Government buses in Tamil Nadu to get tariff boards

TNN | Feb 7, 2018, 06:36 IST




CHENNAI: Transport corporations will soon affix tariff boards on all government buses soon, said state transport minister M R Vijayabaskar.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of increased complaints from passengers that conductors collected excess ticket fare from them as they were unaware about the rates as per the recently revised fare slab.

"These tariff boards will provide stagewise information on ticket fare to be collected from passengers," Vijaybaskar told reporters here on Tuesday.

The minister made his announcement on the new policy on the sidelines of launching Closed User Group (CUG) mobiles for use of transport department staff. Nearly 404 android-based mobile phones with SIM cards procured at an estimated cost of Rs 87 lakh were provided to employees so that public can communicate with them and share their grievances every now and then.

Besides this, he announced that demand for 4,000 new buses were presented to chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and it would likely be cleared in this budget session.

Nearly 70 % government buses are over-aged as per government records.

When questioned about concession passes in Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), the minister said there were no changes as far as Rs 1,000 monthly passes under Travel As You Please Ticket (TASYPT) scheme.

This TN school headmaster won’t mind kneeling before students with folded hands

Bosco Dominique | TNN | Updated: Feb 7, 2018, 19:22 IST



Headmaster D Babu pleading with a student to attend classes

VILLUPURAM: D Balu, the headmaster of a municipal higher secondary school at Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, believes that no act of kindness, no matter how small, goes waste. He does not wield a cane like other teachers do but uses the strongest weapons on earth - kindness and compassion - to discipline students and help them move up in the academic ladder.
The students, including the mischief mongers, arrogant, latecomers and slow learners, cannot offer any excuse when the humble headmaster visits their houses on the outskirts of the town and pleads with them with folded hands to concentrate on their academic activities. Sometimes, the headmaster goes one step further and drop to his knees with folded hands in front of the students and their parents and plead with them to send their children to school regularly.

A former student of Kamaraj Municipal Higher Secondary School in Villupuram town (studied there in the late 1970s), Balu joined as a commerce (vocational) teacher in the same school in 1984. When he was posted as the headmaster in his alma mater two years ago after serving at different schools, his efforts to reach out the students grew manifold.

"Most of the children attending the school are the first generation students who cleared Class VIII or Class X. They hail from poor families lacking any sort of motivation to excel in academic activities. Many have discontinued and resumed the studies with great difficulties. Being slow learners, they need tremendous motivation to climb up the academic ladder," Balu said.

Like his predecessors and peers, Balu also initially was harsh on the students criticising them for their failures and lack of interest in academics. "I realised the usual approach will never ever yield any fruitful results. I noticed the change in the attitude of the students and parents when I changed my approach. I attempted to understand the problems concerning the students and their families and started focusing on them by visiting their houses and offering to counsel," he said.


 

Headmaster D Babu (left) visiting a student's house
The change in approach began when he was serving as the headmaster of Arignar Anna Municipal Higher Secondary School at Chengalpet. A student dropped out of the school after his elder sister had passed away. Balu visited the student's house on the outskirts of the town and pleaded with him and his parents with folded hands to resume his studies. "They were taken aback at my gesture. In a couple of days, the student started attending the school again," he said.
Latest CommentGreat, My salute to the great headmaster.A SHAJEHAN

Balu said he wanted to touch upon the lives of hundreds of students in government schools. "I will continue my efforts irrespective of the criticism I receive. There are many dedicated teachers in government schools who overcome all obstacles and focus only the needs of the students," he said.
Balu was honoured for his services by the Villupuram district collector L Subramanian and chief education officer during the Republic Day celebrations this year.

DVAC sleuths question Bharathiar univ officials

tnn | Updated: Feb 8, 2018, 00:08 IST

Coimbatore: Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) sleuths on Wednesday interrogated Bharathiar University officials for the first time since the arrest of vice-chancellor A Ganapathi.
The interrogation, which lasted less than an hour and conducted by DVAC DSP Rajesh Kumar, pertained to extraction of bribe from assistant professor T Suresh. Other charges against Ganapathi will be examined in the following days, university sources told TOI.

The DVAC team turned up at the university in the afternoon and went to the office of registrar B Vanitha. They left the varsity barely an hour later. While senior university authorities were tight-lipped about the investigation, sources said that the sleuths have sought more information related to the appointments made by Ganapathi.

The visit comes in the wake of allegations that there were attempts by staff close to Ganapathi to destroy documents, which could possibly bring to light more incidents of corruption in the varsity.

Meanwhile, the first syndicate meeting of the university since Ganapathi's arrest will be held on the campus on Thursday. K K Suresh, professor and head of the department of statistics, has been deputed to convene the meeting, said the registrar. "The decision was taken at a meeting in the university on Wednesday afternoon," said Vanitha.

Usually, in the absence of the VC, a seniormost professor is named to officiate the university proceedings, Vanitha said. "Professor Suresh will oversee the convening of the syndicate meeting on Thursday. In the meeting, a decision to form a convener committee, which would run the university, would be taken. The meeting will be headed by the secretary to the department of higher education, Sunil Paliwal," she said.

Sources in the syndicate said the members were planning to raise the issue of increasing the retirement age of the principals of self-financing colleges to 65. A source said Ganapathi, in a syndicate meeting held last year, had increased the age of retirement of the principals of self-financing colleges, violating a government order, which says the age of retirement should be 62.

Earlier, members of the Association of University Teachers had sent a letter bringing the issue to the notice of the secretary of the higher education department. They said the retirement age was a policy decision of the state government and the syndicate had no powers to alter it.

Baggage check-in at International terminal gets cumbersome

TNN | Updated: Feb 8, 2018, 07:13 IST

 

 

Till now, international passengers did not have to scan their bags themselves as the terminal had four inline ... Read More

 

CHENNAI: International passengers may have to reach the airport earlier than usual and scan their check-in baggage separately before proceeding for check-in, as airport authorities are upgrading the inline scanning machines. 

Till now, international passengers did not have to scan their bags themselves as the terminal had four inline scanning machines which automatically scanned and routed bags to the airline counters. Now, departing travellers will have to scan luggages separately till the end of next month when the inline scanners will be operational again.
A senior official of Airports Authority of India (AAI) said three standalone scanners have been installed for passengers. "Of the four inline baggage scanning systems, two have been shut for upgrade. The upgrading of scanners is being done in phases to avoid inconvenience to passengers. This work will be completed by end of the month after which the other two inline scanners will be closed to install similar features," he added.
In a statement on Wednesday, AAI said passengers should report to the terminal in advance to prevent queues from delay in check-in procedure. To ease congestion, airport has banned visitor entry till all the inline scanners are ready.
After the upgrade, the machines will have multi-level screening of which the first level will be for explosive detection. The CT scans will provide a good image of contents, and if anything suspicious is found the bag will be automatically diverted for inspection. One machine will be able to scan 1,600 to 1,800 bags per hour.
The machines were procured six months ago at a cost of around Rs 40crore. "We had completed installing the conveyors. Work is on to install the scanners which will offer a precise view of contents. It is as per the new specifications issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS)," said the official. There is also a plan to introduce inline scanning at the domestic terminal.

Central govt staff to get maternity leave in case of surrogacy too

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The department of personnel and training (DoPT) has instructed all central ministries and departments to implement a 2015 order of the Delhi high court for granting maternity leave to women employees who choose to have a child by commissioning a surrogacy. Such leave would include both the pre-natal and post-natal period. 

The Delhi HC had in July 2015 pronounced a judgment on plea by a Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher who had a pair of twins through a surrogate mother but was denied the 180-day maternity leave on the ground that she was not the biological mother.

Reasoning that the commissioning mother was the legal mother of the child, the HC laid down guidelines and filled a vacuum in law since the Centre or state governments have no maternity benefit policy for women employees who opt to have children through a surrogate pregnancy.

A DoPT officer told TOI that until the CCS(Leave) Rules are amended to lay down a clear and uniform policy based on the Delhi HC order, the central ministries and departments would have to implement the order in letter and spirit while processing applications for maternity leave from commissioning mothers opting for the surrogacy route.

Law school posting under cloud

A Subramani & S Deepak Karthik TNN

Chennai : Amid mounting allegations of irregularities in state universities, a controversy has erupted over appointment of registrar of the Tamil Nadu National Law School, for which Chief Justice of the Madras high court is the chancellor. The selection of T Vengadesan by an executive council, which has vice-chancellor Kamala Sankaran, Justice T S Sivagnanam of the Madras high court , advocate general Vijay Narayan and state law secretary S S Poovalingam as its members, has come as a surprise.

Aformer railway employee with experience in commercial, marketing and traffic costing, T Vengadesan was assistant registrar at IIT-Madras for about two years before moving to the ministry of mines. In 2011, he joined Delhi University’s finance department.

Section 14(1) of TN National Law School Act mandates that an aspirant must be an ‘academician in the field of law’, and should have held position not lower to that of the principal of a government law college or professor of a university for a period of not less than three years. Vengadesan only has an undergraduate law degree.

Functioning properly with no irregularity, says law school VC

If the applicant is from the government’s side, he/she should be an officer not lower in rank than a deputy secretary, law department. Since Section 2(h) makes it clear “government” means the state government, a finance department official from Delhi University is hardly qualified for the job. But the executive council found him the most suitable among three candidates at theAugust2017interview. He assumed office in October, and an appeal was submitted to Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, chancellor vested with powers to examine any record of any officer, and then to annul or reverse or order reconsideration of any decision under Section 9(4) of theAct.

Asked about the appointment, Kamala Sankaran told TOI she was not going to talk about it. “Our chancellor is chief justice of the state…We are a respectable university established by state government and itisfunctioning properly… Ihave no idea what you are talking about.” When thechief justice’s office was contacted for response on the statutory appeal submitted under Section 9(4) of theAct, sourcestoldTOI itwas not a statutory appeal but a letter requesting the CJ to look into the issue and pass appropriate orders. The letter was forwarded to the vicechancellor who said there was no irregularity in the appointment, sources said Vengadesan had more service experience than other candidates, and the word ‘government’ in the rule could not be confined to state governmen they said but did notcomment on whether a university is ‘government.’ Justice K Chandru, former judge of theMadras high court, said a university could never be a government, and chancellor of a university has appeal powers. The visitorial power in Section 9(4) of the Act is an effective remedy. Referring to a judgment of a division bench of Justice A K Ganguly and JusticeChandru, hesaidthe visitorial power was inherent power derivedfrom UKlaws.

TN gets 101 more PG medical seats for 2018 

Total 1,585 Seats In Kitty, Applications From March

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: The state will add 101postgraduate medical seats across14 government medical colleges during the 2018 admission season, taking the total PGseatsto1,585.

The Medical Council of India has approved additional seatsfor Chennai-basedhospitals Kilpauk Medical College (5 seats in MD pathology) and Stanley Medical College (3 seatsin MDforensic medicine).

Colleges in south TN — Thoothukudi Medical College

(32), Tirunelveli Medical College (4) and Theni Medical College (11) — will get 47 seats in surgical and medical streams. In the west, Coimbatore Medical College will get 2 seats, Salem 3 and Dharmapuri 6. While Trichy will add 19 seats, Chengalpet gets16.

Until now, the state had 1,088 PG medical degree seats and 396 diploma seats across14 state-run colleges. In 2017, the state added 300 PG seats. The state selection committee will surrender 50% of seats to directorate general of health services for admission through all-India quota and students will be admitted to the remaining seats based on NEET scores. Applications will be available from March, selection committeesecretary Dr G Selvarajan said.

A six-member committee under Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation chairman P Umanathisworking on a report of primary health centres and government hospitals in remote areas. Doctors working in these areas can be given additional marks over their NEET scores , as incentives.

While the committee is preparing the report, the state is also waiting for the Centre tocome outwith amendments in the Post-Graduate Medical Act, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said. “The committee is working out the difficult and remote areas in a scientific manner basedon terrain, reach and the kind of work,” hesaid.

In 2017, the postgraduate admission process was muddled in a legal battle at the Madras high court. Admissions had to be cancelled and the process was stalled twice. The state government had given 50% of the seats for the all-India quota and the reservedhalf of the remaining seats to doctors working with the government.

Government doctors working in difficult, hilly or remote regions of the state were given additional three marksfor every year of their service, while those working in primary health centres (PHCs) got an additional two marks for every year of service. However, the court struck it down saying that there can be no reservation for government staff and asked the government to draw up a list of difficult and remote areas as specified by the Medical Council of India Act. 


ADMISSION TIME: The state is preparing a report of PHCs and govt hospitals in remote areas as per the MCI guidelines