Two private medical colleges get show-cause notice......RAJESH B NAIR

Asked to report why NOC should not be withdrawn

Amid separate walkout by the principal Opposition party, the All India N. R Congress, and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma ) on Thursday over the CENTAC issue, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy informed the House that the government has issued show-cause notices two private colleges for not admitting students based on the fee prescribed by the Centralised Admission Committee.

Replying to the admission issue raised by Opposition leader N. Rangasamy, AIADMK leader A. Anbalagan and Congress member K. Lakshminarayanan during zero hour, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said the colleges had been asked to report by Friday why the Essentiality Certificate/No-Objection Certificate should not be withdrawn.

The Chief Minister said the government had promised to initiate action against those institutions failing to admit students after the last day of counselling.

Mr. Narayanasamy said the management of three colleges — Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College and Hospital, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital and Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) — had met the Health Minister on Monday afternoon and assured the government of its intent to admit students.

The government had gathered information that except for the PIMS, none of the institutions had admitted students.

Eight students were admitted by the institution till Wednesday evening, he said. A heated exchange took place between Mr. Narayanasamy and Opposition members after they levelled corruption charges against the government.

CM dares Opposition

Mr. Narayanasamy was heard challenging the Opposition members to prove the charges that the admission process was not done in a transparent manner.

On the direction of Speaker V. Vaithilingam, the Chief Minister promised to table in the House a list of students admitted to the colleges.

Sources in the government said show causes notices were served on Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College and Hospital and Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College.

The notice says, “Contrary to the assurance given by your representatives, it has been noticed that you have not allotted seats to the students sponsored under government/management quota and demanding exorbitant fees from the selected students over and above the fee fixed by the committee.”

It further adds that the “wilful failure of the institute to provide seats to the students sponsored by the CENTAC, both under the State/management quota, is a clear violation of the direction of the Government of India and fee committee.

“The conduct and attitude of the institute with a deliberate intention to avoid seat sharing with the government are against public interest and interest of students.”

The managements were also reminded about the prior warning given to them after the first phase of counselling through a notice served on May 16.

Change in train timings

With effect from June 5 arrival/departure timings of Train No.06040 Chennai Egmore- Nagercoil Junction at Tirunelveli Junction will be changed as below.

Existing

Tirunelveli Arrival/Departure 1.55 a.m./ 2 a.m.

Revised

Tirunelveli Arrival/Departure 2.45 a.m. / 2.50 a.m.

The timings at all other stations remain unchanged.

Suvidha special train

Train No.82603 Chennai Egmore – Tirunelveli Suvidha special train will leave Chennai Egmore at 9.05 p.m. on June 3 and 24 (Saturdays) and reach Tirunelveli at 10.45 a.m. the next day, a statement said.

Train no.82604 Tirunelveli – Chennai Egmore Suvidha Special train will leave Tirunelveli at 6.20 p.m. on June 5 and 26 (Mondays) and then reach Chennai Egmore at 5.45 a.m. the next day.

The composition will be AC 2-tier – 1 , Sleeper Class – 12 , General Second Class – 2 & Luggage-cum-brake van – 2 coaches.

Stoppages

Tambaram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Vriddhachalam, Tiruchhcirappalli, Dindigul, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Sattur and Kovilpatti.

Train No. 82604 Tirunelveli – Chennai Egmore Suvidha Special train will stop at Mambalam also.

Confusion over Ph.D., M.Phil. admissions in MKU ......Pon Vasanth Arunachalam

As VC says he is for reconsidering implementation of UGC’s new regulations for research

The confusion already prevailing over Ph. D and M. Phil admissions this year in Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) and its affiliated colleges has been further complicated with Vice-Chancellor P.P. Chellathurai indicating that he was open to reconsidering the implementation of University Grants Commission’s new regulations for research, which has already been adopted by MKU.

Stating that almost all universities in Tamil Nadu were yet to adopt the regulations, Mr. Chellathurai told the media on Wednesday that the necessity of implementing it this year would be discussed with university officials and Higher Education Department since concerns had been raised about certain provisions of the regulations.

The UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for award of Ph. D and M. Phil degrees) Regulations, which came into effect on May 5, 2016, were adopted by MKU’s Academic Council and Senate two months before, despite considerable opposition from a section of members. Approval from the Syndicate was obtained subsequently.

Though the new regulations bring many changes, including a common entrance test by every university for M. Phil and Ph. D admissions to the university and its affiliated colleges, the bone of contention was the restriction on number of scholars a Research Supervisor can guide.

While earlier regulations allowed eight Ph. D and M. Phil scholars under a Research Supervisor at any given time irrespective of their designations, the new regulations restrict the number to eight Ph. D and three M. Phil scholars for a Professor, six Ph. D and two M. Phil scholars for an Associate Professor, and four Ph. D scholars and one M. Phil scholar for an Assistant Professor.

Faculty members in MKU and affiliated colleges argued that this would deny an opportunity to many aspiring students and drastically reduce enrolments, apart from resulting in loss of revenue to university and colleges.

Acknowledging the problems, the university administration, while adopting the regulations, however, had said that there was no choice since Ph. D and M. Phil degrees awarded to those enrolled after May 5, 2016 will be considered invalid by the UGC if the university had not adopted the new regulations.

Many affiliated colleges had already issued advertisements for M. Phil programmes on their own in violation of the new regulations.

Circulars and reminders sent earlier this month by MKU asking colleges to furnish details regarding M. Phil and Ph. D vacancies to facilitate the conduct of a common entrance test early July were met with a lukewarm response.

When contacted, Mr. Chellathurai said that many colleges were making representations against the adoption of new regulations, which could not be ignored. However, he assured that the issue would be resolved appropriately at the earliest without affecting the admissions for this year.

Chennai Silks showroom to be reopened

The Chennai Silks plans to reopen its textile retail showroom that was destroyed in the fire. According to a spokesperson of the company, the demolition will be completed in three days. The initial estimate is that goods worth Rs. 200 crore had been destroyed. However, the exact details would be available only after a couple of days.

The Tirupur-based Chennai Silks Group has appealed to the government to provide the required approvals at the earliest so that it can reconstruct the showroom soon.

About 1,400 workers who were employed at the showroom will be temporarily placed at its other showrooms. Their salaries were credited into their accounts on Thursday. “We have plans to open about 10 more outlets in Chennai,” the spokesperson said. The Chennai Silks, which was started more than five decades ago, is today a conglomerate with presence in jewellery, energy, and construction sectors, apart from textiles.

According to information available online, on the textile retail front, the group has 17 outlets in 14 cities, six airport showrooms and over 30 brands. Each of the 17 showrooms is more than one lakh sq.ft area. A retail outlet or two is opened almost every year and the Chennai showroom was started in 2001.

Expansion on the retail front gained pace after 2010 and all the showrooms are on own land. The group ventured into e-commerce for online sale of textile products in 2003.

For the family-held group, which was founded by A. Kulandaivel Mudaliar, the companies under its fold include Sri Kumaran Thanga Maligai (jewellery), The Chennai Silks, SCM Garments, SCM Textile Spinners, SCM energy division (wind energy), Sri Nachammal Vidyavani (education), and Teemage Precast (construction).

The group has textile manufacturing facilities are in the entire value chain from spinning to garmenting. Apart from the retail presence in the domestic market, the Chennai Silks group also exports garments. The spokesperson added, “We are into several CSR activities.

AKVN Charity Hospitals is operated at Avinashi and Clean Today focusses on cleanliness projects across the State.”

25% PG medical seats remain vacant

About 25% of seats remained vacant in post-graduate medical and dental courses at the end of counselling on Wednesday. However, all postgraduate seats in government medical and dental colleges were filled but there were vacancies even in government quota seats in self-financing colleges.

All the 1,066 seats in government medical colleges and 25 seats in the government dental college were filled, officials said.

The most number of vacancies were in deemed universities. Self-financing medical colleges had 73 seats of which only 54 (74%) were filled; deemed universities could not fill as many as 137 of their 598 seats. Under the government quota in self-financing colleges, of the 172 seats, 14 remained vacant. All these seats were in non-clinical subjects.

A similar situation was noticed in the dental colleges too. Of the 384 seats in self-financing colleges and deemed universities, 99 went vacant (74%) and of the 110 seats in private dental colleges under government quota, five seats were not filled.

There were vacancies even in government quota seats in self-financing colleges

Women alcoholics on the rise

We get 10 cases a year, says Lakshmi Vijaykumar of VHS

The number of women alcoholics has been gradually increasing with time, Lakshmi Vijaykumar, head, department of psychiatry, Voluntary Health Services (VHS), said here on Wednesday.

“From hardly seeing any women alcoholics earlier, we now get about 10 people, a year. Most of them are aged around 30 and were introduced to alcohol by their husbands. But the challenging part is most of them come in an advanced stage due to the stigma involved,” Ms. Vijaykumar said.

Binge drinking

Among women in the 20s, “binge drinking” is a common phenomenon, she said. “They do not drink for four days and then during the weekend, go on binge drinking,” she added.

Addiction at young age

The age at which alcohol consumption begins too has reduced quite a bit, she said.

Also, they have seen quite a few school students coming in for de-addiction from glue smell, petrol smell and whitener.

“This could be dangerous and even at some point affect the central nervous system,” she added.

Ms. Vijaykumar said a report by World Health Organisation shows there has been 38% increase in the consumption of alcohol in the last 10 years.

The Rajaji Centre for De-addiction of VHS plans to honour patients who have stayed out of alcohol as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations to be held on 3 June at the Music Academy.

R. Mani of VHS said, “This is to motivate them to ensure they do not go back to drinking alcohol. We have a patient who has been keeping away from alcohol for 15 years and every year when we award him with a prize he takes a picture with us and treasures it. He says whenever he is tempted to drink, he looks at the photo and decides to stay away.”

Singer S.P. Balasubramanyam will also perform at the programme.

High Court only directed govt. to notify rules

 

Dennis S. Jesudasan

order suggests action was to follow notification

Even as Urban Development and Housing Minister Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan cited an order of the Madras High Court for not having taken action against Chennai Silks building for violation, a perusal of the order suggests that the High Court had only directed the government to notify the relevant rules within two months and act against violators as per the provisions of law.

Procedure

While addressing a press meet here on Thursday, the Urban Development and Housing Minister referred to the Madras High Court delivered on February 20 this year and said Chennai Silks was one of the respondents in the case and the High Court had directed to take action against them only after notifying the rules.

He said, “Only because of the order of the Madras High Court, action against Chennai Silks was postponed.”

However, the High Court order had only directed the Housing Secretary to notify the rules and guidelines for implementing Section 113-C Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 within two months (April this year) and take action against violating buildings thereafter.

During the hearing of a petition filed by Kannan Balachandran, the Housing Secretary took an undertaking that the rules and guidelines for effective implementation of Section 113-C of the said Act would be notified within two months.

The then Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice R. Mahadevan had said: “The respondent/authorities shall remain bound by the said undertaking [to notify rules within two months i.e. April, 2017]. We make it clear that subsequent to the notification of rules and guidelines, the respondent/authorities shall proceed in accordance with law against the unauthorized constructions alleged to have put up by the private respondents in accordance with law.”

Actual position

Contrary to the claim of the Minister that the case was “pending” before the High Court, the case was disposed of on February 20 this year.

The petitioner in the case sought a direction against the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Corporation of Chennai to demolish the unauthorised construction put up by the private respondents, including Chennai Silks, in gross violation of the planning permission and other relevant provisions of the law.

“Only because of the order of court, action against Chennai Silks was postponed

Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan

Housing Minister