobi Arts and Science College is in the 7th position among institutions affiliated to Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, and 20th at the state-level, Principal R.Sellappan said.

`Professional qualification o wife no bar for maintenance'

New Delhi: PTI





Interim maintenance cannot be denied to a woman by her estranged spouse on the ground that she is capable of sustaining herself, a Delhi court has said.

 

The sessions court made the observation while allowing a woman's appeal against a magisterial court order that had refused her interim maintenance from her husband in a domestic violence case.
“In the view of this court, the capability of a wife to earn livelihood ipso facto cannot be made a ground to reject the claim of maintenance,“ said Vivek Kumar Gulia, additional sessions judge, adding that it is not required in law that a wife must be a destitute if she applies for monetary relief.

“It is not the requirement of law that the wife must be absolutely destitute before she applies for maintenance. The test is whether the wife is in position to maintain herself the way she was used to in her husband's home. Thus, the court is required to see what are the means available to the deserted wife while she was living with her husband and the efforts made by the wife after the desertion to survive somehow need not be considered to ascertain whether she is capable of maintaining herself,“ the judge said.

The court, while directing the man to pay `3,000 as monthly interim maintenance to his estranged wife, rejected his claim that the woman was qualified and could easily find a job to maintain herself but she chose to quit. “Even professional qualification of wife is not a bar to grant her maintenance,“ it said. It further noted that the husband mentioned in the court that his wife did not opt for a job as she wanted to take care of her in-laws.

According to the woman who got married in January 2015, she was harassed by her husband and in-laws for bringing insufficient dowry.

FORGERY DETECTED - MCI cautions students against fake notifications

Puducherry:  TIMES NEWS NETWORK





The Medical council of India has cautioned the students not to fall prey to fake, forged and fabricated notification regarding counselling for admission into postgraduate medical programmes.

 In a public notice, MCI secretary (in-charge) Reena Nayyar said the council learnt that a notification indicating that the private medical colleges have been granted approval to fill up seats under NRI category and management quota on their own is being circulated through WhatsApp and email.

Nayyar said such a notification (dated April 11, 2017) is not signed and it has not been published by the Medical Council of India and declared that such a notification is `fake, forged and fabricated'. “It (notification) has not been published by the Medical Council of India...It appears to be the handiwork of unscrupulous elements trying to disrupt the admission process. The council is in the process of lodging complaint with the authorities in this regard against unknown persons, who have indulged in this criminal act,“ Nayyar said in the notice on Thursday .

The notification relating to common counselling for postgraduate courses has been published in `The Gazette of India' on March 11, 2017.“It is placed on the MCI website under the e-gazette link available on the bottom of MCI homepage http:www.mciindi.org. All concerned are advised to obtain the correct copy of the notification from MCI website and cautioned not to be misled by fake, forged and fabricated documents circulating in electronic media,“ Nayyar said.

59 SRM PG medicos get HC reprieve

Chennai: TNN





The Madras high court has come to the rescue of 59 post-graduate medical students admitted by SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, and directed Medical Council of India (MCI) and others not to disturb their admission.Over a week ago, 36 PG medicos from Saveetha Medical University obtained similar order in the court.

 A division bench of Justice S Nagamuthu and Justice Anita Sumanth, passing orders on a writ petition filed by the college, said the Tamil Nadu health and family welfare department and the directorate of medical education should not allot any candidate against these 59 seats already filled by the college.

Their admission, however, shall be subject to the outcome of the writ petition, the bench said.