Government instructs Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University to freeze recruitment drive

Ram Sundaram| TNN | Sep 13, 2017, 11:01 IST

Representative image

CHENNAI: On allegations of favouritism in a recent recruitment drive, the state animal husbandry department has instructed Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas) not to proceed with appointments to key posts.

The fresh allegations in regard to appointments to the posts of dean, registrar, directors and estate officer cropped up while the Madras high court is hearing a case pertaining to selection of 49 assistant professors for various departments.

Hours before the interview to fill these vacant posts was scheduled on September 5, the varsity received instructions to put the process on hold. The decision came on a complaint by retired director of centre for animal studies, Tanuvas, P I Ganesan.

Ganesan said Tanuvas VC S Thilagar conducted the recruitment in a hasty manner without giving equal opportunity to all eligible candidates. Applications for vacant government posts usually close 30 days from the publication of an advertisement.But in the case of estate officer recruitment process, the university left only 12 days, including six government holidays, before starting the process, Ganesan said.

Estate officer is a technical post on par with the post of dean and director of the varsity. The post had been vacant for nearly four years and S Kuppusamy , who is of the cadre of executive engineer, held additional charge of the post.

Though university statute prescribes that the post be filled by direct recruitment or deputation, the varsity sent out a circular (a copy of which is available with TOI) restricting consideration for this post to university employees he said.

Ganesan filed a PIL in the high court against this and stated that the university assured that all eligible candidates would be considered."It published the advertisement on August 23 and gave [candidates] only 12 days' time," Ganesan said.

He alleged that the university is bending the rules to favour Kuppusamy for the post. "Besides this there are several pending graft charges against Thilagar and he should not be allowed to continue with recruitment process across grades," Ganesan said in his complaint.

In response, the animal welfare department instructed the VC not only to stop the selection process, but also not to call for fresh tenders, sources said.

Despite repeated attempts, VC Thilagar was not available for comment.

Teachers strike is a reason for TN students’ poor NEET performance, Madras HC says

Sureshkumar| TNN | Updated: Sep 13, 2017, 14:36 IST

HIGHLIGHTS

Madras high court pulls up striking teachers in Tamil Nadu

The court says strikes by teachers are also a primary reason for students' low marks in NEET

The court directs the government to file a report by September 18

Madras high court

CHENNAI: Censuring government teachers who are boycotting classes as part of their protest along with other state government employees demanding implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, Justice N Kirubakaran of the Madras high court on Wednesday said such boycotts and strikes by teachers were also a primary reason for government school students' low marks in NEET.

"Only five government school students from the state have managed to secure medical seats. Protesting teachers should feel ashamed of this fact. They should know their responsibility. Such persons cannot involve in strikes," Justice Kirubakaran said.

The judge then directed the government to file a report by September 18 explaining the steps taken to bring the protests to an end.

Justice Kirubakaran made the observations while hearing a plea moved by advocate A P Suryaprakasam seeking a direction to the government to form an expert committee to urgently and effectively advise and prepare student community who have scored low marks in NEET and to provide psychological and moral support to face the reality.

TOP COMMENTTN has a serious problem with corruption, OBC reservations to ridiculous levels. Their opposition to NEET only says that they want an easy way to get medical seats. I hope the central govt does not b... Read MoreEland Kumar

The petitioner submitted that student community is not only in a state of shock but also have the feeling of let down by the state and central governments.

It will be therefore appropriate and need of the hour that those state syllabus students who have lost the opportunity of joining medical colleges along with the future aspiring students should be given counselling by their erstwhile class teachers or any other school authorities to prevent tragedies like medical aspirant S Anitha's suicide.

Southern Railway revises timings of Silambu Express, a few other trains

J Arockiaraj| TNN | Sep 13, 2017, 19:34 IST

(Representative image)

MADURAI: Southern Railwayhas announced revision of the timings of Chennai Egmore - Sengottai Silambu Express, starting September 15.

The revision of timings is applicable on the Manamadurai -Sengottai section.

Due to this change, the timings of a couple of passenger trains operating on the section are to be revised to accommodate new schedule of Silambu Express, starting September 15.

According to statement from railways, train number 16181 Chennai Egmore - Sengottai (Bi-weekly) Silambu Express will start from Manamadurai at 5.10am, instead of the present timing of 5.40am.

The train will reach Sengottai at 9.20am as per revised timing against the existing arrival time of 10.10am.

Subsequently some of the passenger train timings are revised.

Train number 56801 Tirunelveli - Sengottai passenger will leave Tirunelveli at 7.25am, instead of 6.55am. The train will reach Sengottai at 9.45am, instead of 9.25am.

Train number 56796 Sengottai - Tirunelveli passenger will leave Sengottai at 6.35am against the present departure timing of 6.45am and arrive at Tirunelveli at 8.40am, instead of at 8.45am.

Train number 76838 Virudhunagar - Karaikudi passenger will leave Virudhunagar at 6.45am as per revised timing against the existing timing of 6.25am. The train will reach Karaikudi at 9.35am. (There is no change in the arrival time at Karaikudi.)

BDS intake on even after DCI deadline

TNN | Updated: Sep 14, 2017, 00:08 IST

CHENNAI: The Dental Council of India (DCI) deadline for admissions to all BDS courses this year ended on Sunday, and yet many colleges and deemed universities continue to admit students into the course using backdated cheques and documents.

On Wednesday, four self-financing medical colleges and three deemed universities told TOI that they had been calling parents and even offering up to 50% discount towards course fee for BDS seats to NEET-qualified students. A student was even promised a job in the same college after he completed the course.

Marketing teams and agents have been flooding parents/students with messages and calls every day. While many dental colleges said they still had more than 60% of their seats vacant, some premier ones said they too had a handful. "We are trying our best to fill the seats before September 18. Even last year some of our seats went vacant. This time it seems far worse than 2016-17," said a dean of a medical college, refusing to be named.

As against the usual cutoff date of August 31, the DCI had extended the deadline for admissions to September 10 this year, as many states, including Tamil Nadu, were new to the NEET-based admission process. "No college can admit students after this. In the next one week they should process details and submit names of the students who enrolled into the course," said DCI vice-president Dr SM Jayakar. "We depend upon state government to keep a tab on admission process. If complaints against colleges are proven we will initiate action," he said.

The Directorate General of Health Services returned more than 80% of seats that could not be filled through three rounds of all-India counselling to deemed universities. The state selection committee secretary G Selvarajan said the committee returned 492 seats to self-financing colleges after single window counselling.

LATEST COMMENTI wish soon the private Medical colleges meet a similar fate and MPMC begging students to join their colege --- similar to Engineering college now --- many are closing/shutting down too.Gopalarathnam Krishna Prasad

The state has 100 seats each in government dental college and state-managed Raja Muthiah Medical College and 1,710 seats in the 18 self-financing dental colleges. The fee for government dental college was Rs 11,600. The statutory fee fixation committee had fixed tuition fee for all government quota seats in self-financing college as Rs 2.5 lakh per annum and management seats as Rs 6 lakh. The NRI seats cost Rs 9 lakh.

Most colleges have converted NRI seats into "open category seats". "I received a message from a private college. I called the admission officer who said the college was willing to reduce the tuition to Rs 1.20 lakh per annum if we join today," said Mahendran T, a businessman, whose son had applied to various dental colleges.

Rs 24 crore Mylapore temple land recovered

B Sivakumar| TNN | Updated: Sep 14, 2017, 07:04 IST

Kapaleeswarar temple land had been given to tenants, who had sublet the property and refused to give up ownership.

CHENNAI: Property worth Rs 24 crore on Ramakrishna Mutt Road, Mylapore, belonging to Kapaleeswarar temple was recovered after the temple authorities evicted tenants who were living and sub-letting the place for the past 100 years. With the help of the police, temple officials evicted tenants from a total area of 10,000 sqft.

"The property belonging to the temple was let out on rent to Nallavenna Mudaliar and M Krishnamurthy nearly 100 years back and since then the two families have sub-let to householders as well shopkeepers," Kapali temple executive officer D Kaveri told TOI.

The property is situated opposite to P S Higher Secondary School on R K Mutt Road. "We sent several notices asking them to pay rent accruing to a total of Rs 73 lakh. Mudaliar's son was in-charge of part of the property. He owes Rs 17 lakh in rent arrears," said the executive officer.

The tenants were not paying the fair rent fixed by the temple and were paying pittance. Fair rent is a rent fixed in between guideline value and market value. "Both have not paid the fair rent for the property. The property was divided into 3 residential houses and 15 shops and the main tenants were earning by sub-letting the property," she said.

Every now and then Kapali temple has been recovering property in and around Mylapore due to the prodding of the temple fit person Vijaykumar Reddy. In December last year, temple authorities retrieved property measuring 4,952sqft at Triplicane after the occupant failed to pay rent dues to the extent of Rs 34.12 lakh. The total worth of the property is Rs 12 crore.

LATEST COMMENTGood that the upright temple officials are able to recover the property. They should ether make use of the property to get more revnue to temple or dispos of the property and proceeds to be added to corpus.Gopalarathnam Krishna Prasad

"The occupant was paying only Rs 10,000 as monthly rent for the land against the fair rent of Rs 40,000. The joint commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department terminated the lease in 2015 as the press owner refused to pay the balance amount," said Kaveri.

Similarly, properties on Greenways Road and Luz Church Road have been recovered in the last few years.

Tambaram-Sengottai special trains to run via Virudachalam, Trichy

TNN | Sep 14, 2017, 00:54 IST

Chennai: Tambaram-Sengottai-Tambaram special fare special trains which were earlier announced as cancelled will now be operated, but in a different route.

The Southern Railway, on Monday announced that these special trains, to be operated via Chidambaram and Mayiladuthurai, were cancelled due to operational reasons. However, to meet the demands of public and pilgrims during the Cauvery Pushkaram-2017, the Southern Railway has revoked its decision and has announced that the trains will be operated via Virudachalam, Tiruchchirappalli.

Advance reservations for these trains will commence at 08.00 hours on September 13.

Also, a superfast special fare special train will be run from Thiruvananthapuram to Howrah via Coimbatore and Chennai Central, to clear extra rush due to dislocation of train services caused by heavy rains and flooding of railway tracks in Northeast Frontier Railway, said a release.

Besides this, Coimbatore-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express, scheduled to leave Coimbatore at 8.55am on September 15 is fully cancelled due to cancellation of the pairing train.

CM Siddaramaiah launches new KSRTC buses

TNN | Sep 13, 2017, 20:54 IST

CM Siddaramaiah on Wednesday flagged off new Airavat Club Class buses

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday launched 23 KSRTC's new Airavat club class buses including eight 14.5-m long buses, a meter more than the existing buses.

To increase the space between two seats in order to provide more legroom for passengers travelling in long distance routes, KSRTC, for the first time, introduced 14.5 meters (51 seats) and 13.8 meters (47 seats) buses. At present Airavat Club Class buses are only 13.5 meters with 47 seats.

The newly launched buses will be operated on routes like Bengaluru-Calicut, Bengaluru-Chennai, Bengaluru-Vijayawada, Bengaluru-Sriharikota, Mangaluru-Manipal, Mangaluru-Mumbai, Mangaluru-Bangalore, Virajpet- Bengaluru, Madikere-Bengaluru and Mysuru-Bengaluru.

The newly launched buses are fitted with latest BS-4 Engine with an electronically controlled unit, manual and intelligent automated gear shift changing system, steerable rear wheel axle for better smaller turning radius and to negotiate sharp curves and electronically controlled suspension system provides comfort for travelling passengers.

The chief minister has also released the four years achievement book of the transport department.

Transport minister H M Revanna, home minister Ramalinga Reddy, KSRTC chairman K Gopala Poojary and KSRTC managing director S R Umashankar were present.